Coaching is a personal development approach used to help individuals and groups access their innate intelligence to solve issues and achieve desired outcomes in a range of life areas.
Coaching can benefit a range of individuals. The most commonly known about coach is a sports coach helping an individual or team improve performance. Coaching has also facilitated significant benefits within business, allowing high performing executives to brain storm and problem solved with a neutral person from outside of the organisation. Other areas of coaching are life coaching - to holistically assess your life path and choices, career coaching - to determine a career path, health coaching - to manage or address a health issue, business coaching - to improve business performance and relationship coaching - to help find a relationship or improve or end and existing one. I have also heard of divorce coaching, grief coaching and creative writing coaching.
Coaching is therefore not so much about the topic, but a vehicle through which clarity of goals is ascertained and a plan is put into action on how those goals may be achieved. The coach usually asks questions and the coachee(s) (the person being coached) will access their inner resources to answer the questions. The power in this relationship is being supported by an external person that does not have the same limiting beliefs or social conditioning that may be holding the coachee back.
What to expect
When choosing to embark on a coaching relationship you can expect the coach to behave professionally, be clear in the limits of their expertise and believe in your limitless potential. For some this may be a stark contrast to their home or work environment allowing new ideas to be explored and new avenues to be investigated.
A coaching agreement may be created prior to the coaching starting, either through a written or electronic agreement that is signed and/or a verbal agreement at the beginning of the coaching relationship that outlines the parameters, codes of conduct and expectations. This lays a framework for the coach and coachee to work together safe in the knowing the session is confidential, will stay on topic, will not stray into therapy unless that is appropriate and agreed upon and will be kept within the times agreed.
With this framework agreed, the next stage will be getting to know the reason for the coaching and what outcomes the coachee is aiming for. This part aids clarity and refines the vision, or in some cases allows for a vision to be created. Oftentimes in being coached I have found that on deeper exploration I have wanted something entirely different to what I thought I wanted, and this part of the process helps to get clear on that.
Next the coach will look at what is already in place, what isn't in place that could be and what limitations there are to the desired outcome. By working through these strategically, the coaching partnership can build up an awareness of what action points are required such as allocating more time to a particular activity, learning a new skill or doing some research into a topic to gain a deeper insight.
I am a health and wellbeing coach primarily, so for me this would be looking at what practices are already in place to support wellbeing e.g. adequate sleep, exercise, time with friends and what activities could be added to improve on the current approach such as a daily meditation practice, journaling and mindful breathing.
I would also listen to a coachee's sticking points, such as a fear of being seen, low energy, cultural conditioning or lack of role model and create opportunities for these topics to be explored in greater detail.
Where people find themselves in constant overwhelm and exhaustion I recommend Reiki. This gentle balancing and healing technique helps people come away from the stress response of fight, flight or freeze back to a much more balanced and resourceful state of calm. Here they will feel better and be able to think more rationally.
For those that find themselves overthinking creating stress-based health conditions and/or paralysis on moving forwards I recommend meditation. Meditation helps us take back our full mental abilities by learning to let go of the thousands of thoughts we have each day leaving still, silent awareness. Once we have gained clarity we will be less affected by limiting thoughts and beliefs and much more connected to our instincts and intuition.
For those that are stuck on a past memory or have a health condition that is causing performance issues, I recommend Mind Detox. Mind Detox is a talk therapy that finds the cause of our physical and emotional behaviours so that we may heal our past and enjoy the freedom of the present moment. This approach is great for specific issues such as phobias, relationship issues, toxic beliefs and behaviours with no apparent cause.
Flexible approach
As a practitioner trained in each of these modalities I can work with you in a way that suits your personality, present moment needs and longer term objectives.
For example, if you wanted to have more joy in your life (often presented as dealing with depression) we may explore the want behind that need, what a successful outcome would look, feel and sound like and how we would know we have achieved success. We would then look at what current approaches you are already doing that align with that goal, and what behaviours you may wish to implement to be more successful.
Part way through that investigation we may discover that you were chastised as a child for being too exuberant, so we may choose to Mind Detox that memory so we can overwrite your automatic neural responses to be more positive and allowing of joy.
In another session we may discover that you are constantly worrying about what other people think of you. In this instance we may learn the basics of meditation to be able to see that mind chatter, but not engage with it. In time, those thoughts would naturally fade allowing you to experience the joy of the present moment.
Finally, you may say that some of depression/loss of joy comes from chronic inflammation, which means you experience daily pain. In this instance I would recommend Reiki to calm and sooth the body, whilst encouraging you consult a nutritionist that specialises in this topic.
This holistic approach allows us to tackle the issue from many angles allowing a greater chance of success. Throughout the sessions I will constantly monitoring and refining the approach to meet your needs, providing you with the tools and support to make a difference in your life.
The coaching arrangement comes to an end either when you agree your objectives have been met and you have the resources you need to move forwards and implement your plan or that you decide you no longer wish to have support. For small issues a one off session may suffice with bigger issues requiring a longer commitment.
Any clients interested in receiving coaching to achieve an outcome or goal are encouraged to book a free Discovery Call to see if I am the right coach for you and you like my approach.
I have also recently introduced a Reiki & Coaching product for those that wish to enjoy both in a session to achieve a spiritual or health goal.
Whatever your choice, I can attest to the power of coaching as it was coaching that helped me to:
Be in my current relationship
Recover from Chronic Fatigue
Know I was spiritual and wanted train in health and wellbeing
Set up and establish my business
Create the Peace Project (this one surprised me)
Leave a toxic relationship.
And many other things besides!
Should I be able to support you, I would love to help your dreams become reality too.
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Becci is a registered member with the Association For Coaching, and as attends ongoing professional development and bides by their codes of ethics and conduct.
