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 primarily works as a psychotherapist specializing in Analytic Somatic Therapy and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.
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 figma Basis Science, Splunk and Inflection, and non-profit organizations including Designer Fund, Goodwill, the Analytic Somatic Therapy Training Institute, Stillheart Institute, 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 (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist). Prior to working in private practice, Monika worked as a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern 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 a four year training in Analytic Somatic Psychotherapy & Bioenergetic Analysis with prominent Somatic Psychologist Dr. John Conger. She is certified in Analytic Somatic Therapy. 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 a member of the Brief Strategic and Systemic Therapy European Therapy 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 Therapy Network" Conference in Arezzo, Italy, the "Heinz von Foerster Congress" in Vienna, Austria, the "Happiness and its Causes Conference" in San Francisco, California, the Enlightened Business Summit hosted by Chip Conley, the Transformative Leadership Conference in San Francisco and the Paul Watzlawick Symposium in Eisenstadt, Austria. Most recently, Monika worked as a mentor/coach at the Spark Weekend in San Francisco.
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
