Hey coach! Are you curious about how you can use Human Design Authority as a coaching tool with your clients?
In this post, we’ll talk about what Authority is, the seven different Authorities your clients (and you!) can potentially have, and how to coach each client through their unique and aligned decision-making process based on their HD Authority.
Think of Authority as one of the secret weapons in your coaching arsenal, the shortcut to helping your clients make empowered, correct, healthy decisions based on their unique energetic design. I have no doubts that by the end of this post, Human Design Authority will be one of the most powerful tools in your coaching tool belt. Are you ready? ⬇️
What is Human Design Authority?
Your Authority = The way you are designed to make decisions
Some Authorities apply to making both big and small decisions—everything from what career is right for you to what you should eat for breakfast today—while some Authorities only apply when you’re making big life decisions like relocating to a new city, getting married, or changing careers.
According to Human Design, none of us are meant to make decisions with our mind—i.e., the best way to make a decision does NOT involve mental reasoning or rationalizing, making a pros and cons list, or trying to “think your way through it”.
Instead, we are designed to rely on the wisdom of our body via our Authority. Think of your Authority as your inner decision-making compass, the thing that helps you tap into your inner wisdom. When you make decisions using your Authority rather than your mind, you can be confident they’ll lead you exactly where you’re meant to go and attract everything you’re meant to experience.
What are the Seven Authorities?
There are 7 potential Authorities you can have, and for the most part each Authority is named for the Energy Center in the BodyGraph that it stems from. The 7 Authorities are called:
- Emotional (from the Solar Plexus)
- Sacral (Sacral Center)
- Splenic (Splenic Center)
- Ego/Heart (Ego/Heart Center)
- Self (from the G and Throat Center)
- Mental (from a combination of the Head, Ajna, and/or Throat)
- Lunar (Reflectors only—no defined Energy Centers)
To find out your own Authority or your client’s, you can use a free Human Design chart-generating tool like mybodygraph.com or myhumandesign.com. Simply generate the chart and then look in the written description for the section called “Authority” or sometimes “Inner Authority”.
Once you know what your client’s Authority is, keep reading to learn how to best guide your client through their aligned decision-making process based on their Authority!
1. Emotional Authority
All Energy Types except Reflectors can have this type of Authority (so Manifestors, Generators, MGs, and Projectors can all have Emotional Authority).
With Emotional Authority, your client should avoid making big decisions when they’re experiencing an emotional high or an emotional low, regardless of whether those emotions are stemming from the decision itself or are completely unrelated.
In other words, if your client is feeling super happy or super down, this is not the right time for them to make a big decision. Instead, your client should wait until they reach a place of emotional neutrality (I like to call it “still waters”) before making their decision.
Emotional Authority differs from most of the other Authorities in that it doesn’t tell you how to make a decision, only when to make it. Once your client reaches a state of emotional neutrality, they will either have clarity on what the right decision is for them, or they can use other tools — “Secondary Authorities” — in their Human Design to help them decide.
For example, if your client has a defined Sacral Center, they will be able to access their gut response and get either a Yes or No regarding the decision (more on how this works in the next section below).
*Note: Emotional Authority only needs to be used when making larger decisions, not small day-to-day ones.
2. Sacral Authority
Sacral Authority is exclusive to Generators and Manifesting Generators. With Sacral Authority, your client’s decision-making process centers around the physical response they get in their gut to everything and everyone in their external environment.
This is called the “gut response” or “Sacral Response” in Human Design. This gut response is something that’s already happening for your client all day long, every single day. Whether they’re consciously aware of it or not, your client is constantly responding, in their gut, to everyone and everything around them.
The gut response will feel like either a “yes” or a “no” to your client. They may even find their body physically leaning toward something (a “yes”) or away from something (a “no”).
Sacral Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones. However, it only works in response to something in the external environment — a specific person, a question asked, an email, a text message, items on the menu at a restaurant… anything that’s happening and being experienced outside of your client—not to a thought, idea, feeling, or something else stemming from their inner world.
3. Splenic Authority
Splenic Authority is exclusive to Manifestors and Projectors.
With Splenic Authority, your client is designed to make decisions by following the subtle, inner voice of their instincts/intuition in the moment. With this type of Authority, your client’s survival instincts are strong and the quiet voice of their intuition will always point them towards things that are safe and “correct” for them and away from things that aren’t.
The tricky thing with Splenic Authority is that your client’s instincts/intuition will often only be felt once, in the exact moment when the decision is at the forefront. If your client isn’t paying attention, they might miss the guidance from their Spleen. They also might not be able to access their instincts except in the exact moment when their instincts are needed.
This means you, as a coach, may not always be able to help them access the guidance of their instincts during a coaching session, if the decision or situation has already come and gone. However, you may be able to help them recall what their instincts were telling them in that moment as they reflect on a decision, situation, or problem during a coaching session.
*Note: Splenic Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones.
4. Ego Authority
Ego Authority is also exclusive to Manifestors and Projectors.
With Ego Authority, your client is designed to make decisions based on what they feel confident they can commit themselves to, as well as what will most benefit them, their family, and/or their community (e.g., their partner, friends, employees, team, audience, etc.).
“Ego” is also called “Heart” in Human Design, and it relates to both the physical heart and the figurative one. If your client’s heart isn’t fully invested in something, they won’t be able to fully commit to it and see it through to the end (which can be disappointing to others and sometimes damaging to your client’s sense of self-esteem and willpower).
Your client has probably been conditioned to believe that it’s “selfish” to make decisions based on what will benefit them the most. But for someone with Ego Authority (which is only 1% of the world!), it’s the absolute best way for your client to make a decision—both for their own outcomes as well as for the wellbeing of their family and community.
*Note: Ego Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones.
5. Self Authority
Self Authority is exclusive to Projectors, who are known as Self-Projected Projectors.
With Self Authority, your client’s voice is the key to accessing their unique form of intuition when making decisions.
Specifically, your client should talk through the decision with a trusted sounding board, someone who will listen to them and ask questions to help them dig deeper into the decision, options, and potential outcomes, but without trying to give them specific advice.
As their coach, this sounding board might very well be you! However, it could also be your client’s partner, a trusted friend or confidante, a colleague, a business partner, etc.
Your client with Self Authority doesn’t need advice from anybody else in order to make the right decision for them. They already have the answers within (hence the name “Self”). However, it can be easy for your client to get stuck up in their head, consumed by endless thoughts and letting their overactive mind cloud the decision-making process.
This is why it’s valuable for your client to talk through the decision out loud, without filtering themselves or trying to plan in advance what they’re going to say. Tell your client to let it all out and see where they end up. At some point along the way, your client will have a sudden moment of clarity where they know exactly what the correct answer, decision, or solution is for them.
*Note: Self Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones, however it may not be practical to implement for every small decision.
6. Mental Authority
Mental Authority is exclusive to Projectors, and they are appropriately called, “Mental Projectors”.
With Mental Authority, your client needs to be in the right environment before making a decision, and when they are in the correct environment, they should talk through the decision with a trusted sounding board.
A Mental Projector has a lot of “openness” in their BodyGraph chart, which means they naturally absorb and amplify many different kinds of energy from the people around them—emotional energy, the pressure to be spontaneous, the pressure to “do”, etc.
Because they can be so heavily influenced by other people’s energy, it’s vital that the Mental Projector places themselves in the correct environment (or that they’re alone!) before making an important decision.
The “right” environment is one where the Mental Projector feels good about herself, and feels like herself. This might mean she avoids making important decisions in the work environment if she has a negative coworker hovering nearby, or that she removes herself to a separate room in her home where she can be in her own energy before making an important decision.
Once in the right environment, your Client may benefit from talking through the decision with a sounding board, just like I described above in the Self Authority section. This sounding board should be someone who is non-judgmental, impartial, and who won’t try to give your client advice. Their role is to listen, ask thoughtful questions, and help your client talk things through until they reach a moment of sudden clarity.
*Note: Mental Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones, however it may not be practical to implement for every small decision.
7. Lunar Authority
Lunar Authority is exclusive to Reflectors, and every Reflector automatically has Lunar Authority.
As you can probably guess by the name of this Authority, a Reflector’s decision-making process is tied to the Moon and Lunar Cycle. Specifically, a Reflector is designed to wait an entire lunar cycle (roughly one month) before making any big decisions.
Spontaneous and impulsive decision-making is not correct for Reflectors. This is because a Reflector’s BodyGraph is completely “open” with all nine Energy Centers being undefined. This means the Reflector has no reliable or consistent access to the different types of energy governed by the nine Energy Centers, including their sense of identity, direction, emotions, thoughts, and instincts.
Therefore, instead of making big decisions in the heat of the moment, where they will undoubtedly be influenced by the energy of the people around them and their environment, a Reflector should pause, take a step back, and if needed, ask for more time to weigh their options before deciding.
Suggest that your client checks in on the decision every day or two over the next month. They may want to track how they feel and what they think about the decision inside a designated journal every one to two days.
Near the end of that month, your client will reach a sense of cumulative clarity where they know what the correct and most aligned decision is for them. If needed, your client can also talk through the decision with one (or several) impartial sounding boards, while also ensuring they place themselves in the right environment when having these conversations.
*Note: Lunar Authority only needs to be used for larger decisions. For smaller day-to-day things, your client can simply go with their preference.
So coach: Will you be adding Human Design Authority to your coaching tool belt?
Play around with this information, start sharing it with your clients, and practice tapping into your own Authority when making decisions—and see what comes of it!
If you want to learn more about making your coaching more personalized and impactful with Human Design, click on the image below to download my free 30-page ebook, Coaching by Design.
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