About Us
Contact | Charlie Badenhop and the Seishindo Team | The meaning of Seishindo | Core Principles | Kudos
Charlie Badenhop
If I had to use just one word to describe myself and my background, it would be eclectic. In 1985, I moved to Japan from my place of birth, New York City. I’ve lived here ever since.
My Japanese clients say, “Charlie-san has a foreign face and name, but a Japanese heart.” My Western clients tell me I offer an intriguing Eastern sensibility, couched in modern terms.
I’m glad to hear people say these things, because I love the combination and cross-pollination of Eastern and Western cultures that my work offers. It’s a mix of the best of Western problem-solving abilities and Eastern contemplative awareness. If you’re drawn to better understand the intersection and interaction between your thinking mind and your body, heart, and spirit, then you will likely appreciate Seishindo.
Seishindo is an interweaving of Eastern and Western philosophies with my wide range of business, professional, and personal experience.
- I’m a native New Yorker, the son of a captain in the New York City Fire Department.
- I graduated from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, with a degree in Political Science, and was an officer in the U.S. Navy.
- I went to Japan to study Noguchi Sei Tai, and Aikido. I’m a fourth-degree black belt in Aikido, and I’m one of the few foreigners in Japan to be certified as an Aikido sensei.
- I’ve studied extensively with John Grinder and Judith De Lozier, and I’m a certified trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Ericksonian Hypnosis.
- I’ve coached, consulted, and conducted business in Japan, the United States, Nepal, India, Italy, Russia, and Korea – to name just a few countries. My clients have included multi-national corporations and small businesses, CEOs and private individuals.
- I’m a long-term practitioner and student of many forms of healing and bodywork, including Sei Tai, Seiki Jutsu, Yoga, self-relations therapy, Gestalt therapy, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and others.
- I’ve had the good fortune to study and collaborate with many exceptional consultants, healers, martial artists, coaches, and therapists.
Having worked through many personal and professional challenges in my own life, it’s my passion to assist my clients in doing the same. Through Seishindo coaching and mindfulness practices, you can rekindle the spirit of your emotional and physical well-being, recognizing and embodying your true heart’s desires. My work is known for its magic, depth of experience, and celebration of life.
I know you’re capable of great change. My experience of life has shown me that every individual and organization already has the resources they need to achieve deeply-desired goals. The challenge I’d like to help you face, is to uncover and appreciate the strengths of “you system,” and build from there.
My intention as a coach is to create a relationship of trust, safety, and respect with you. I’ll encourage you to go beyond your demons and limiting beliefs to experience what you’re capable of when you truly believe in yourself.
I’m a coach because helping people connect to the energy of life, and having faith in people when they’re not yet capable of believing in themselves, are gifts I deeply enjoy sharing with others.
I’ll gently urge you to have the courage to declare a greater purpose for your life!
Charlie’s Partial Client List
I’ve consulted, coached, led seminars for, and collaborated with, the following companies and organizations:
Ajinomoto • Mattel Japan • Ericsson Japan • Toyota Motor Corporation • DoCoMo • The Gap
Japan Small Business Corporation • Thomson Consumer Electronics Japan • Roche Pharmaceutical
Barclays Bank • The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan • Morgan Stanley Japan
Ateneo de Manila University • The Manila Pavilion Hotel • The National Steel Corporation of The Philippines • Ayala Land
Novosibirsk Steel Corporation of Russia • Siberian Institute of Science and Technology • Various members of the Russian Duma.
The Seishindo Team
The Seishindo team is a culturally diverse group of people who are the founders of their own consulting and coaching companies. We each have longstanding reputations with our clients, and have collaborated successfully on numerous multinational projects. When you need local help I will gladly refer you to one of the members of the Seishindo team.
Our goal is to exceed your expectations.
The Meaning of Seishindo
In my years of study and practice, and in my everyday life, I’ve had the opportunity to experience the importance of ‘purity’ and ‘simplicity’.
I began to realize the physical reactions we have when faced with challenges, lead to the beliefs we have about ourselves and the circumstances we face. That the body, is wise beyond compare.
These experiences became the starting point for the human potential discipline I created, called Seishindo.
Here’s an explanation of the kanji (Japanese pictograms) that make up the word.
The first kanji is “Sei.”
The most basic meaning for “sei” is refined, but the meaning extends to spirit, energy, vitality, semen, purity, excellence, and skill.
In Seishindo, it means refined and pure.
The middle kanji is “Shin.”
The meanings of “shin” are spirit, heart (in the metaphorical sense), and mind.
If you ask a Japanese person where their mind is, they will point to their chest.
Combining this with the first kanji, “Sei,” we have the poetic interpretation, pure heart, simple mind.
“Do” is the third kanji.
In everyday parlance it means street, or road.
As used in the Japanese arts, “do” means an artful path of study.
As in Judo, Aikido, Chado (the tea ceremony), and Shodo (calligraphy).
Seishindo is an artful path of discovering your pure heart and simple mind.
I bring my own pure heart, simple mind to every coaching engagement, as best I can.
Would you like to know some more about the theories and disciplines Seishindo is based on? Then please click here