If you’ve done block work and the blocks keep coming back, the issue isn’t usually willpower. It’s layer. You’ve been doing the right work at the wrong depth.

This article is a field guide to the six layers — what they are, how to identify which one your block lives in, and what kind of intervention works at each. It’s the diagnostic step we do at the beginning of every GPS+I cycle in the community. If you can identify the layer before you start working, the intervention is six times more efficient.

Layer 1 — Essence

The deepest layer. The level at which you’re asking who you are at all. Blocks here look like existential exhaustion — “I don’t know what I want anymore” — and they don’t respond to action-level techniques. The intervention is silence, witnessing, and time.

If your block is at Essence, no amount of productivity tooling will move it. The work is to stop, not to do.

Most coaches I work with get this layer wrong because the rest of the industry has trained them to treat every block as an Action-layer problem. That’s because Action-layer problems are easy to bill for. Essence work is mostly free, and mostly slow.

Layer 2 — Ego

The layer of identity-as-protection. Who you’ve built yourself to be in order to be safe, loved, useful. Blocks here look like rigid self-concept — “I’m not the kind of person who…” — and they don’t move until the ego loosens its grip on the cost.

CLARITI work lives mostly at this layer. The whole reason the framework exists is that we needed a structured way to dismantle the protective identity without destabilising the underlying person.

Layer 3 — Narrative

The stories you tell about yourself, often without noticing. “I’m bad at money.” “I’m too sensitive for business.” “Spiritual people aren’t supposed to want this.” These are narrative blocks, and they’re the most cooperative — once you can articulate the story, you can interrogate it.

Layer 4 — Somatic

Where the block lives in the body. The frozen shoulder when you think about charging more. The tight chest when you write the email. Somatic blocks need somatic interventions — breath, movement, touch — not more thinking.

If the block is somatic, no insight will move it. The body has to be the door.

Layer 5 — Behavioural

The patterns of action that the deeper layers produce. Procrastination loops. Avoidance routines. The list of half-finished projects. Most of what gets called “self-sabotage” is really a behavioural-layer expression of an Ego-layer or Narrative-layer block.

Layer 6 — Relational

The way the block shows up between you and other people. Pricing conversations that get awkward. Boundaries that get blurry. Partners who get triggered. Relational blocks are diagnostic — they tell you about the other five layers — and they’re often where the consequences land first.

How to diagnose the layer

The shortcut: ask yourself at which layer does it hurt?

  • If the answer is existential — “I don’t know who I’m becoming” — it’s Essence.
  • If the answer is identity — “I’m not the kind of person who…” — it’s Ego.
  • If the answer is a story you can write down — “I always…” — it’s Narrative.
  • If the answer is in your body — “my chest…” — it’s Somatic.
  • If the answer is a behaviour — “I keep doing…” — it’s Behavioural.
  • If the answer is between you and another person — “we always…” — it’s Relational.

The next post in this pillar walks through the intervention library — what to do once you’ve located the layer. Continue to: The intervention library →