Human Design Authority as a Coaching Tool

Are you curious about using Human Design Authority as a coaching tool?

In this post, we’ll talk about what Authority is, the seven different Authorities your clients can have, and how to coach each client through their aligned decision-making process based on their Authority.

Think of Authority as the secret weapon in your coaching arsenal, the shortcut to helping your clients make empowered, correct, healthy decisions based on their unique energetic design. By the end of this post, Human Design Authority will be one of the most powerful tools in your coaching tool belt. Ready?

What is Human Design Authority?

Your Authority: The way you are designed to make decisions

Some Authorities apply to both big and small decisions (everything from what career you should pursue to what you should eat for breakfast today) while some only apply to 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. The “right” way to make a decision does NOT involve mental reasoning, 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, specifically on our version of Human Design Authority.

Your Authority is your inner decision-making compass. When you make decisions via your Authority, 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 possible Authorities someone 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:

1. Emotional (Solar Plexus)
2. Sacral
3. Splenic
4. Ego/Heart
5. Self (from the G and Throat Center)
6. Mental (from the Head, Ajna, and/or Throat)
7. Lunar (Reflectors only)

To find out your Authority, or your client’s, you can use a free Human Design chart-generating tool like mybodygraph.com or myhumandesign.com. Look for the section called “Authority” or “Inner Authority”.

Once you know your client’s Authority, continue reading to learn how to best guide your client through their aligned decision-making process.

1. 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 about their life. 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 chart 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.

*Note: Emotional Authority only needs to be used when making larger decisions, not small day-to-day ones.

2. 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 things in one’s external environment — a person, a question asked, an email, a text message, items on a menu at a restaurant… anything that’s happening and being experienced outside of your client vs. coming from their inner world.

3. Splenic Authority

With Splenic Authority, your client is designed to make decisions by following the subtle inner voice of their instincts/intuition in the moment. Your client’s survival instincts are strong, and the quiet voice of their intuition will always point them toward things that are safe and “correct” for them and away from things that aren’t.

The tricky thing about Splenic Authority is that your client’s instincts will usually only be felt or heard once, in the exact moment when the decision is present. If your client isn’t paying attention, they might miss this guidance. They also may not be able to access their instincts except in the exact moment when their instincts are needed.

This means you may not be able to help them access the guidance of their instincts during a coaching session, if the decision/situation has already passed. However, you may be able to help them recall what their instincts were telling them in the moment as they reflect on a decision, situation, or problem during a session with you.

*Note: Splenic Authority works equally well for large decisions and for small day-to-day ones.

4. Ego Authority

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 tribe/family, and/or their community (e.g., their family, partner, friends, employees, 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 probably won’t be able to fully commit to it and see it through to the end (which can be disappointing to others and damaging to your client’s self-esteem).

Your client has probably been conditioned to believe that it’s “selfish” to make decisions based on what is going to benefit them the most. But for someone with Ego Authority (which is only 1% of the world), it’s the absolute best possible 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

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 them (hence the name “Self”). However, it can be easy for your client to get stuck 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

With Mental Authority, your client needs to be in the right environment before making a decision, and when they are, they should talk through the decision with a trusted sounding board.

Only Projectors can have this Authority, and they are (appropriately) named “Mental Projectors”.

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—e.g., emotional energy, identities, the pressure to be spontaneous, and the pressure to “do”.

Because they can be so heavily influenced by other people’s energies, it’s vital that the Mental Projector places themselves in the correct environment (or is 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 at work 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 a big decision.

Once in the right environment, your Client may benefit from talking through the decision with a sounding board, as described in the Self Authority section above. This sounding board should be someone who is non-judgmental, impartial, and won’t try to give your client advice. Their role is to listen, ask thoughtful questions, and help your client talk it out 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 single 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. Specifically, a Reflector is designed to wait a full lunar cycle (roughly one month) before making any big decision. 

Impulsive or spontaneous decision-making is not correct for Reflectors. This is because a Reflector’s BodyGraph is completely “open”, with all nine Energy Centers (hubs of energy within the body) 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.

So instead of making big decisions in the heat of the moment, where they will undoubtedly be influenced by the energy of the people and environment around them, 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 for the next month. They may even want to track how they’re feeling and what they think about the decision at each check-in inside a designated journal.

Over the course of a month, your client will reach a sense of cumulative clarity and know what the correct, 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, as discussed in the Mental Authority section above.

*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.

Click here to learn more about coaching your client according to their Human Design.