A happy staff makes business go smoothly and heightens productivity. Each year, big corporations put millions of dollars into training to make their employees more effective.

A Freeland author and coach says what works for Fortune 500 companies will work for small businesses like many companies on South Whidbey, too.

“Most people are working way too hard for the results they’re getting,” said Victoria Castle, author of “The Trance of Scarcity.”

“I wrote ‘The Trance of Scarcity’ because I saw so many great people with great offers struggle, get stuck and resigned about what was possible,” she said. “The book addresses our cultural pre-disposition to ‘not enoughness’ and offers the practices for embodying greater ease and fulfillment.”

Trained as a somatic coach, Castle has been working with individuals and Fortune 500 companies for 20 years on a formula for increasing effectiveness while decreasing effort. Looking for the leverage point is the key.

Castle said that when she encountered the discourse of somatics, she knew they had found the answer.

Somatics is from the ancient Greek which means “the living self as a whole.” It recognizes that the self and the lived experience are the same thing.

The reality for many clients, however, is that the self that they project and the self that they think they project are two different things.

Castle recalled working with a successful executive. She told Castle that she was told that people felt she was intimidating. The woman was distraught about how people viewed her.

Castle analyzed her and found that the woman would wrinkle her forehead when she would listen to people.

Once the executive knew what she was doing she could work on the issue and move past the problem.

“Sometimes we need feedback on how people experience us,” Castle said. “It’s exactly what we all are doing to the political candidates. Trust this, don’t trust that.”

The coaching works for anyone, Castle said: Anyone who wants a greater sense of ease and effectiveness, and the capacity to make a contribution to the world. Engaging in somatic work with others accelerates learning and builds community, she said.

Clients are typically between 30 to 60, have done some personal growth work, are basically successful in the world and still face some obstacles that frustrate or limit them.

“The flight response is designed to last 12 minutes,” Castle said. “Today people stay on flight all the time.”

Castle helps them to become aware of automatic default patterns of behavior that are not productive and then establish more resourceful ways of being. Clients are taught to gain clarity and confidence to make bigger offers, requests and even declines when appropriate, as well as to be more effective under pressure.

For most people, somatics or embodiment is the missing piece to understanding themselves and how to make lasting changes, Castle said.

Castle added that she is aware that some people don’t buy into the methods. She said in her workshops there is always a handful of people with crossed arms.

“People didn’t want a coach because that meant something was wrong,” she said.

Once people begin the work, Castle said they usually relax and appreciate the help.

Somatics is not airy-fairy, but is done in conversation, interaction and practices, she added. Castle studied for several years at the Strozzi Institute in California and has additional training in various modalities.

Castle said her work has helped companies be more effective.

“It increases collaboration and respect and increases effectiveness and job fulfillment,” she said.

“Many operate under the mode ‘give, give, give until I burn out,’” she said.

But people need to care and be aware of their minds and bodies to function at their best.

“We are much more like plants than machines, but we don’t treat ourselves that way,” Castle said.

Castle has a meeting space on her property in Freeland where she works with clients individually and also holds workshops.

She and partner Tim Morley moved to Whidbey a year ago; he is also trained in somatics. As a licensed massage practitioner, Morley is also trained in energetic healing, trauma release, Reiki and Cranial Sacral.

Castle can be reached at 331-2073.