Louisa Shaeri /SOLA Systems is an associate member of the AC (Association for Coaching) and is committed to adherence to the Global Code of Ethics for Coaches, viewable HERE 

Louisa Shaeri has received training as a trauma informed coach, informed by Polyvagal Theory and Somatic Experiencing approaches.

Louisa receives monthly coaching supervision and regularly undergoes cultural literacy trainings. Past (un)learning includes trainings by Health Justice Commons, The Adaway Group (Whiteness at Work), The Belonging and Othering Institute and others. SOLA Systems is a signatory of the Anti-racist Small Business Pledge.

The SOLA System aims to align with LGBTQ+ allied, sex worker allied, body positive, disability / crip allied, Intersex allied, HIV / AIDS allied communities, and anti-racist and anti-oppression frameworks, including Disability Justice.

Coaching Philosophy

'The SOLA Systems Coaching Philosophy applies a social justice and trauma informed, and consent-led approach to personal development.

The SOLA System' is a proprietary framework and set of bespoke coaching tools created by Louisa Shaeri, and iterated and developed with Design Justice principles, and over 500 hours of coaching exclusively autistic folks, the majority of whom also hold historically marginalised or overlooked/ nuanced experiences or identities.

These tools are based on up to date neuroscience (Royal Holloway) and strengths-based autism research (UCL) together with informal and artistic research into self-reported autistic experiences, critical theory & philosophy of selfhood.

Principles

• 'Self’ is not a fixed thing that can be definitively ‘known’; ‘Self’ is co-constituted with non-self.

• Eurocentric knowledges contain ideological binaries without which 'autism' as a category of difference could not exist. Such as: HUMAN / NATURE, MIND / BODY, OBJECTIVE / SUBJECTIVE, DEPENDENT / INDEPENDENT, ILL-BROKEN / CURED-HEALTHY, DEVELOPED / UNDER-DEVELOPED etc.

• Autism is both a construct, and also describes real lived experiences that exist outside of limited notions of normality.

• Coaching can support people to sense, nurture, imagine, embody and self-define a sense of self, and experience that self being validated and affirmed.

• Autistic-status differences are often not afforded legitimacy in the clinical or research spaces, informal social or workplace settings, nor healthcare and medical systems; therefore being believed, is often a coaching priority above questioning one's story/thinking.

• The material and internal experiences of the ‘autistic’-status person is not 'non-sensical' or 'confusing', but proof of the existence of situated, sensory and embodied knowledges, beyond what euro-centric and universalist (one reality) knowledges can comprehend. 

• There are real structural and societal and cultural reasons that can explain why many autistic status people mask, are chronic under-earners, have much lower life expectancy and much higher rates of mental health issues - that cannot land squarely on their shoulders to solve. Healing often necessitates acknowledgement of external conditions, as a pre-requisite to change, growth and the resourcefulness to respond in ones' full power.

• Disparate social-economic and racial conditions exacerbate inequality and that liberation is not a single silo frontier of “autism acceptance” or “neurodiversity”, but must be situated within intersectional and cross-movement context and intentions.

• ‘Acceptance' is not a sentiment so much as it is about structural solutions, tools, resourcing and relational safety and belonging.

• Access is a work in progress and access needs are often incompatible, sometimes invisible, emergent or inconsistent, and an opportunity for creativity, connection and culture change, not a fixed policy or pre-determined structure.

•A coach, mentor, space-holder or facilitator cannot decide whether another person perceives them as safe or their spaces as safe. Louisa Shaeri / SOLA Systems is committed to co-creating containers and cultures of co-created trust, consent, personal responsibility and belonging.

© 2024 SOLA Systems & Louisa Shaeri.

SOLA Systems coaching programs are for autistic people (diagnosed or self identified) interested in finding routes to realising your goals that are based on affirmation of your whole self, finding sustainable life structures that work for you.
 
Coaching happens over dynamic conversation (spoken or typed), the coach listening and guiding, with your desired results, or current problem, as the shared focus.

Coaching is about affirming your experiences, identifying what you want to create, finding your unique how to get there, and actively shifting beliefs and circumstances that are holding you back.

I hold space for who you are becoming - the version of you that has made your goals REAL.
 
Your ability to make progress and create what didn't exist before is activated and amplified because you have a container that holds space and belief for you to go all in.

That reflects your own thinking back to you, so you can sense where you have internalised unhelpful beliefs or thoughts.

With acknowledgement of systemic injustices, and implicit trust in your ability to know what is right for you, while gently shining light on any thinking that may not be serving you.

And in affirming your lived experiences and the wisdom you already hold, coaching helps you move through self doubt and confusion, into activating the confidence, clarity and inner resources to create a future that reflects and supports the most aligned version of you.

And for igniting, nurturing and becoming the version of you that can realise a felt possibility as a material reality; be it a creative project, vocational leap, new identity, relationship goal, or to self-start a secret dream.