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Coaching is not advice-giving; it is an art and science of personalized empowerment and support that facilitates the process of positive transformation that guides humans to reach their greatest/highest potential in life.
Through experientially-focused, growth-enhancing conversations, grounded on a safe and transformative relationship that promote self-awareness, solution-finding, creativity, and deep inner-learning (among other things), coaching supports and facilitates the discovery and development of the valuable inner-tools, skills, resources, and capabilities that assist individuals and groups with overcoming obstacles, getting unstuck in required areas, making improvements in themselves and their lives, and progressing toward meaningful and impactful outcomes.
Coaches guide motivated individuals to create the changes and conditions required for their optimal thriving and positive movement forward in the world and we keep our clients on track with consistent accountability and encouragement so that they accomplish what they set out to achieve.
The beneficial effects and impact of Coaching, as a developmental tool, occurs through transformative interactions where Coaches ask clients powerful and effective questions, and guide them through different appropriately selected activities, to activate the higher functioning parts of their brain so that these clients can effectively choose the best pathways forward and tap into the necessary inner resources to come up with solutions to their problems/issues on their own and ultimately get to their goal(s).
The role of the Coach is to provide skillful, respectful, and unconditional encouraging and growth-facilitating guidance to their clients, and to partner wholeheartedly with the people that they support to create the foundation, strategy, and motivation for client success.
The foundational assumption in Coaching is that everyone is an expert on themselves and their lives. No two people are the same, and only the person who has lived in a particular body-mind, experience, and life, is an expert on that metaphorical terrain. Using this knowledge, Coaches, whether in Personal/Group Training, Professional, and/or Health/Wellness/Life-style based practices, are truly there to bring out the best in the unique individual(s) that they support, and there is never a one-size-fits-all, nor authoritarian, approach to any lasting transformative Coaching relationship.
The right Coach for you is always the one who sincerely cares about you as a person and fully supports your goals, because the success of Coaching is in the success of the transformative relationship.
A Coach’s role in this special, non-judgmental, and transformative relationship is not to tell their clients what to do (which is why Coaching and Consulting are not the same thing). Nor is the Coach’s role to talk about what they would do or have learned from living their own unique life experience during a coaching session, since sessions should be client-focused–although a Coach may certainly choose to share their stories and insights as inspiration outside of a coaching conversation (which is why Coaching, Mentorship, and Motivational Speaking, are different). Nor does a Coach diagnose or prescribe treatment for mental illnesses/disease (which is why Coaching is not Psychotherapy).
Coaches focus on present states-of-being, capabilities, and opportunities, and look primarily toward the future; they do not dwell on the past except for understanding context, and they focus on empowering success, wellness, and/or health in their clients through forward-looking methodologies and goal-setting techniques for personal and/or professional development purposes.
Though Coaches may be trained, and hold expertise, in certain specialized areas that empower individuals toward physical, mental, and other forms of wellness–and can, therefore, apply complementary skills/services in their practices, and also support Therapists and other medical professionals in their treatment plans–Coaches are not the type of professionals who diagnose illnesses nor prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, nor are they clinicians/medical practitioners unless they have a separate degree/certification in these areas)…Nor is a Coach’s role simply to provide instructions to clients (which is why Coaching is not the same as Lecturing nor even Ministering).
Coaching is, instead, the art and science of supporting and promoting growth and desired change within individuals (as well as groups/teams) by developing people’s personal capacity to discover and use their own innate internal skills and resources to accomplish meaningful and fulfilling goals/transformation in ways that are right for them (and that are chosen and directed by them using any given Coach’s skill of applying the right techniques/methodologies required to facilitate insight, learning, change, and deeper understanding within their clients based on that client’s individual/personalized needs).
Coaching is the art and science of intentionally cultivating and creating growth and transformation within individuals (and teams/groups) for their personal (and sometimes professional) success.
Interesting Statistics About Coaching: According to a study by the International Coaching Federation, individuals who received coaching saw a 70% improvement in work performance, 80% improvement in self-confidence, and 73% improvement in relationships.
To put it simply, Coaching is a powerful tool for all forms of development. And by partnering with the right Coach for you, you can significantly and statistically improve the likelihood of creating any desired positive change in your life.
As mentioned before, these transformative relationships are built on trust and mutual respect, with client-confidentiality (within legal and/or medical constraints) serving as a tool for creating social and psychological safety for clients to relax, open up, and focus on true and honest transformation. This is so that you can always rest assured that your Coach has your best interest in mind.
Find a Coach who you can trust, one who fully sees and honors you in your full expression, is non-judgmental, is skilled at transformative conversations that empower positive and meaningful change, and who believes in/knows your unlimited capacity to create/manifest what you aspire to bring forth in yourself, your life, your work, and/or in the world.
When you choose the right Coach for you, you will be guaranteed to have a powerful force for your greater good on your side.
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Investigating multi-dimensional holistic wellness as an inter-disciplinary artist and Yoga-Meditation writer, thinker, and practitioner. Doing experientially-based self-agency work grounded in research, reflection, and practice.