What is Transformative Life Coaching and Why Does It Work?
Coaching is a collaborative learning journey and a relationship that helps people make positive, necessary and desired changes in their lives, over a relatively short period of time, through deep, powerful and meaningful coaching conversations that spark new insights, and that require new action for learning, growth and fulfilment to be realized.
At its core, coaching is about helping people discover who they really are, what they really want in life and how they can go about achieving it in the most authentic and personal way. To be authentic is to be ‘yourself’– not anyone else’s version of who you should be – not even your own made up version of the person you think you need to be.
You will become ever more aware of your unique, natural strengths, your personal values and ways of being in which you feel confident, at ease, enthusiastic, content and gratified. You will also become aware of the opposite – ways of being and thinking that almost always lead you to feeling ‘less than perfect’, unhappy, anxious, angry or frustrated, including how you may self sabotage and get in your own way due to unconscious fears and limiting beliefs.
“Coaching expands your awareness of who you really are and what you deeply desire, need, and value so you can make more intentional and confident choices that bring you the most personal satisfaction and meaningful fulfilment.”
Over time coaching will help you will experience major shifts in perspective or mindset – you may know these as ‘breakthroughs’ or ‘eureka moments’. Each breakthrough can remove or replace a way of thinking or being that was limiting your potential for happiness (limiting thoughts, beliefs and behaviour patterns) and open up new possibilities for you. You will learn to make more effective decisions in your life (both big and small) by trusting yourself and taking the actions or steps that bring you closer to your desires and doing them in ways that bring the most fulfilment in the present.
What Does A Coaching Session Look Like?
A coaching session looks like a conversation but its no ordinary conversation. At the start of each session we’ll ground and center ourselves, so as to tune out the noise of a busy or worried mind, and we’ll tune in to the more coherent and calm coaching vibe. Then we’ll define the agenda or focus of the session and what you wish to get out of it (your outcome).
In each session, you will be doing a majority of the talking. My job is to listen deeply for what you say and don’t say, to sense your energy, and very importantly, to intuitively ask you questions that will help bring you the insight/s you are looking for to help you move forward.
The questions continue, along with non-judgmental feedback, acknowledgements of your strengths, encouragement and when you are ready, new options and possibilities (choices) will reveal themselves to you. Then it’s up to you, with my full hearted support, to commit to your next step. Some sessions stay in the territory of insight and awareness for most of the session – especially at the beginning of a coaching engagement. While other sessions, as defined by you, focus on helping you commit and create ways to be accountable for your next step.
Each session concludes with a review of what you’re taking away so you can anchor the value you got. Also some homework or an inquiry to keep you in tune and on track is usually given in each session. In the next session we’ll check in to see where you’re at, what you’ve accomplished or didn’t (without judgment of course), and then decide again what you would like to focus on for that day.