Coaching

Working dynamically in the present, taking account of the past, and responding to the ever present possibility for change.

I work primarily as a coach, informed by my experience and training as a counsellor.

Counselling and Coaching are sometimes seen on a continuum, with counselling addressing pain or problems from the past or present situation, and coaching taking a proactive approach focusing more on the present and the future. There is certainly a place for working specifically at either end of this continuum with differently trained professionals. A counsellor will usually offer you weekly sessions and enable you to focus more deeply on your past experience and on finding a sense of present stability. At the other end of the continuum a performance or business coach may focus very specifically on work goals and may meet with you every 6 weeks or so.

My experience has shown that if there is sufficient stability in place it can be useful to work in a way that recognises a dynamic interplay between a forward focus and the assumptions and patterns from the past that sometimes hold us back. We might use the analogy of a river to hold the idea of an integrated approach. There may be faster central channels where there is dynamism, energy and excitement. There may be hidden depths, where the water is flowing very slowly. In other areas debris builds up and creates blockages that perhaps tend towards the stagnant. People contain similar differences in depth and pace, informed by the past, influenced by present challenges and holding future aspirations. I offer a 30 minute consultation, without charge, to help us ascertain whether an integrated approach might be suitable for you or whether counselling with another professional would be a better option.

Personal Coaching - how will we work together?

We start from a place of coaching, beginning to name where you want to be in yourself or in your work and life. Exploring your values and strengths brings a renewed sense of the resources you already have and may not be recognising or have forgotten. In exploring ways forward we are likely to encounter what may need to be rebalanced in thinking, feelings or habits to enable you to find more equanimity and confidence.

We are likely to discover internal patterns which may have been useful once but are now holding you back. These internal responses may have been with you for a long time, or you may have been affected more recently by difficult personal circumstances or a stressful work situation or relationship.   

Time to Think

Time to think for, and as, ourselves enables us to find and remove the untrue limiting assumptions, replacing them instead with true and liberating assumptions that carry the change that we are looking for forward with much greater momentum and freedom. I am trained to create the best conditions for independent thinking and to help to you unblock previously buried or intractable untrue limiting assumptions. This is a very equalising empowering and liberating process.

Working with our nervous system to support our confidence, flexibility and connection with others.

Our nervous systems are working to keep us safe, but may have some patterns of reaction that are moving us into mobilised defensiveness or into defensive collapse too quickly or unnecessarily. Our ‘story’ in any given moment tends to follow from the ‘state’ we are in. Our work together can involve a series of mapping exercises, developed by therapist Deb Dana providing the insight and strategies needed to spend more time in ease and flow, the “ventral” part of our nervous system, rather than in anxiety, agitation, or disconnection.

My guiding principle is that the ultimate solutions can be found within each person. Working together in a respectful reflective space, with the use of some creative tools, can lead to psychological and emotional insight, and the creation of fresh habits

Leadership Coaching - what does this involve?

The focus of Executive or Leadership Coaching is on the professional self, working with issues such as strategic direction, confidence, flexibility, innovation, communication, building and motivating teams, problem solving, stress reduction, authenticity, and making decisions.

I will support you to:

• Clarify your vision as a leader

• Increase your awareness of your strengths and explore how you may be limiting your abilities and options

• Act authentically from a place of grounded self-awareness

• Engage with those you support to enable them to inform and deliver the vision for the work

• Be creative in experimenting with positive actions, to develop your confidence and your ability to communicate powerfully and effectively

• Take the action you need to maintain your insight, vision, resilience and confidence

The coaching contract also takes in the needs of the organisation and aims to support your motivation and ability to succeed in the business goals, which in the best-case scenario finds a fit with your own personal aspirations and ambitions.

Psychometric exploration:

As a qualified Myers Briggs Type Indicator MBTI® Step 1 practitioner, I am available to facilitate an assessment to enable you to identify your personality profile. The MBTI tool can help you to improve working relationships, develop your leadership style, make use of problem solving strategies, help manage change and understand your own and others reactions to stress.

Testimonials for all my coaching work can be found here

Practicalities

I will clearly contract with you for the particular work that you would like to do, supporting you to make an informed choice about the approach we take and the processes and tools that we might use.

Coaching sessions take place either online, or at locations jointly agreed, which are free from interruption or distraction, or out walking in nature.

Session times are usually one hour scheduled on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between the hours of 8-6pm. We will usually meet monthly, though at times we may work more frequently, for example in preparation for a specific challenge or opportunity.

Please contact me if you would like to schedule a free 30 minute consultation so that we can discover whether working together could be useful to you.