The Art and Science of Coaching, Solution Focused Coaching
Marilyn W. Atkinson (born February 18, 1943) is the founder and President of Erickson Coaching International. She is a speaker, coach, Master coach trainer, Master NLP trainer, writer, designer of coach training program The Art & Science of Coaching[1] Atkinson was a student of Milton Erickson, and it was his mentorship and guidance that inspired her to name the company after him.
For the past thirty years she has been developing both corporate and specialized coach training programs including the ICF accredited coach training program (ACTP) The Art and Science of Coaching. A former Registered Psychologist, Atkinson is also a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) Master Trainer and a specialist in Ericksonian Communications. In the mid-1990s she began developing formal business coach training programs that have been widely successful with Fortune 500 Companies such as SAP, Mercedes-Benz, American Express, Canada Post, Occidental Petroleum, and Russia's Sberbank.[2] She travels to Russia, Europe, and Asia throughout the year to lead Erickson training programs.[3][4] Erickson Coaching programs, accredited by the International Coach Federation, are in place in 36 countries worldwide.
Personal life
Atkinson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on February 18, 1943. Her Father Ross Millard died of cancer when she was two years old. Her Mother Mildred Millard later remarried.
When Atkinson was 13 years old she wrote a letter to philosopher Bertrand Russell and was delighted to receive a return letter. An avid reader at a young age, Atkinson was inspired to continue studying and reading.
In 1961 Atkinson married William Gossen. Together they had two children Kalie Gossen (born 1963) and Paul Gossen (born 1967). Atkinson and William divorced in 1970.
1981–1991 Atkinson was married to David Atkinson (she kept his surname).
2000–present Atkinson is married to Lawrence McGinnis.
Career
In November 1965 Atkinson completed her BA in sociology with High Honors from the University of Saskatchewan at Regina, and was awarded the University Prize Award.[5] Three years later, also at the University of Saskatchewan at Regina Atkinson completed her master's degree in Clinical Psychology (October 1968). Her thesis topic was “Ethics of Generosity and Borrowing Lending Behavior: An Exploration Into Motivation”.[6] In 1968 Atkinson was accepted into membership with the B.C. Psychology Association with specialty areas in Education, and Industrial Psychology.
1970–1980 was an intensive period of continued learning for Atkinson. She completed Gestalt Training with Fritz Perls, 4 years of training with The Primal Institute, The San Vicente Drug Program, and The Denver Certified Primal Therapists Program. She also took a two-year course on public speaking, and developing presentations.
Between 1976 and 1985 Atkinson was the managing director of Marilyn Atkinson and Associates, alongside running her own private practice in clinical psychology. During this time she developed, coordinated, and led workshops training counselors through The Vancouver Center for Feeling Therapy.
1980–1983 She took Neuro-linguistic Programming Course Development Training, held at the University of California, Santa Cruz and achieved her certification as an NLP Trainer.
From 1983 to 1988 Atkinson honed her skills as a Master Trainer designing programs to train trainers in advanced communications and expert performance modeling. During this time she continued to learn from world leaders in communication including: John Grinder, Richard Bandler, Virginia Satir, Wyatt Woodsmall, Stephen Gilligan, Robert Dilts, and Stephen Lankton.
In 1980 Atkinson opened NLP Institutes of Canada[7] and conducted professional trainings in NLP, Ericksonian Hypnosis, and Psychotherapy Training and Development. She created programs, wrote manuals and syllabuses, trained course leaders and lead courses in Toronto, Vancouver, and Windsor.
1992 Atkinson changed the company name to NLP B.C. and continued developing courses, training materials, and training. She had a staff of seven people.[7]
In 1994, NLP B.C. began formally doing business as Erickson College.
Atkinson's work emphasizes cross-cultural directions and focuses on a revitalized self-development coaching approach. Through her work in developing coaches and coach trainers throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, over 45 000 coaches have been trained in the last 35 years.[8] Her programs have been used to instigate brand new policies in the field of education, social work, and drug and alcohol treatment. She has led various types of corporate and leadership training programs in as many as 60 cities around the world, and her work with 4 Quadrant Thinking has added a vital specialization in the field of accelerated learning technologies.[9]
Some conflicting opinions exist around the methods of language learning that Atkinson teaches,[10] and at times her definition of coaching has been received with skepticism[11]
In 1990's,amazed by Powell Janulus, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records for fluency in 42 languages, she started modelling him and the book "Velocity Instant Fluency" [12] came out as a result.[13]
World Game Conference
In October 2012 Atkinson launched the First International World Game Conference, hosted in London, England.[14] In 2015 she is publishing the book named "Do you want to play World game?"[15] She empowers, encourage and engage individuals and organizations who want to make a difference through their personal development and life legacy.
Atkinson asserts that, “together we can create a story that is far bigger than the individual, a vision of emergence throughout the world that allows us all to be proud of who we are and what we have already accomplished, and to want to contribute further. This is exactly the mood, the quality of love, and contribution that is at the heart of the world game- the giant ‘WE’ that unites us.”[16][17]
Publications
Atkinson M. Expanding Out to Home: All of Us Alling All of It All of the Time, Anchorpoint Magazine 1998: 31.
Atkinson M. Discovering Balance: the Stateline Exercise. Anchor Point Magazine 2001; 15 (7): 28–32.
Co-authored with Rae T. Chois the trilogy, The Art and Science of Coaching.
Atkinson, Marilyn; Chois, Rae T. (2007). The Art and Science of Coaching: The Inner Dynamics of Transformational Conversations. Vancouver: Exalon Publishing. pp.209 ISBN978-0-9783704-4-2.
Atkinson, Marilyn; Chois, Rae T. (2007). The Art and Science of Coaching: The Step-by-Step System to Transformational Conversations. Vancouver: Exalon Publishing. pp.250 ISBN978-0-9783704-5-9.
Atkinson, Marilyn; Chois, Rae T. (2011). The Art and Science of Coaching: Process and Flow. Vancouver: Exalon Publishing. pp.304 ISBN978-0-9783704-6-6.
Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. The efficacy of hypnotherapy is not well supported by scientific evidence, and, due to the lack of evidence indicating any level of efficacy, it is regarded as a type of alternative medicine by reputable medical organisations such as the National Health Service.
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy, that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's 1975 book The Structure of Magic I. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, tic disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, near-sightedness, allergy, the common cold, and learning disorders, often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.
Milton Hyland Erickson was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming.
John Thomas Grinder Jr. is an American linguist, writer, management consultant, trainer and speaker. Grinder is credited with co-creating the pseudoscience known as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) with Richard Bandler. He is co-director of Quantum Leap Inc., a management consulting firm founded by his partner Carmen Bostic St. Clair in 1987. Grinder and Bostic St. Clair also run workshops and seminars on NLP internationally.
Richard Wayne Bandler is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s, which is considered pseudoscience.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander LL.D. was a German-born Canadian landscape architect. Her firm, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architects, was founded in 1953, when she moved to Vancouver.
Carina Marguerite Benninga is a former Dutch field hockey player, who played 158 international matches for The Netherlands hockey team, in which she scored 25 goals. She was part of the gold medal winning team at the 1984 Summer Olympics and also won a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Other highlights of her career include gold medals at the EuroHockey Nations Championship and Champions Trophy in 1987, as well as a gold at the 1983 Women's Hockey World Cup and the 1990 Women's Hockey World Cup. Next to her sports career, Carina Benninga studied law; in 1987 she got her Masters’degree.
Pickup artists (PUA) are people whose goals are seduction and sexual success. Predominantly heterosexual men, they often self-identify as the seduction community or the pickup community. This community exists through various channels, including internet newsletters, blogs, seminars and one-on-one coaching, forums, groups, and local clubs known as "lairs".
Steve Andreas was an American psychotherapist and author specializing in Neuro-linguistic programming.
Francine Shapiro was an American psychologist and educator who originated and developed eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a form of psychotherapy for resolving the symptoms of traumatic and other disturbing life experiences.
Covert hypnosis is an attempt to communicate with another person's unconscious mind without informing the subject that they will be hypnotized. It is also known as conversational hypnosis or sleight of mouth.. It is a term largely used by proponents of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a pseudoscientific approach to communication and interaction.
Marina Valeryevna Karaseva is a Russian musicologist, Honoured Art Worker of the Russian Federation, Professor of Moscow Conservatory, Department of Music Theory, Grand Doctor in Art, Ph.D. in Musicology, Member of Russian Composers Union, Fulbright Scholar, Advisor to the Rector.
Haven Institute, or The Haven is a centre for transformative learning situated on Gabriola Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. Founded by Jock McKeen and Bennet Wong, the centre offers programs for personal and professional purposes, including Certificate and Diploma Programs in Group Facilitation and Counselling Skills.
The methods of neuro-linguistic programming are the specific techniques used to perform and teach neuro-linguistic programming, which teaches that people are only able to directly perceive a small part of the world using their conscious awareness, and that this view of the world is filtered by experience, beliefs, values, assumptions, and biological sensory systems. NLP argues that people act and feel based on their perception of the world and how they feel about that world they subjectively experience.
Connirae Andreas is an American author and psychotherapist who is known for her work within the field of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).
Andrea Neil is a pioneer of women's soccer in Canada. Neil retired from the game after representing Canada more than any other Canadian player in history.
Stephen R. Lankton, MSW, DAHB is a psychotherapist, consultant, and trainer. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (2005–2025). He is a recipient of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis' "Lifetime Achievement Award" and “Irving Sector Award for Advancement of the Field of Hypnosis”. as well as the Milton H. Erickson Foundation “Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Psychotherapy.”
Michele Dee Klevens Ritterman is an American clinical psychologist and family therapist. She is widely known for publishing Using Hypnosis in Family Therapy, a book on the systematic integration of family therapy and hypnotherapy. Ritterman is also noted for her expertise regarding survivors of political torture and their families. Her work has been translated into Spanish, German, Italian and French.
Powell Alexander Janulus is a Canadian polyglot who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, and entered the Guinness World Records in 1985 for fluency in 42 languages. To qualify, he had to pass a two-hour conversational fluency test with a native speaker of each of the 42 languages he spoke at that time.
Leigh Thompson is the J. Jay Gerber Professor of Dispute Resolution & Organizations in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is the director of High Performance Negotiation Skills Executive program, the Kellogg Leading High Impact Teams Executive program and the Kellogg Team and Group Research Center. She also serves as the co-director of the Navigating Work Place Conflict Executive program and the Constructive Collaboration Executive program.
↑ Success, Personal (April 1999). Alexander, Leslie (ed.). "A Game Worth Playing - Shifting Global Consciousness". Personal Success. 8 (10). Vancouver, B.C.: 5.
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