What is Coaching?

Coaching is a special kind of conversation with someone trained to listen at a deep level, reflect what they see or hear without judgment, agenda, or hierarchy, ask insight-provoking questions, and help us navigate internal obstacles that get in our way.

Coaching is not psychotherapy meant to deal with highly acute, traumatic, mental health crises (although it does very often have therapeutic effects). It is not consulting or mentoring (which is more about giving advice based on technical expertise or personal experience). However, it can (and often does) work beautifully in tandem with one or all of these other disciplines. A coach does not tell you how to live your life or what exactly to do (though your coach may co-brainstorm with you, drawing on your wisdom).

The best coaches in the world do not coach the problem. They coach the person. The whole person. They help change the client’s relationship to the problem. They trust the client to be creative, resourceful, and whole. They empower the client to understand, accept, see clearly, move through, or act skillfully upon his/her problem in new, creative ways. Learn more here.

How will coaching help me?

Coaching helps us live the fullest life possible, whatever that looks like for each of us, no matter our external circumstances. At any given time, we each face any number of challenges, including:

• Health: healing from (or coming to terms with) acute, chronic or terminal illness;
• Money & Career: achieving financial stability, prosperity, freedom on our own terms as well as meaning, purpose and impact in our outer role in society (whether paid or volunteer)
• Daily Work & Home Life: managing the daily grind of work, family, and other tasks and relationships with equanimity and effectiveness;
• Relationships: finding and nurturing deep, unconditional love and connection; beginning, ending, or changing a relationship with a partner, child, colleague, or animal; deepening our connection with ourselves or nature, or Spirit;
• Transitions (professional or personal): planning for, processing, and making the most out of major identity changes in ourselves or others, whether employment and career, geographic moves, or physical abilities, including aging and dying;
• Leadership, Communication, Creativity: Manifesting the ideas and visions inside of us by articulating them and inspiring others to help us build something new and real in the outside world, whether a family, an organization, or a social cause;
• Wisdom, Understanding, Self-knowledge: Establishing ourselves in deep inner presence and peace that transcends words and enables the unfolding and realization of our true Self.

Coaching helps us get out of our own heads by talking to someone who is specially trained to listen and ask powerful questions that help us see our lives from new perspectives and to act from a place of alignment with our deepest values. Without anything or anyone in our external world necessarily changing, we first change internally. We see new possibilities. We begin to see clearly, understand, and feel differently about a situation. We can then take action or make a better decision. Things that used to feel scary, hard, or impossible lose their hold on us or even begin to energize us. We change inside, and our lives begin to change outside. Perhaps this is why many first-time coaching clients say that coaching feels like “magic”.

Why all the buzz about coaching?

Thirty years ago, coaching was a nascent, poorly understood discipline. Today, it is well-established with rigorous international licensing and quality standards but also diverse ideas and practices from around the world and from a range of disciplines including: neuroscience and psychology; psycho-somatic and contemplative practices; personal development and leadership; and ancient wisdom and spiritual traditions. Coaching is now widely accepted as a powerful approach to understanding and managing ourselves and others. It is taught in the world’s best universities, expected of high performing leaders in organizations of all kinds around the world, and one of the fastest growing, most sought after professions.