Monika Broecker, MA, MS, is the founder of the Center of Personal Growth, an organization providing personal growth coaching, career coaching, personal growth workshops as well as consulting and facilitation services to organizations.
Monika held highly rated positions in Learning and Leadership Development in companies such as Google, Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, VERITAS Software (now: Symantec), BMW, Designworks/USA. She also has an extensive consulting background and worked with PA Consulting Group and other consulting firms. Since leaving her corporate career, Monika has done consulting work for large corporations including Medtronic, paypal and eBay; start up companies including Splunk and Inflection, and non-profit organizations including Goodwill, the Analytic Somatic Therapy Training Institute, Stillheart Institute, an educational retreat center and sanctuary, Rosen Method-The Berkeley Center and Hopelab.
Monika is a pioneer in corporate personal growth. At Google, Monika built and led the School of Personal Growth within Google University, its mission, strategy, curricula and programs. Google's School of Personal is the first of its kind in the world. Monika continues to work with organizations, building Personal Growth architectures, business cases, curricula, programs and metrics for them.
Deeply inspired by the Esalen Institute, Monika has for many years applied somatic approaches to her work. Monika is working as a Somatic Psychotherapist (Marriage and Family Therapist Intern, IMF 70291) under the supervision of prominent Somatic Psychologist Dr. John Conger, PSY 4778). Monika completed over 3,000 hours toward her CA licensure. Prior to working in private practice, Monika worked as a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee at the Liberation Institute, an organization dedicated to Growth, Healing, and Freedom for all, and prior to that at the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy. Monika also worked at the Contra Costa Community Services Bureau, providing child therapy to children 3-5 in the (Early) Headstart program.
Monika completed the advanced training Analytic Somatic Psychotherapy & Bioenergetic Analysis. She also trained in Rosen Method Bodywork in Somatic Practice with Kathy Kain and in Acupressure at the Berkeley Acupressure Institute.
Monika has been teaching Coaching, Leadership and sustainable work and lifestyle workshops at California Institute of Integral Studies, Stanford University, John F. Kennedy University and Golden Gate University.
Monika holds Masters Degrees in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies and Science of Communication from the University of Arts, Berlin, Germany and has an extensive background in family therapy, particularly systemic, problem-solving strategic and solution-focused Brief Therapy (at Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA with Paul Watzlawick and others and at the Brief Family Therapy Center, Milwaukee, WI with Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg).
Originally from Germany, where, after her therapy training in the US, she was certified in Systemic Therapy/Consulting (by Systemic Association), Monika was given permanent residency in the US based on her extraordinary abilities as a systemic and cybernetic management consultant and coach.
Monika is also a successful author and editor and has published several books and numerous articles in the field of leadership, therapy, human development and personal growth. She is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the peer-reviewed scientific journal "Kybernetes" and was for several years editor of the journal "Lernende Organisation" (Learning Organization), published by the Institute for Systemic Coaching and Training, Vienna, Austria.
Monika is on the Consortium of the Institute for Creative Transformation. She is also a member of the Brief Strategic and Systemic Therapy European Network.
She has spoken at large-scale conferences around the world including the "On the Shoulder of Giants" conference at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, the first "Brief Strategic and Systemic European Network" Conference in Arezzo Italy, the "Heinz von Foerster Congress" in Vienna, Austria, the "Happiness and its Causes Conference" in San Francisco, California and the Enlightened Business Summit which was hosted by Chip Conley.
Monika has won many awards for her ground-breaking work. Her work was quoted and reviewed internationally in numerous prestigious publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Half Moon Bay Review, Soulscode, Shambala Sun, WebProNews, Bnet, Valleywag, About.com. Smartseo, Lernende Organisation (Learning Organization), Spektrum der Wissenschaften (Spectrum of Science; the German edition of the Scientific American), Literaturen, Zeitschrift fuer Systemische Therapie (Journal for Systemic Therapy), Systems (Interdisciplinary Journal for System Theoretical Research and Practice in the Human Sciences), Tageszeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau.
Main Publications
- with Heinz von Foerster: Part of the World. Fractals of Ethics. A Drama in Three Acts. 1st American Edition.
- with Heinz von Foerster: Teil der Welt. Fraktale einer Ethik – Oder Heinz von Foersters Tanz mit der Welt (Title of the first Edition: Teil der Welt. Fraktale einer Ethik – Ein Drama in drei Akten) Carl-Auer-Systeme, Heidelberg, Germany, 2002
- Special volumes of the scientific journal Kybernetes about Heinz von Foerster, 2005
- Special volumes of the scientific journal Kybernetes about Gregory Bateson, 2007
- Fuehrung neu verorten. Perspektiven fuer Unternehmenslenker im 21. Jahrhundert. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2007 (transl.: Re-allocating leadership. Perpectives for corporate navigators in the 21st Century)
- Human Becoming. Becoming Human. Online festschrift for Heinz von Foerster, 2001
