Lynn Hoffman: From Systems to Stories

The following is the personal experience I had in meeting Lynn Hoffman (See footnotes for more information about Lynn Hoffman):

Lynn came to Seattle for a conference and our first meeting was a memorable one for me. She went around all the tables of people (approx 100) and started shaking every persons hand individually. I was sitting at a table in the middle of the room. I was thinking to myself, "Is she going to recognize my name from the listserve I am on with her?" I went to a Supersonics basketball game the night before and was still wired from all the hype. That may explain what happened next. She came to me and I looked her in the eye and started shaking her hand. She looked at me in amazement and said "what a reverberation." I guess she felt an electrical current flow through her veins and told everyone about the experience. I started shaking uncontrollably (faking it) and we started our face-to-face encounter with shocking results.

After shaking everyones hand, she started to discuss the importance of connection and how we should all touch our clients like putting fingers together. I thought to myself, maybe I can master the electrical current that flowed through our first physical connection and do a natural form of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). I may have to think about that possibility further someday.

I met with Lynn again at the first break. She said,"So you are the blowtorch!" I said "yes" not knowing if she was referring to the passion of my posts on the listserve we are both on or our first physical encounter. She then told me of her meeting with Bradford Keeney in Lousiana and how he was shaking when she went to connect with him and he had an elegant explanation of coming back from an experience from some tribal people.

Lynn had a wonderful way of bringing people together. She asked a person in front of her if he ever had the honor of meeting the "blowtorch." That was endearing.

The best thing about Lynn's workshop was that she brought us in connection with each other. I got to know the people at my table and I experienced that it was due to her spirit of opening herself up to us in a very genuine way. Actually, I would have to say that I experienced Lynn as the most genuine presenter that I have ever met. I am not talking about what she said or did. I am talking about how people started to feel in her presence. I thought to myself this genuineness is what is missing in our world today.


Footnotes:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393703800/102-4998218-6252940

http://www.california.com/~rathbone/reflecting.htm