Seattle Free School: Stages of Ego Development

by Lain Kahlstrom and Wendy Visconty via Seattle Free School (Offering free classes in Seattle)

Greater clarity, wisdom, empowerment, fulfillment, sense of belonging and purpose - we all want that. In this class, we’re bringing the works of pioneers in the field of human potential and development into mainstream awareness by introducing a theory of the stages of adult ego development. You’ll learn about the 10 stages, how to recognize which stage you tend to operate from, and how you might continue to develop yourself.

Photo courtesy of Jean-David et Anne-Laure

Many of us have been exposed to different ways of looking at our personality types and preferences (such as Myers-Briggs). Another way people differ from each other, their developmental stage, is as important in understanding ourselves and others, perhaps even more so.

In speaking about human development, we distinguish between lateral and vertical development. Lateral development includes improving skills and learning new material. We go to school, take classes, and get training.

Vertical development is much rarer. It refers to how we come to see the world with new eyes, how we change our interpretations of experience and how we transform our views of reality. The metaphor of climbing a mountain can serve as an illustration of what it means to gain an increasingly higher vantage point.

We’ll share a model of stages of vertical development which was developed by William Torbert and Susanne Cook-Greuter. This framework focuses on how people tend to reason and behave in response to their experience, and how that changes as we develop. Each stage we’ll cover is a coherent and internally consistent belief system that describes how its proponents are likely to think, feel and behave in various life situations. Each stage has its own strengths and vulnerabilities. Here are some benefits of understanding developmental stages:

• Understand ourselves better and increase our capacity to embrace ourselves
• Ability to have compassion and empathy for others
• Appreciate the larger context in which we’ll evolve over time
• Understand when we’re shifting stages
• Become more effective at creating the change we want

Class:
Transform Yourself: An Introduction to Stages of Ego Development

Facilitators:
Lain Kahlstrom- Integral coach and student of human development
Wendy Visconty- CPA, coach and student of human development

When:
11/10/08 - 5:30pm

Where:
University Branch Library
5009 Roosevelt Way N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105

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