What is coaching?
‘My confidence in my own ability has increased…I have made two successful job applications…been offered a new position… Going forward, I feel re-aligned with my core values.’
Most people don’t know what coaching is. But those who’ve experienced it say that a coaching session is the only time in a busy week when they can stop and think. A moment when they can drop their shoulders and figure out what they really want.
So, what is coaching? It’s a partnering. It’s not some expert with solutions to your challenges, but a process and a space that enables you to figure out the changes you want in your life.
Coaching is always focused on the future. It’s about looking to where you want to go – applying for that promotion, nailing that challenging project, addressing those issues with your team, having that difficult conversation at home. It’s then about how to get there. And along the way, learning lots about you.
With coaching you find confidence, self-belief and your voice.
The power of being truly heard
‘Through self awareness, questioning and working on myself honestly, I was able to identify my blocks, limiting beliefs and stories I told myself about myself.’
What do I do as a coach? I listen. To what you’re saying, and not saying. Simply being heard is amazingly powerful. I play back to you the essence of what I’ve heard, and you hear your words anew. It’s called active listening and it’s like being able to hear yourself in a mirror.
I help you to think about your situation from different angles. I ask questions, not because I want the detail of the issue like a friend would, but to help you think. To broaden the possibilities that maybe you’re closing down without realising it.
It’s not therapy but it can be therapeutic. The experience of talking to another person in a safe and confidential space can bring up emotions and issues lying beneath the surface. It’s your opportunity, if you want it, to look at what you’re avoiding, let in the light, so that you can move on in your life and work.
And there’s no judgment. We tell ourselves stories without realising it most of the time. I hear them and support you to see different options and possibilities. Coaching allows you to be vulnerable so that you can become stronger.
Coaching is a gift
‘I am clear what my purpose is and what I want to spend my time on next in my working life.’
You start the work just by arranging and turning up to the session. That’s the gift you’ve given yourself: the chance to be the best, the most resilient, the happiest that you can be and it starts by committing to the work.
I believe that my clients are creative, resourceful and whole: so much more able and brilliant than they believe. And coaching is this amazing ‘thing’ that enables them to truly embrace that.
‘I felt empowered and not weak by talking about issues I faced, and I could be really honest. I realized I had kept a lot of these feeling to myself, I had tried to process them on my own and the result was that I felt confused, conflicted and resigned to them , coaching has given me a place to untangle these thoughts and feelings… and now feel ready to push myself forward for opportunities that I want.’
