What is Coaching?
Coaching is a process which helps you get from where you are now, to where you want to be, faster than you can on your own.
Coaching is: goal oriented, all about you and achieving your goals and aspirations, about forward thinking and making changes towards a positive future. Coaching is non-directive (not about getting 'advice'), it is non-judgmental, and totally confidential.
Coaching can benefit any area of your personal/professional life that you would like to see improved, including relationships, health & fitness, career, life transitions, family, work/life balance, creativity, money, spirituality, the list goes on.
Coaching is not: psycho-therapy or counseling. Whilst counseling and therapy tend to be more focused on the past, life coaching is solution-focused and coaches work with people who do not have a mental health diagnosis (clients rather than patients). Counseling and therapy are generally conducted on the assumption that healing is required, whereas life coaching works with the assumption that the client is already whole and complete. The duration that a psychologist spends with their patient can be a number of years, and the period that a client spends with their coach is relatively short, as the resulting goal for the client is to be able to self-coach.
Coaching is: goal oriented, all about you and achieving your goals and aspirations, about forward thinking and making changes towards a positive future. Coaching is non-directive (not about getting 'advice'), it is non-judgmental, and totally confidential.
Coaching can benefit any area of your personal/professional life that you would like to see improved, including relationships, health & fitness, career, life transitions, family, work/life balance, creativity, money, spirituality, the list goes on.
Coaching is not: psycho-therapy or counseling. Whilst counseling and therapy tend to be more focused on the past, life coaching is solution-focused and coaches work with people who do not have a mental health diagnosis (clients rather than patients). Counseling and therapy are generally conducted on the assumption that healing is required, whereas life coaching works with the assumption that the client is already whole and complete. The duration that a psychologist spends with their patient can be a number of years, and the period that a client spends with their coach is relatively short, as the resulting goal for the client is to be able to self-coach.
What does a coach do?
The role of a coach is, through listening, reflecting and questioning, to empower clients to:
- Identify what you truly want
- Set goals around what you want
- Feel supported in creating and taking the steps you identify to achieve those goals
How Coaching Works...
Establishing good rapport, using open questions, the coach offers the client an opportunity to fully explore the topic they have brought to the session, identify where they would like to be in this area and where they are now. The client explores the possibilities of how to bridge that gap before choosing their steps to actually do it.
Being listened to by a non-judgmental coach and feeling understood can often make the difference for a client who has not managed to fully verbalize their thoughts without others interjecting, imposing their view/advice/negative comments. My job is to really listen, sticking to the client’s agenda, allowing the client time to think.
The coach also acts as a metaphorical mirror so clients can truly see themselves. Reflecting back what the client is saying, they become aware of their language, self talk, patterns of behaviour etc. and identify what has been helpful and unhelpful in the past. The coach can also help the client to identify their values and beliefs and reflect back evidence of limiting beliefs which may be holding them back. The coach can sensitively ask questions to challenge those limiting beliefs if the client chooses to work on them. Similarly, the coach reflects back the client’s existing strengths and highlights achievements which sometimes get subjectively overlooked. Improved self-awareness can be very empowering. Awareness of proven strengths and past limitations enables the client to think through future situations, find solutions to previous stumbling blocks, and put strategies in place to achieve their goals.
The coach also provides a level of accountability. Creating timed, measurable goals, and deciding an action plan for themselves with their coach, the client has the added incentive to keep to those actions before their next coaching session. Although the responsibility is always with the client, it can be motivating to have ‘someone to answer to’ and report successes to. The coach helps the client recognize their level of commitment to the goal and checks motivation for achieving their action steps. The client feels supported throughout, knowing their coach is also committed to them achieving their goal. The coach provides a reminder of progress made and is able to congratulate and celebrate successes along the journey, fostering a sense of achievement and fulfillment.
Being listened to by a non-judgmental coach and feeling understood can often make the difference for a client who has not managed to fully verbalize their thoughts without others interjecting, imposing their view/advice/negative comments. My job is to really listen, sticking to the client’s agenda, allowing the client time to think.
The coach also acts as a metaphorical mirror so clients can truly see themselves. Reflecting back what the client is saying, they become aware of their language, self talk, patterns of behaviour etc. and identify what has been helpful and unhelpful in the past. The coach can also help the client to identify their values and beliefs and reflect back evidence of limiting beliefs which may be holding them back. The coach can sensitively ask questions to challenge those limiting beliefs if the client chooses to work on them. Similarly, the coach reflects back the client’s existing strengths and highlights achievements which sometimes get subjectively overlooked. Improved self-awareness can be very empowering. Awareness of proven strengths and past limitations enables the client to think through future situations, find solutions to previous stumbling blocks, and put strategies in place to achieve their goals.
The coach also provides a level of accountability. Creating timed, measurable goals, and deciding an action plan for themselves with their coach, the client has the added incentive to keep to those actions before their next coaching session. Although the responsibility is always with the client, it can be motivating to have ‘someone to answer to’ and report successes to. The coach helps the client recognize their level of commitment to the goal and checks motivation for achieving their action steps. The client feels supported throughout, knowing their coach is also committed to them achieving their goal. The coach provides a reminder of progress made and is able to congratulate and celebrate successes along the journey, fostering a sense of achievement and fulfillment.
