| reading time – 3 mins |

For those of you who have never been coached before, I thought I’d put together a sort of “anatomy of a coaching session”. I know it’s hard to understand the tangible benefits of what essentially boils down to a conversation between two people. And I was the same – until I got coached myself, I didn’t understand the value or the magic either (I just knew it worked!)

So what actually happens?

Before your first session, you’ll probably fill out a few questions, which will give your coach an idea of what you want to work on and why, and where you might stop yourself from achieving your goals. Then you’ll have your first coaching session. It’ll probably take place via phone or Zoom (similar to Skype), and is likely to be around 45 -60 minutes long.

With my own clients, I like to spend the first session delving deep into the core values of who you are as a person and finding out what is important to you.

Knowing your values helps us understand what drives you, what you enjoy, what inspires you and what you’d like more of. By building a life and lifestyle around our values, we can create a life that is satisfying and meaningful to us.

In the second session, we look at creating a number of short, medium and long term goals, which align with those values.

This is where understanding your core values is so important – they are the inescapable principles that steer our lives. When we strive towards goals that are in alignment with our core values, life is great, we’re happy and fulfilled, everything is just as it should be! But when one or more of our core values is being suppressed, that’s when we experience those moments of frustration and of being held back.

In subsequent sessions I like to go wherever your priorities are, based around the initial set of goals we created together. We’ll discuss the goal that we’re working towards and understand how reaching that goal will benefit your life. This helps get your motivation flowing! Then we usually talk about what’s going on right now, what’s working and not working, and where you might be holding yourself back. The next part of the conversation is a bit like brainstorming. We can deal with resource issues, time management issues, any fears you might have, and get your mind into a good place to get some momentum going, where there may not have been any progress for quite some time! Lastly, you’ll pick one or more actions that you commit to carrying out over the next few days, weeks or months. I may or may not give you an extra challenge to stretch you that little bit further!

Our coaching sessions will give you clarity and time to focus on your priorities. Our conversations will help open your mind up to what is possible – new opportunities -instead of being stuck in the same patterns of work or behaviour. Knowing that someone supports you, is rooting for you, BELIEVES in you and is challenging you to do what you said you were going to do is incredibly powerful!

What my clients say

“Admitting to someone, other than myself, that I am a perfectionist has been really valuable today – just to be able say it out loud, without judgement was really freeing!”

“Being able to focus on one thing, for a whole hour, and talk it through with you – it’s like talking to a mate over coffee – but you give so much extra!”

“This isn’t as hard as I thought it would be! I’m so excited to get going, now I’ve got some ordered focus.”

“You really got me thinking in a different way, and given me so much food for thought.”

“I’ve been worrying about this but talking to you makes me realise that I know what to do – you’ve given me self-belief that it IS possible.”