Coaching Terminology Explained
– intention
I use the term “setting an intention” to refer to a client’s goal or objective. Not only does this encompass you gaining clarity around the challenge that you face and what you want to achieve through coaching. But also, this term takes into account the reality that the challenge and the vision of what can be achieved organically morphs as you make progress. Horizons open and extend. Setting an intention thus enables us to respond fluidly to this natural occurrence as this gives us greater flexibility and broader horizons to work with. Also, there is no need to attach a punishing deadline to an intention because of its organic, evolutionary nature. In my experience, transformation occurs intuitively and often more rapidly without the pressure of concrete goals or deadlines.
– body knowledge
In the coaching that I offer I work with the energy in the physical body. Each of us has a unique way of being physically in our bodies that influences the way we experience the world and interact with people, tasks and concepts. Our bodies regulate the energy we bring to different activities and how we communicate what we are passionate about. The body has an impact on how each of us responds to challenges and how we work with others.
Through coaching with me, you will explore different types of physical energy. You will learn how to recognise the energies that you operate from regularly and how to channel these effectively so you can achieve what you would like with greater ease, clarity and grace. We will also look at energies that you call upon less. By unleashing the immense storehouse of potential that you have within you, you will be able to step into your personal power, gain clarity about your purpose and smoothly realise the transformation that you are seeking.
How does it work?
The type of coaching I offer is influenced by my training with Oneofmany.co.uk. It is based on the power of questions and challenges to beliefs and assumptions, which have resulted in the individual or group of people having become stuck in a reactionary cycle or culture.
There is a further psychoanalytic element derived from the work of Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung. In his work, Jung discussed archetypes, these are transcultural figures/characters that have a set of behavioural characteristics that we can all agree on eg. the healer, the warrior/ess.
During the coaching programme, we will work with embodying the energies of different archetypes. The archetypes also have shadow sides and can create feelings of disempowerment and an imbalance in interpersonal communication, if they are under- or over-expressed.
In my coaching, I use a profiling tool inspired by the profiling tool created by Oneofmany.co.uk. This helps you to understand how you are currently accessing the five archetypes whose energies we will examine in further detail during the programme. The profiling tool reveals strengths and growth areas to work on.
Session Format
Once you decide to book a programme with me, I will send you a coaching agreement form. This explains the format or the sessions and sets some ground rules around the expectations of the coaching programme. We will discuss this in the first session to check we are in agreement before beginning the programme.
The sessions introduce a variety of exercises to raise awareness and change thought and behavioural patterns and interpersonal dynamics. Through using these, you will start to see yourself and your choices differently. Through becoming empowered, you will gain clarity on your purpose and become more effective in your communication and collaboration with others.
Individual coaching provides the time and space for you, the client, to work at your pace. In one-to-one coaching sessions, the programme is designed around your intentions – the challenge or issue that you would like to work on. However, there is flexibility with the programme to accommodate new questions or challenges as they arise. In each session, you and I agree and set the agenda with the big picture in mind but also with attention to the energy and perspective that you bring to each individual session. The result is an individually tailored programme that directly responds to the challenges that you bring.
Group coaching is a way of working with individuals in order to support them in making changes not only on the personal level but also in terms of a shift in group perspective on a shared challenge and/or a change in the culture of an organisation or an institution.
The aim of group coaching is what Hargrove, a human development theorist, describes as triple loop learning, “triple loop learning creates fundamental changes in the way people are – it leads to transformation” (Hargrove, 2003). “Although triple loop learning involves high levels of ambiguity, uncertainty, and willingness to fail, such vulnerability is balanced by the positive energy created within the group as new directions and possibilities emerge from the group process” (Brown and Grant, 2010).
At the start of the programme, I lead the group in establishing a confidentiality and safety agreement to ensure that members respect each other’s points of view and that you feel safe and comfortable to express your opinions in the group. This includes setting boundaries about what you will communicate to external people, in real time or online, about what happens in the group. In the first session, we will agree the agenda for the programme, which comprises exploring both personal and group intentions. In subsequent sessions, we will collaboratively establish an action plan according to emerging issues bearing your personal and group intentions in mind. Sessions involve the use of questioning, exercises and learning of new tools to challenge individual and group mind-set(s) to enable the emergence of new perspectives, which foster change and growth. Group members also share their reactions to other group member’s opinions. This enables communication divergences to be tackled allowing the group to find an action plan and a way forward together.