Meet Thomas L Rosenberg, MSc, MBA, CIC

We recently connected with Thomas L Rosenberg, MSc, MBA, CIC and have shared our conversation below.

Thomas L, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I have always been passionate about guiding folx to grow and transform. However, coming from a medical and scientific family, I felt the need to pursue a technically challenging career path in order to be seen as a man.

Over the course of my 25+ year career, I’ve worked in a variety of sectors and roles, often as a technical subject matter expert, with people and teams from different cultures in over 20 countries on 5 continents.

The underlying theme through it all has been guiding people and their organizations to become comfortable with change, to lead change, and to flourish. Although I didn’t always recognize it at the time, I instinctually found opportunities to insert myself into coaching situations.

My journey to this work, comes from decades of head-centered leadership that left me spinning my wheels professionally. After suffering a traumatic brain injury in a near-fatal bicycle accident in June 2014, and inspired by the way a dear friend lived richly, shared all her gifts fully and died with tremendous grace in 2016, I was compelled to rediscover the forgotten wisdom of my heart and body. This changed my life and my leadership.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a somatic coach, I support individuals and peer teams, Director to C-Suite in smaller and mid-sized organizations (sector agnostic), typically 100-2000 employees. I offer individual coaching, team coaching, as well as workshops both in person and virtually to folx seeking support to manage change, shape their leadership impact, delegate more effectively, or build strong teams and culture. There are 5 key attributes for me when I consider how I well I fit with a client:
1) Are they eager to learn and grow?
2) Are they committed to doing the work (inner work, and intentional practice of exercises that we explore in our sessions?)
3) Are they curious about themselves and others?
4) Are they natural collaborators?
5) Are they open to new approaches?

Somatic coaching works with your body, mind and spirit simultaneously. It focuses on cultivating embodiment. Embodiment goes beyond merely knowing, to Being the change, the transformation, the action, or skill, sought.

Somatics holds that we are what we practice and that we learn through the body. By moving you from your thinking self into your feeling self, it cultivates self-awareness. This is important because energy follows attention. Awareness follows attention. Awareness cultivates choice. Greater awareness results in greater choice.

As you develop your awareness, you begin to recognize your habituated patterns. These patterns are wise adaptations from early childhood. Both natural and cultural in nature, these patterns reveal how we engage with ourselves, others, and the world. They are embodied strategies to gain safety, belonging and dignity. They shape our bodies. Cultivating awareness allows us to assess whether these habituated patterns still serve us.

The arc of engagement begins with identifying and clarifying what matters most to you (individually or as a team). This takes the form of a declaration statement which serves as the North Star of our work together. A declaration statement is literally taking a stand for what matters most for you. It also serves as a commitment, a promise, to your future self.

Through language we can create a future for ourselves. Every time you repeat the declaration statement, you are tuning your nervous system to embodying that commitment. It happens over time, with consistent, committed practice.

Outside of coaching, I enjoy partner dancing (e.g. Argentine Tango, Salsa, Kizomba, Swing). My wife and I studied Argentine Tango for 14 years. For me, the best dances emerge from the body with a quiet lead and embodied presence in the shared axis. I also (still) enjoy cycling, as well as hiking, time with friends and family, and exploring other cultures through travel, music, theater, and art.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

– Honoring my own strengths
– Curiosity and willingness to grow
– Continuous learning

One of my strengths is my lateral thinking. While it was challenging growing up as a nonlinear thinker in a very linear thinking family, my ability to perceive interactions/interdependence/connections between supposedly disparate elements, such as parallels between different historical periods. This systems perspective served me well prior to focusing on coaching full-time. Particularly, as a somatic coach, I feel I can share all of my gifts more fully than I could within the constraints of my previous work. So trust your strengths, and find avenues to bring them into your work in the world. You’ll find greater fulfillment.

Coming out of my accident in June 2014, and recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) I didn’t know to what level I would regain my cognitive function. While I am very privileged to have access to incredible practitioners, I had to let go of my own expectations (and major elements of my identity) to embrace a new way to contribute to the world quite different than I had previously. I had to remain curious about what might be possible. I had to be willing to nurture different less developed aspects of myself. That also meant facing my shadow side. Not only the dark shadow (those parts of ourselves that we reject and push away), but also the golden shadow (elements of my strengths, my gifts, that I pushed away in the belief that I might lose acceptance or belonging if I showed them too much). I feel that we all have these parts of us we’ve pushed away due to fear. Giving yourself permission to let these parts surface and be nurtured strengthens and deepens you as a person.

One major message we received in my family, was the importance of cultivating knowledge through continuous learning. Not only to achieve a specific title, like PhD, or MD, but to continually follow curiosity and knowledge, because therein lies the opportunity to find new ways to contribute using your strengths. As a coach trained in two developmental methodologies, I find that as I continue to learn about myself in my journey, I am able to support clients more deeply. How might you find opportunities to learn more about yourself so you can contribute to your fullest potential?

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I love to collaborate and I’m always open to exploring what that might look like with new and existing connections in my network. I’m always looking for synergies between what I offer, and what others bring. If you are curious about how my somatic approach could complement what you bring – whether you’re a fellow coach, a people strategist, or someone seeking authors for book chapters, workshops, TEDx Talks, a conference panel, or something else, let’s talk! The easiest way is to use the scheduling button on my LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasloxleyrosenberg

Contact Info:

• Website: https://regenerate.coach
• Instagram: @regeneratecoaching8
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReGenerateCoach/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasloxleyrosenberg