I wonder: What is Coaching?
What is Coaching?
Coaching is a powerful, conscious partnership between two people, a coach and a coach partner (elsewhere typically referred to as "client"), to engage in a journey of exploration, discovery, and aligned action. The coach partner is the driver of this journey and brings their goals, needs, and agendas to the process. The journey is about the coach partner, where they want to go, and who they are becoming. The coach works alongside the coach partner to support and facilitate their journey in ways that invite the coach partner into deep discovery, expansive possibilities, and accountability to themselves.
Coaches are not...
Diagnosers - we're not here to tell you what's wrong with you
Assessors - we're not here to tell you whether or not you're doing a good job
Fixers - we're not here to save you or "make you better"
Coaches are...
Partners - we don't lead our coach partners where we think they need to go, we move alongside them as they discover and traverse their pathway themselves
Observers - we serve as mirrors to our coach partners and witness their powerful journeys as begin to they see themselves more fully and clearly
Facilitators - we hold non-judgmental space and bring coaching tools as resources to our coach partners as they shape their own coaching experiences
Through coaching, people experience...
Awareness of their holistic experience - mind, body, and spirit
Increased clarity and depth of understanding of themselves, their identities, and what matters to them
Feelings of being well-resourced and equipped to take on challenges
Stronger alignment between their internal experience and outer actions
More ease in moving toward goals, achieving milestones, and creating the life they deeply want
Some Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different types of coaching?
There are so many different terms used around coaching: life coach, career coach, leadership coach, executive coach...the list goes on! Some coaches focus on particular types of goals (e.g. career coaches support people in identifying and accessing different career paths), and some coaches focus on working with particular types of people (e.g. executive coaches work with senior leaders in organizations). There are also coaches that have specific specialty areas that involve deep technical expertise (e.g. fundraising coaches, financial coaches, etc.). Language is always evolving, so it’s a good idea to focus less on finding a coach based on this very specific terminology and more on how coaches describe their approach and who they work with.
What's the difference between what I'd talk about with a coach vs. what I'd talk to my therapist about?
You might actually talk to a coach and therapist about similar topics, but the key differences are in the approach they may take and the type of support they are trained to provide. Coaches often tend to be more oriented to the present and future, and therapists more oriented to the past and present. For example, if someone is experiencing feelings of stress and overwhelm at work…
A coach might focus on bringing awareness to those feelings to deepen understanding, supporting the coach partner to come into alignment between their inner and outer experiences around those feelings, and determining action that can be taken from that place of alignment.
A therapist might focus more on exploring the roots and origins of those feelings and reflecting on the impact they are having for the client today.
This is a very broad generalization, and of course this varies based on the type of therapy practiced, the training of the therapist/coach, as well as the personalized approach and style of the therapist/coach. Beyond this difference in orientation, the other main distinction between therapist and coach is that therapists are trained to offer diagnoses and treatment of mental health conditions and coaches are not. While coaches offer tools and practices that support folks in navigating challenging feelings and experiences, coaching certification programs do not train coaches in mental health interventions. Instead, coaches make referrals to trained mental health professionals if/when coach partners are indicating a need for that type of support and can work in partnership with therapists to ensure the safety and well-being of the coach partner is centered and properly supported.
As a coach, I also bring in practices from my training as a social worker, yoga teacher and mindfulness meditation practitioner to support my coach partners. My past experiences offering mental health services and working with my own therapists inform my understanding of how and when therapy may serve coach partners more effectively than I as a coach am able to at a given time.
Do I have to have a certain type of job title or level of seniority to work with a coach?
Absolutely not! Any person can work with a coach, regardless of their professional experience. Coaches are often used by folks in executive level positions at corporations and nonprofit organizations because coaching has become a normalized support for senior leaders and because coaching can often be expensive. However, the coaching approach and process is one that can work well for anyone who is interested in engaging in it. I offer sliding scale coaching services as a way to minimize the financial barrier to coaching that exists for many people and to broaden the scope of who and what coaching can be for.
What would I even work with a coach on?
The possibilities are endless! Maybe something is feeling off and out of alignment in one or more areas of your life and you're wanting to address that feeling. Perhaps there are ideas or aspects of your identity and life that you'd like to explore more. Or maybe you have a goal in your life that you'd like support and push taking action toward. It's even possible that you're not quite sure what you'd do with the support of a coach yet, but something about this is calling to you. Sometimes we know something in our gut before we have the words for it — trust your intuition and explore it! You can schedule a free exploratory call with me if you'd like to chat about what your potential coaching journey could look like.