What is Coaching?
What is coaching?
Coaching is a personal development experience like no other, totally focused on your own needs and goals for change.
The International Coaching Federation defines professional coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential”.
This is why coaching is a conversation with a purpose. Unlike a helpful chat with a trusted friend or family member, every coaching conversation has a specific focus or goal set by you and it is the coach’s responsibility to facilitate a powerful process which supports you to achieve that outcome.
What does a coach do?
A coach will:
- Enable you to identify and clarify what you want to achieve
- Encourage you to build your self-awareness and self-confidence
- Elicit solutions and strategies for change from you
- Enable you to hold yourself accountable for your actions and choices
This is likely to involve the coach challenging your long held beliefs, asking questions that you may not have considered before and stretching you to think very differently. Your coach will respect that you are the expert in your own life and will not tell you what to do or give direct advice.
Sometimes this won’t be easy; personal development is meant to stretch you and may feel temporarily uncomfortable, but that’s how you know you’re learning and changing! The rewards include significantly heightened levels of self-awareness which can be a revelation.
Be reassured that coaching always takes place in a confidential, safe and non-judgemental environment which the coach will ensure for every session.
How long does coaching take?
During these sessions, the coach will give you the time, space and encouragement to explore and identify what you want to achieve by the end of the coaching programme. Each session will also have its own focus, which you choose, so that you take the path you want towards your own goals.
Do you coach over the phone or internet?
What does coaching cost?
Coaching programmes and rates differ depending upon whether you are seeking individual (private) or corporate coaching, so the level of investment will vary. You are welcome to contact Siobhain to find out more info@bluewillowcoaching.co.uk
What is the difference between coaching and counselling / therapy?
Professional coaching focuses on identifying and creating outcomes for the future linked to personal or professional growth and change; coaching is very much focused on future success.
Counselling / therapy focuses on understanding and healing pain, dysfunction or conflict within relationships or at an individual level; in general, it tends to focus on difficulties which arose in the past and are compromising functioning in the present. Understanding emotional triggers may arise within coaching but with the focus firmly on using that understanding to inform decisions and actions for the future.
How does coaching differ from consulting?
In broad terms, consultants are typically engaged by a client for their expertise in analysing a situation, making specific recommendations for action and sometimes for implementing the chosen solution. In contrast, the premise with professional coaching is that the client is capable of generating his or her own ideas for change; the coach facilitates that self-discovery process by using questions or exercises and by challenging the client to build the self-awareness needed to enable that change.
Can I have a free sample session?
How do I find out more?
If you would like to find out more about the coaching services offered by Blue Willow Coaching Ltd., please contact:
+44(0) 7894 209698