Barbara and Paco

Two people.

One couple. And a shared lifelong passion: exploring the many facets of human growth potential and helping others to participate fully in the most satisfying life they are able.

We met at the age of 40, each of us in the mid-life stage of immense personal renewal and restructuring. Then followed our marriage and the re-imagining of our careers. We consolidated the amazingly parallel personal and career paths that we had each been travelling (although in different countries) before we met in 2000, and have arrived at a place in the pilgrimage of our lives where expertise meets compassion for our fellow travelers and has taken the form of Integral Next Step.

Through our ongoing consultancy to individuals and to corporations, we thoroughly understand the challenges and issues that people face both personally and in their organizational personae. We have a method and a framework to address and deal with these challenges, and we have a track record of the success of the work and the solutions it has created.

Barbara

I’m British, and have lived in the UK, Canada and Spain. I qualified in the UK as a biologist and worked in the food industry where I completed my MBA part time. I moved into Academia where my research identified the presence and importance of the UK´s Family Enterprise Sector. I became a Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Family Business, as well as the founder of Europe´s first Centre for Family Enterprise. My doctoral thesis focused on how emotional and developmental issues affect the way families manage succession transitions in their family enterprises. Other roles include being the founding editor of Families in Business magazine and Executive Director of the Family Business Network. I co-founded the consulting group Family Business Solutions and I am an affiliate of the consulting group Lansberg, Gersick & Associates.

Through meeting Paco and working with him on various long-term family business consultancy projects, our attention focused on developing innovative experiential approaches to human development. I trained in Arizona as an Advanced Instructor in the Eponaquest method with co-founders Linda Kohanov and Kathleen Barry Ingram, which brings horses and humans together to provide activities and experiences that create emotional and social awareness as well as leadership and personal effectiveness. www.eponaquest.com I am a lifelong student of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com In 2009, I co-founded the UK´s first programme to train facilitators in Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning, and this has become the first accredited course of its kind offering diploma, degree and masters level study in EFHDL (Equine Facilitated Human Development and Learning) www.ifeal.me

My key interest is how to help people expand their capabilities and live life to the fullest.

My creative passion is forging a true partnership with our horses through natural horsemanship.

Paco

I’m Spanish and have lived most of my life in Catalunya, although most of my consultancy work is in Central America and Spain.  I qualified as an economist and worked as assistant to the economic director of the confederation of businesses employers in Catalunya. I then became technical director of the Family Business Institute of Spain, an educational and lobby organization that supports the longevity of Spain´s family enterprises.

This nurtured my interest in human development, leading me to study clinical family therapy and to switch the direction of my career into family business consultancy. I joined Lansberg, Gersick and Associates in 2000 and I have been working with family business corporations in various parts of the world on family-related issues that affect governance and succession in their family enterprise. www.lgassoc.com

Through meeting Barbara and working with her on various long-term family business consultancy projects, our attention focused on developing innovative experiential approaches to human development like the Spiral Dynamics approach of Clare Graves www.spiraldynamics.org, the Leadership Development Framework of Bill Torbert www.harthill.co.uk or the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory Assessment (ESCI) www.haygroup.com. I am a student of Integral Philosophy  Level 1 completed and aiming to  levels 2 and 3 www.coreintegral.com and am also studying Professional Photography with the New York Institute of Photography www.nyip.com

My key interest is how to help people handle change and personal transformation.

My creative passion is photography as the medium for the expression of the good, the true and the beautiful.