How does coaching work?
Coaching is your chance to work through issues in a supportive, safe, non-judgmental environment and find solutions to move you forward in a purely positive way.
It involves a 45-60 minute session once a week or fortnight with some action points to work on between sessions. Sessions are usually done over the phone, or face-to-face if possible.
During the sessions, we will focus on whatever is important for you to work on at that time, always bearing in mind the big objectives that you will have identified at the outset. Before the first session – you will have completed an overview of where you are now in various aspects of your life and have started to think about what you would like to have happen in those areas. Many people find this exercise in itself incredibly helpful.
Coaching itself involves simply asking a lot of questions and making you think longer and harder about things in a different way that you will have done before. It is based on the knowledge that you have all the answers within you – and they just need to be ‘coached’ out.
The beauty of having an expert to guide your thought process is that I can pick up important language and themes in what you say – and also challenge you if there is a lack of clarity or confusion. It is often quite enlightening (and sometimes alarming!) to hear what you have said played back to you by someone who is truly listening.
There is no ‘standard’ amount of time for a coaching relationship to last. Some people achieve everything they set out to achieve in a month or two and for some people, we have our sessions over a period of a year or more. However, after several months, clients are often happy to reduce their sessions to one a month.
Coaching is all about taking responsibility for your own outcomes and improving your self-awareness. In becoming more self-aware, you will be able to track your own progress and notice more and more the incremental improvements to your life and your outlook – to your ability to better handle situations and emotions.
It involves commitment, and some effort! But noone has ever said to me that it wasn’t worth it!