What Is Coaching?
Posted by Ross Nichols on Friday, October 26, 2018 Under: Coaching
In : Coaching
Tags: business career wellness wellbeing "therapeutic coaching" shadow dark
During a coaching session yesterday,
I was asked what I thought coaching was. The session was recorded (with mutual
consent) and the client transcribed my answer and emailed it back to me later.
I share it here as it feels appropriate.
For context my coaching style is 'Transpersonal': working with the client's
values, energy, vitality and spirit in an intuitive way. I coach for business,
career, wellness and cancer and I'm drawn to coaching with the client's shadow
side, which I've previously blogged about on my website (www.transitiontransformers.co.uk). I was coaching this client for business and
wellbeing.
It's a bit of a rant but here is what I said about coaching:
"Occasionally you get the 'a-ha' moments but actually I’m coming more and more to the conclusion that it’s just spending time talking about it [the client's issue] in this coaching way. This is the process. Talking and being listened to, feeling and experiencing emotions, blubbing them out, exploring them, wiping the tears away and then moving on. I coach a number of people who’ve got a pretty grim, tough back story, some a lot harsher than yours, a lot grimmer than yours. And it’s the same process, just being there for them, talking and listening. The reason I can do that is because I have been there, I’ve been to the dark side, I know what miserable is like, what despair is like, what no hope is like, and I figured it out. So if I can figure it out everybody else can. That gives me the confidence to walk with you, and metaphorically speaking hold your hand as we meet your shadow, meet your dark side, knowing that that’s enough, that’s all we need to do, we just need to get in there and say hello. Once you can see yourself you’ll figure it out. That’s all. But that is very important, that’s such a powerful process, and that’s how coaching is therapeutic without being therapy per se; and that’s why this is coaching and not counselling, but boy is it therapeutic."
In : Coaching