Coaching is not advice-giving.
It is personalized empowerment…through experientially-focused, growth-bringing conversations that promote self-awareness, solution-finding, resourcefulness, and deep inner-learning, providing and facilitating the discovery of valuable inner-tools and skills, and keeping individuals (and/or groups) on track to achieving their desired goals with consistent accountability.
Coaching, in personal development, occurs through transformative interactions where clients are asked questions, and guided through different activities, to open up the higher functioning parts of their brain so that they can effectively tap into their inner resources and come up with solutions to their problems/issues on their own. The role of the Coach is to provide encouraging and growth-facilitating guidance to clients and to support and empower client success by clearing inner obstacles/blockages using various applicable tools and techniques.
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, experience, and life is an expert on that metaphorical terrain.
A Coach’s role in this type of special 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 (Coaches focus on present states-of-being, resources, and opportunities, and look primarily toward the future, they do not dwell on the past except for understanding context, and they focus on empowering wellness and 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 mental 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 medical clinicians unless they have a separate degree 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 or 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 personal/inner development that you can tap into to create positive and desired change in your life.
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 change.
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 and your life/work, and you will have a powerful force for your greater good on your side.
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