Coaching Strategies for Defined and Undefined Root Centers

Today, we’re diving into the Root Center, one of the most fascinating Energy Centers in Human Design. For me, it’s also one of the top areas I’ve had to decondition, making it a subject close to my heart.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. What Energy Centers are in Human Design.
2. A deep dive into the Root Center and the energy it governs.
3. How to coach clients effectively, tailoring your approach based on whether their Root Center is defined or undefined.

First up, let’s look at what the Energy Centers in Human Design are.

What Are Energy Centers in Human Design?

In the Human Design chart (also known as a BodyGraph), there are nine Energy Centers. These are the larger shapes in the chart—the squares, triangles, and diamonds. If you’re familiar with the chakra system, these Energy Centers are similar—they were actually inspired by chakras!

Each Center governs specific body parts and biological systems. 

For instance, the Root Center, the square at the bottom of the chart, is connected to the adrenal glands and regulates the energy of drive, stress, and momentum.

Energy enters or exits each Center through its Gates (which are the numbers you’ll see along the inside edges). These Gates add unique characteristics to the energy flowing through them.

The Root Center: Energy and Functions

The Root Centre’s connection to the adrenal system generates a kind of adrenalised pressure, which motivates us to take action, initiate tasks, and build the momentum needed to move through life with purpose and energy. 

So if you work with clients in health or wellness, for example, understanding which Energy Centers relate to their physical challenges can offer deep insights as adrenal or stress-related issues often point to themes in the Root Center.

By understanding how this energy manifests, you can uncover deeper insights into how your client responds to stress and how they harness their drive to achieve their goals.

By understanding how this energy manifests, you can uncover deeper insights into how your client responds to stress and how they harness their drive to achieve their goals.

The Root Center is a dual-purpose hub. It’s both:

• A Pressure Center: It creates physical pressure to evolve and overcome challenges.
• A Motor Center: It provides the energetic fuel needed to maintain momentum in life.

So there are two Pressure Centers, one is the Root Center, and the other is the Head Center.

→ The Head Center creates mental pressure that motivates us to figure things out, find solutions to problems, and find answers to questions. 

→ On the other hand, the Root Center creates a more physical pressure that gets our body moving so that we can evolve, adapt, and overcome challenges to keep our lives moving forward.

Motor Centers serve as energetic fuel sources within us. So the Root Center, in particular, provides the energy needed to create and sustain momentum in our lives. Each Gate within the Root Center fuels a specific life process, along with the pressure to complete that process. 

For instance, Gate 53 in the Root Center generates the pressure and energy required to start something new—it’s known as the Gate of Beginnings.

Coaching Clients with the Root Center: What You Need to Know First

When it comes to coaching your clients based on the Root Center in Human Design, you’ll encounter two key categories: Those with defined Root Centers and those with undefined Root Centers. 

In a moment, we’ll take a look at each of these categories individually and how you can coach your clients in a personalized and unique way for each of your clients. 

But first, there are some key themes that relate to the Root Center I want to highlight:

1. Stress – How does your client naturally handle life’s stresses? Do they effectively cope, or do they struggle in certain areas?
2. Urgency – Many of us, myself included, have had to unlearn the ingrained sense of urgency tied to the Root Center, requiring deep deconditioning work.
3. Procrastination – How does your client approach tasks? Do they procrastinate or are they naturally driven to act?
4. Motivation and Drive – What fuels or pressures your client to take action? What drives them to initiate, create momentum, or bring ideas to life?

Okay, so let’s look first at how a defined Root Center might show up for your clients and how you can tailor the way you coach them based on this information.

How to Coach Clients with a Defined Root Center

If the Root Center is coloured brown in your client’s chart, that means their Root Center is defined. About 60% of the population has a defined Root Center.

This means that they have consistent, reliable access to the energy of drive, stress, and momentum, and that their Gates and Channels in the Root Center are stable sources of energy they can consistently rely on, specifically through whichever channels coming off of their Root Center are defined.

To identify a defined Channel, you will see that it is coloured all the way in (either in black, red, or some combination of both) rather than being white.

So if your client has any of the three Format Energy Channels defined (the three Channels between the Root and Sacral Center, which is located just above the Root), these Channels play a significant role in their energy and will influence the rest of their Design.

They can also powerfully influence any other people that they come into contact with.

→ Root to Spleen Channels: If any of the Channels from the Root to the Spleen (which governs our instinct, survival, and well-being) are defined, your client may feel pressure to thrive and survive on a material level. They also have the potential to spot what isn’t working around them, whether in their industry, workplace, or society (this gift is specifically seen in the 58-18 Channel).

→ Root to Solar Plexus Channels: If the Root is connected to the Solar Plexus (governing emotions, passion, and desire), your client will have a fixed way of handling their emotional stress and desires. This is a powerful insight into how they manage emotional pressure.

Now, when it comes to having a defined Root Center, there are some potential challenges your client might be more likely to face.

Clients with a defined Root Center often:

• Project stress and pressure onto other people, either energetically, which usually happens on an unconscious level, or by setting unreasonable expectations for others.

• They might expect the other people in their life to be able to handle stress and pressure the way that they do, and to have this fixed, consistent way of dealing with it (which, if those people have an undefined Root Center, is not the case).

• Allowing the pressure that they feel in the Root Center to drive them to initiate in ways that are not aligned with them. If you’re familiar with Human Design, you’ll know that Manifestors are the only type that are actually designed to initiate. The other Types are all waiting on something outside of them before acting (whether it’s something to respond to, an invitation etc).

• Next, because these clients can be so familiar with this feeling of pressure, they can develop a tolerance or a comfort level with this feeling and even end up procrastinating on things—simply because that pressure doesn’t bother them as much anymore (because it’s just always been there!)

To give you an example of this… My partner has a defined Root Center and I have an undefined Root Center. He is the person that has a hard time sitting still (so he’ll often jiggle his leg or move some part of his body).

Whereas me, on the other hand, with my undefined Root Center, I’m quite literally the opposite. I love sitting still!

Key Coaching Focuses for Defined Root Centers:

1. Stress Management: Help them recognize and manage how they handle pressure, especially in relationships with undefined Root individuals, who absorb and amplify their energy.

• 2. Alignment: Encourage them to not let Root pressure drive misaligned actions and decisions. For example, only Manifestors are designed to initiate freely, while others need external cues like invitations or something to respond to.

• 3. Procrastination: Defined Root clients may procrastinate because they’re so accustomed to the feeling of pressure that they wait until the last moment to act.

Now let’s explore the undefined Root Center.

How to Coach Clients with an Undefined Root Center

If the Root Center is coloured white in your client’s chart, that means their Root Center is undefined. About 40% of the population has an undefined Root Center. 

When a Center is undefined like this, it means your client has inconsistent, unreliable, unpredictable access to the energies governed by that Center. It also means that your clients will absorb and amplify energy from defined Centers of the people in their physical environment.

For example, when I’m standing near Scott, my partner, I’m picking up on the energy from his defined Root Center (because I have an undefined Root Center!) and I’m amplifying it, so I’m experiencing it in an even more magnified, intense way.

Clients with a defined Root Center often:

• Absorb and amplify this adrenalized pressure created by the people around them with a defined Root Center, which can be an uncomfortable, overwhelming pressure—and that compels them to act and initiate in an attempt to relieve that feeling of pressure as quickly as possible.
  
  The catch-22 here ^ is that when they’re near the person with the defined Root Center, that pressure will never go away. This means no matter how many things they achieve, they’ll still feel that pressure (which is why one of the big keys here is to learn how to harness this amplified, adrenalized pressure to get things done but only when appropriate!)

• For the most part, clients with an undefined Root Center tend to dislike stress and pressure. For me personally, the mere thought of something needing to be done on a specific certain date or by a certain deadline can feel very overwhelming to me because of my undefined Root Center.

Key Coaching Focuses for Undefined Root Centers:

1. Develop a More Flexible Set of Tools for Handling Stress: Whilst someone with a defined Root Center might have one or two key ways to handle stress, your client who has an undefined Root Center can harness their fluidity and flexibility when it comes to handling stress in ways that feel aligned for them.
   
2. Recognizing the Pressure: Help your clients become aware of when they’re absorbing Root energy from others, and teach them strategies to release those energies. As simple as it sounds, this can make such a big difference for these people!
   
3. Knowing When to Act: Let your clients’ Human Design Strategy and their Authority–which is their decision-making tool–inform them of when it is the right time to act.
   
4. Releasing the Urgency: Encourage them to pause before acting and question whether the pressure they feel is theirs or someone else’s (because, as we know, 60% of the population has a Defined Root Center which can cause them to feel that amplified pressure, even if they’re not aware of it).
   
5. Setting Boundaries: Following on from that, if their partner or coworker (or anyone else in their immediate physical environment that they’re around quite a lot) has a defined Root, teach them how to energetically and physically manage the amplified pressure they feel in those interactions.

Whether your clients have defined or undefined Root Centers, the way you help them navigate these challenges will also vary depending on your coaching style and the tools you have at your disposal. 

It’s important to remember that not every client will face all of these challenges, whether during their life or within the specific coaching timeframe you’re working with them. However, having these insights in your coaching toolkit is incredibly valuable!

And of course the Root Center is just one of the nine Energy Centers, and Energy Centers are only one part of the larger Human Design system.

So if you found this breakdown helpful, we dive even deeper into the Root Center, the other eight Energy Centers, and the rest of the system in my signature program, Human Design for Coaches.

You can learn more about the program and either enroll or join the waitlist for when enrollment opens again by going to soulandsage.com/coach

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