Immunity to Change

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey · 2001 · Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA

What it is

Immunity to Change (ITC) is a coaching and adult-development framework, not a psychotherapy. Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (Harvard Graduate School of Education) developed it; their firm Minds at Work trains and certifies ITC coaches. It is used one-to-one, in pairs and with leadership teams,…

Format

• Duration and dose: the authors plan for a few months, not a single session: about 30 minutes a week for about 12 weeks, the period over which most people notice significant change.
• Format: alone, with a partner (ideally someone also working on their own immunity), or with a trained ITC coach who guides the whole process. Others who know the goal (colleagues, family) give cues, feedback and accountability.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Programme formats (Minds at Work): the Change Course is a six-week personal experience for anyone working on a goal. Foundations to Application trains coaches and facilitators to guide others through a full map and test design, one-to-one or in groups. Coach Certification is a selective 12-month programme for experienced coaches: each works through the full process as participant and as coach, with a certified…
• Immunity to Change (ITC) is a coaching and adult-development framework, not a psychotherapy. Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (Harvard Graduate School of Education) developed it; their firm Minds at Work trains and certifies ITC coaches. It is used one-to-one, in pairs and with leadership teams, mainly in organisations and education.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• large gaps between self and others' ratings; explore them, don't argue them.
• expecting zero slips. The authors frame slippage as expected and recoverable.
• vague assumptions ("people won't like me"). Narrow them to who, when and what exactly.
• perfectionistic endpoints that recreate the immunity (an over-preparer defining success as "never unprepared").
• the person choosing only friendly raters, or catastrophising about asking. Asking can itself be an early, mild test.

Problems the guide addresses

• Stuck at mapping: flat or intellectual map
• "Resistance" and non-adherence (tests not run, observations not done)
• Overwhelm during the worry box or biography work
• Disconfirming data discounted
• Test "confirms" the assumption
• Ruptures with the coach, partner or team
• Assumptions that are realistic, or tests that could cause harm (ITC-specific)
• The coaching–psychotherapy boundary and referral signs
• For psychotherapists using ITC inside therapy

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.