What is coaching?
Coaching is a powerful, ongoing relationship that helps clients focus and realize their visions and goals. With a coach, you will get the tools and support to remove obstacles and facilitate change. The ICF (International Coach Federation) describes coaching as “…partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
What’s the difference between therapy and coaching?
Coaching is not therapy. You will find that coaching focuses on strategic planning, mindfulness and personal growth. Psychotherapy frequently focuses on solving problems you have today through analyzing your past and covers psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, phobia, trauma, destructive behaviors and addiction. Coaches regularly refer clients to psychotherapists and other mental health professionals for issues that are better suited to a therapeutic relationship.
Coaching is primarily learning and action-oriented, moving people toward the fulfillment of their life purpose, dreams, and goals. Coaching is focused on the present and the future, taking you from whatever point you are at currently and moving you forward. In coaching, there is a co-creator relationship between client and coach. The client is the expert on their life. Coaches work with motivated individuals who want to work in the present to achieve a better today and future through goal setting, follow-through and accountability.
What exactly does a coach do?
Coaches help clients articulate their visions and values, deepen their self-awareness and perspective, and expand their sense of possibility. A life coach is a motivator, strategist, and accountability partner. Coaches can help clients meet a specific goal or manifest a major change in life. As your life coach you can expect me to be an authentic, compassionate, honest and non-judgmental person who is looking out for your best interests, and has no ulterior motive except to see you succeed.
What are some reasons people hire a coach?
- To create a healthier, happier, and more meaningful life
- To plan a career move
- To foster resilience
- To address job “burnout”
- To embrace and develop your leadership qualities
- To build intentional community
- To navigate life’s many phases, transitions, and challenges
- To lead a change initiative in an organization or community
- To live life inline with values and dreams
- To make your present job more fulfilling
- To plan your life based on what matters most to you
- To get more organized
- To bring more joy into your every day life
- To create more balance in your life
- To focus your energy to finish or plan a project
- To increase your effectiveness as an executive, manger or fundraiser
- To work with your team to increase productivity and effectiveness
- To start a business
- To get motivated
- To manifest your creative pursuits (e.g. art, writing, music…)
- To access creativity more consistently
- To connect with your true purpose
- To befriend life’s obstacles and setbacks
- To cultivate a spiritual practice
Who do you coach?
I work with people motivated to meet a specific life goal, make a major change, find and fulfill their calling, live a balanced life with more joy, ease and meaning.
Some specific examples of categories of people I work with include:
- Mothers with young and/or school aged children
- Health and wellness professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses, physician assistants, therapists, healers, coaches, etc.)
- Young people—college, gap year, and career bound
- People with a social conscience and/or advancing social change
- Fundraisers
- People in the legal field (e.g. attorneys and paralegals)
- Non-profit organization leadership and staff
- People in the education field
- Mid life professionals
- Writers, musicians, artists, creative spirits
- Spiritual seekers and practitioners
How is coaching done?
Typically, individual coaching is done by telephone or in-person for 1-hour session each week or every other week. To help foster the changes you seek in your life, I ask for a minimum of a three-month commitment.
How important is cultural and diversity awareness in coaching?
Diversity and inclusion is often overlooked and undervalued in today’s world and can be a missing link in a person’s ability to fully embrace their present state and advance. Expanding cultural diversity awareness and making coaching available to people who may be the most vulnerable is important. In my work, I address power and privilege at the personal and systems level. I embrace a person’s diversity, cultural background and unique life experiences and draw from them as resources and guidance. I offer needs-based sliding scale rates to a portion of my clients so that coaching can be more accessible to all. I value empowering people with tools to effect lasting personal and social change.
What is a typical session like?
A fundamental element of coaching is self-responsibility. The client sets the agenda for the call or session and the coach follows the agenda. You can expect powerful and clarifying questions, focused and fine-tuned planning tools, and accountability. As your coach, I’ll have high expectations of you and support you completely.
Is hiring a coach worth the financial investment?
Your coaching fee is an investment in yourself. If you’re like most people, we seem to have enough money to spend on the things we really want or need but how about spending money on lasting change and personal fulfillment? If you’re concerned about spending the money and making informed decisions, then here are a few things you can do to optimize your coaching investment:
- Hire the right coach. Find the coach whose specialties best match your needs.
- During your first coaching session, set a 90-day goal that’s worth accomplishing. Make sure the goal is something that’s worth the coaching fee, something you’d be happy to pay for.
- Make the most of your coaching time. Tell your coach what results you want and your coach helps you make it happen.
How do I get started?
Call me or email me to arrange a complimentary 30 minute strategy session, and we’ll talk about whether coaching is right for you and what you hope to get out of it. If the partnership seems like a good match, and you decide you want to take the next step, we’ll get out our calendars and schedule your discovery session and future sessions. A couple of days later, I’ll email you a “Welcome to Coaching” package which includes some self-assessment and planning tools.
* FAQ’s are informed and adapted from writings by the International Coaching Federation, Leadership that Works Certification Program and Coaching for Transformation: Pathways to Ignite Personal and Social Change by Martha Lasley, Virginia Kellogg, Richard Michaels, and Sharon Brown.
