What’s coaching all about then?
If you’ve never had coaching before but are coaching-curious, let me shed some light onto a typical coaching session for you.
People come to see me for a variety of reasons, but mainly because there is an area of their life that they would like to feel better about. People often want to feel more confident, more motivated or less anxious.
I can coach you on-line, in person at my venue in Eastbourne, or in a walking-talking session which takes place in local beauty spots.
Jo booked for online coaching at the beginning of the pandemic because she was lacking in motivation. She was struggling with her two children being at home, which was becoming untidy and disorganised. She was finding it increasingly difficult to keep on top of things and found that doing anything for herself was at the bottom of her to-do list every day. She was feeling stressed and isolated.
We worked through layers of individual issues, from self-worth, identity, creating and maintaining routines, relationships with each of her children and other family members. We dealt with some past trauma which was affecting her behaviours around eating and self-worth. Each session included some therapeutic coaching combined with some practical activities that she could put into place and practice between sessions. When the time came for her to return to work, we worked through her anxieties about going back into her work-place, equipping her with emotional control measures and practical tools that she could use to get through the different parts of her days that she had concerns over. I provided on-the-day support and checked in with her after her first day to see how things had gone.
Jo said recently that she didn’t know how she would have got through lock-down without me. Although some of her doubts return occasionally, she knows what she needs to do to stop them in their tracks and get back in control.
As a coach, I care about my clients and am able to provide service flexibly to support people in the ways that suit them best. Jo and I did all of our sessions on-line, while Danny was able to meet me in person.
Danny was feeling powerless and depressed about his work. He used to enjoy it but found that recently he was feeling judged my others and this was affecting his performance. He was holding back in certain areas, and not giving his work his all and it was becoming noticeable.
We worked together to identify what the real problem was and when it had begun. Working from here at an emotional level to clear the effects of events that had happened over twenty-five years previously, we then built a new way of feeling which was more positive and directly related to his motivational style and the way that he wanted to feel about himself when he was performing. We enabled this to be used outside of work in social situations as well and Danny now reports that he is happier, more effective and his performance anxiety around team meetings that was holding him back is all-but vanished.
No two clients are the same, so no two coaching sessions are the same. You will have a different way of seeing the world, your own experiences and beliefs, and your own desires for your coaching.
I ask questions. I ask about how you feel now and how you’d like to feel instead. We work together to create an outcome for each session and course of sessions that inspires you and gets you motivated to change or take action.
During the session I might get you to move around to see things differently, I might get you to imagine things, to pretend to be someone else for a moment or to connect with an inner part of yourself. We may have to work through some memories or feelings that pop up, so I hold you in my care and facilitate a safe way to work through these effectively and gently so that you can release them and move past them.
Together we create options for how you can move forwards in your life in the best possible way. I don’t advise or mentor, but rather help you to unlock your own answers. You are the expert on you. I am the expert on coaching. Together, we create change and magic!
Having such a varied and long history of working with clients means that there are many ways that I can help you to get from where you are now to where you want to be. I believe that we are all capable of great things, that we all deserve to be happy and that we are able to have the freedom to live however we want to, as long as we have a plan of how to get there.
I have put together a series of 3 short videos that give you some ideas about the sorts of ways that I work with people to find their purpose and motivation, suggest a way to change a belief and how to silence the voice that loops around and around in your head and keeps you awake at night. If you’d like to watch them, you can get them here: https://mailchi.mp/zoecarroll/video-series
To your extraordinary success,
Zoe x
