What is coaching?
Coaching can be seen as the yang to the yin of therapy. With two distinct approaches to personal development, each offers unique benefits. The focus of therapy is often the reprocessing of trauma - working on how the past is affecting the present. Using a different tool kit, coaching is focused on how the present is creating the future. While anything is welcome to come up in a coaching session, it is generally more future-oriented, emphasising goal-setting, motivation, personal growth, developing strategies to achieve specific objectives or making positive life changes. Coaches facilitate the empowerment of their clients to identify their strengths, setting clear goals, and developing actionable plans for success. A coach may help clients set and achieve personal or professional goals, develop coping strategies for stress management, enhance communication skills, and building resilience through personalised strategies. The coaching tool kit can be applied to any issue, for example - career, business, relationships, grief, addiction, sobriety. The coach asks questions with curiosity to understand the situation and the goal of the session to assist you in exploring and reality testing. The tool kit is flexible to whatever arises.
A coach never gives advice. Anyone who does so is a mentor or a consultant. The truth of your reality and the answers you seek are subjective, they can only be accessed by you. The coach facilitates the space which allows the client to sink deep into their consciousness to do so. Empowerment comes in discovering the truth for oneself. There is a common misconception that anyone can become a psychological coach without certified training. Accredited coaches have completed training programs ratified by internationally renowned organisations such as the International Coach Federation (ICF). Such qualifications equip us with knowledge regarding competantly and ethically working with human behaviour, cognition, and emotions using coaching techniques to support clients effectively. We also work with more experienced coaches for ongoing professional development.
Coaching utilises evidence-based techniques from cognitive-behavioural approaches, mindfulness practices, positive psychology and other researched methods to help clients reach their full potential. Goal setting can be critical element, depending on the clients needs. Research has shown that setting clear and attainable goals can lead to improved motivation and performance. Coaches help set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Cognitive restructuring is a technique from cognitive-behavioural therapy which involves identifying and challenging negative thought patterns. Using the reframing of unhelpful or outdated thought patterns, we can shift to more constructive and empowered perspectives. Positive psychology emphasises the identification and utilisation of individual strengths for personal growth. Coaches might use assessments like the VIA Survey of Character Strengths to help clients recognise their signature strengths. Coaches often utilise behaviour change theories such as the transtheoretical model or self-determination theory to support clients in making sustainable lifestyle changes. Drawing from resilience research, coaches can assist individuals in developing skills like problem-solving abilities, flexibility, self-regulation, and social support networks to better cope with life challenges.
These evidence-based techniques are tailored based to a clients’ specific needs and goals while being supported by scientific research within the field of psychology. Ultimately, coaching works to empower individuals through utilising proven methods to enhance mental well-being and achieve personal growth. Active listening is a fundamental tool in coaching. It is a key to facilitating the space where transformation can occur. When we are listened to completely with non-judgement, we can drop to deeper levels of awareness within ourselves. The coach asks questions with curiosity to gain a deeper understanding of the client and their goal. They paraphrase the main points to ensure clarity. They assist your process by examining from reframed angles to assist in uncovering underlying patterns to open up new awareness.
Each session is tailored to your specific needs with the coaching toolkit, supported by scientific research within the field of psychology. Discover the power of goal setting, cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, strengths-based approaches, behaviour change techniques, and resilience building strategies to elevate your well-being to align with your highest self.
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What happens in a session?
At the beginning of the first session the coach will make sure the client has the correct understanding of the process. The most common misconception is that a coach gives advice - that would be a mentor or consultant. The coach knows with absolute certainty the client holds the answer and does not interfere with the process - they facilitate discovery.
The coach will then review their confidentiality agreement. Everything in your session related to you and your identity is kept in strict confidence. The only extremely rare case that would be shared would be with the prospect of serious harm coming to the client or someone they have spoken of. In which case the coach is obligated by ethical guidelines to intervene.
The client sets the goal for every session. This acts an an anchor or a lighthouse to refer back to. The most pressing issue the client is dealing with in their lives will naturally arise if they are open to processing it, even if they are not consciously aware of it. If you have several goals or issues you would like to explore, you may be able to see a theme which unites them all to focus on.
With active listening, the coach is in an almost meditative state. As we listen with every part of us. An important question may arise, we let it and any thoughts come and go, staying in the moment with our client. An important part of listening is knowing when in silence the client is accessing a deeper part of themselves or level of consciousness. This gives space for knowledge and answers we have not been able to access by ourselves or in regular conversation to rise to the surface. When I experienced coaching as a client, I was given the time and space to find words for feelings I had not named before which deepened my understanding of blocks I experience in my own life.
The coach will paraphrase the clients main points to ensure understanding. The client can clarify further if necessary. The coach asks powerful questions to explore what actions will be necessary for the goal to be achieved outside sessions and assess where the client is in their process. Importantly, they will explore the achievability of the goal through reality testing any obstacles. Together in this co-creative process, the coach asks questions for the client to dismantle any perceived or tangible blocks to achieving their goal or enhancing an area of their life. The client will identify the steps they will need to take and specify a time frame for doing so. This is taste of what can occur in the process.
If you would like to arrange a complimentary discovery or chemistry call to experience it for yourself, please find the contact information below,
What makes you a coach?
On a personal mission to gain a deeper understanding of addiction, sobriety, grief, eating disorders, complex family dynamics, complex PTSD and a trauma informed approach to understanding the human condition. I gained an internationally accredited qualification in coaching. I am very interested in the somatic - mind / body connection - approach to allowing the wisdom to flow from our essential self. Our social self (ego) keeps us functioning in this world, while out essential or higher self is our eternal essence. A coach is not a perfect person who will teach you how to do the same. I have been trained in the methodology of transformation through coaching which I practice daily. I have always been a student of transformation. Beginning with studying philosophy at school and throughout my BA. of Political Science, Sociology and Philosophy, it trained me in the art of critical thinking. It kept my mental health on the rails during tumultuous teenage years bookmarked by tragedies. As a highly sensitive person, elevated levels of empathy brought me to study an MA in Community Development. During which I worked with the refugees and asylum seekers in my home city, Galway. I have an affinity with disenfranchised people and wish to make my contribution to society. I am currently studying an MSc of Psychology. Please see the about section if you would like to learn more.
A coach is someone who has studied the tool kit of this strand of psychology which I see as - transformation. A huge part of my training was a deep awakening regarding the amount of judgements, assumptions and projections we can make in every interaction when unaware this is a default of the human condition. A client could be the same demographic as the coach and presenting with the same issues they themselves have experiences, the coach always remains impartial following the coaching principles and ethics.
As well as the listening technique, my favourite part of coaching, is that the coach never gives advice. They facilitate the client in empowering themselves to access their own answers. I can help you examine your goals by asking questions to explore the reality as well as assisting you in widening your focus to allow for options you may not have considered to come into view. A coach is a facilitator, not an instructor. I arrive to every session as a blank canvas, my personal experience informs my ability to have empathy and compassion as well as constructing powerful questions for the client to access answers from their most authentic self.
I am also a Detoxification Specialist. I have kept information regarding this on a separate page. As coaching and detox can go together or not depending on your needs. If you have any questions about the coaching or detoxification process, would like to arrange a complimentary discovery / call or an appointment - please find contact details below.
If you would like to arrange an appointment or
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