The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
As a coach, my job is primarily to listen, and through a dialogue with you to facilitate your creativity, allowing you to solve your own problems and make the changes you want to make to live life the way you want to live it. The process of coaching involves two main aspects:
- Listening carefully and in a non-judgmental way to your thoughts and feelings as they occur in the coaching session, summarizing and echoing them back to you and helping you to clarify them
- Asking questions that may evoke new awareness of your current situation and possible future actions you can take
I practise a style of coaching embodied in the ICF “Core Competencies”, which is non-directive. This meaning that I won’t suggest that you should think about things in a certain way or should do certain things, but that I will try to help you to think and act for yourself.
This kind of coaching is not about me providing answers. It’s about supporting you to find your way to the answers you already have or can come up with. I may from time to time suggest exercises or point you to resources you may find helpful, but it is entirely up to you whether you act on them.
I have a Diploma in Integrative Coaching on an ICF-approved program and a Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy awarded by the University of the West of Scotland. I have also studied Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These disciplines embody ideas which I am able to bring to our coaching partnership.
Whilst there are considerable similarities between therapy, counselling and coaching, there is a fundamental difference in that coaching does not presuppose you have an illness or a problem. Indeed, should it be apparent in our sessions that you are suffering mental distress to an extent that coaching is not appropriate for you, I will refer you or assist you in finding a therapist who is suitably qualified to help.
Coaching can be transformative for some people, enabling them to make major changes to their lives. Typically, people who have had coaching report it has helped them to:
- Define their goals and the steps to achieving them
- Live more in accordance with their personal values
- Increase self-confidence and self-reliance
Research has shown that people are more able to make effective change by being guided towards their own goals, values and solutions (“positive emotional attractor” or “PEA”) as opposed to being told what they should do (“negative emotional attractor”). This style of coaching can seem alien at first, but is backed up by evidence from neuroscience which has compared different approaches. People being coached report that “PEA” approach means they feel less stressed and judged in the coaching process and more inspired to make changes in their lives.