On our podcast we regularly explore the topics that coachees might bring to a coaching conversation. One such topic is ‘change’; a huge topic that encompasses many different potential areas of a coachee’s life.   Sometimes, the coaching might be focused on a change that is happening around the coachee or it might be a change that the coachee wants to bring about for themself.   Either way, everyone responds to change differently and there is a broad spectrum of how impactful and...

“It’s like Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’, isn’t it?” is a rhetorical question often posed in discussions around human needs. Maslow’s model of behaviour is one of the most oft-cited models of human psychology. Images of the pyramid that is usually used to illustrate Maslow’s  hierarchy are peppered throughout social media channels.   Very few people ever delve into Maslow’s hierarchy, beyond a cursory glance at the model and a sage nod of the head, before they scroll onto a kitten being...

For us, coaching is all about allowing our coachees to have time to think about their situation, their desired outcomes and their ideas for achieving those outcomes.   We know that being truly present with our coachees and holding that space for them while they think to the end of their thoughts is invaluable. This is where their new thinking is generated.   ‘Time To Think’ is also the name of a particular coaching approach devised by Nancy Kline that has some unique characteristics and a...

“How much should I charge for my coaching?”   This is a common question that we hear from new coaches and sadly, there isn’t a succinct answer. It can feel like a minefield when it comes to pricing, and we’re all looking for that ‘goldilocks’ amount that feels right for us, and also is acceptable to the coachees that we are attracting to our coaching space.   We can’t tell you what you should be charging for your coaching, but we can help you reach your own right answer? On this podcast...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions about coaching that have been asked by our listeners.    In this episode we’ve been asked about the ideal frequency of coaching, tools or exercises to work with clients around issues relating to finances, and whether we use pre-coaching questionnaires for our clients.  Listen in now to hear our discussion.   If you have a question to ask about coaching and would like us to answer it for you on the podcast, do send us your questions, or...

We do like to catch up with doctors who have been through our programme and to find out how they are using coaching in various ways in the real world.   In this episode we meet up with Dr Natasha Holmes, who leads an extremely full working life.    Natasha is a locum paediatric doctor, life coach, well-being workshop facilitator and mental health advocate.  She is co creator of “The Fully Well Doc Pod” podcast which aims to inspire and empower doctors to make changes in their personal and...

Coaching often revolves around helping someone to raise their self-awareness, and really start to understand their personality, their values, their patterns of behaviour, their emotional responses, their strengths, as well as their vulnerabilities and weaknesses.   Coaching is also commonly focused on the coachee’s interactions with others, what they choose to share with those around them, how they are perceived by others, and how they navigate their relationships in an authentic way.   ...

On our podcast we regularly explore the topics that coachees might bring to a coaching conversation.   One such topic that shows up a lot in our coaching is motivation or, more specifically, a lack of it. Coachees are often asking how they can feel more motivated, or how we can motivate them.   What we often find is that those same coachees who are struggling with their motivation will provide us with evidence of actions that they do feel motivated to take.   Sometimes uncovering the...

Metaphors are an aspect of language that most of us will happily use until the cows come home. However, because we are so used to building metaphor into our speech it passes us by, uncovered, and we are denied the lightbulb moments that might guide us if we were to wake up and smell the coffee.    In this episode, we serve up a way of plucking metaphors from a coachee’s language and putting them under the microscope, thus adding colour to our coaching tapestry. This may allow our coachees...

We regularly see psychological and coaching models being shared on social media, in blogs and discussions, and sometimes the sharing sets our teeth on edge.   We’ve mentioned this before when we explored the myth of Ikigai, and in this episode, we’d like to air some thoughts on a model often shared on social media, Kübler-Ross Change Curve.   In this episode we would like to engage in a little mythbusting around where this model comes from, why it’s unhelpful to call it the Kübler-Ross...

We can’t quite believe that we’ve arrived at the milestone of recording 50 episodes of the Your Coaching Journey podcast! We thought we might run out of things to say to one another after half a dozen, but here we are, still having great conversations about coaching almost a year on from recording our first episode.   We’ve loved every minute of it. More than that, we’ve loved hearing from you that you love it too.   As it’s our 50th episode we thought we’d indulge in a little...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions about coaching that have been asked by our listeners.   In this episode we explore whether, as a new coach who hasn’t quite got all the tools at your fingertips, you can still be a great coach. We also chat about pricing, whether it’s worth being accredited as a coach, and what you need to think about if you’re working in an organisation and they are paying you to coach a member of their staff.   If you have a question to ask about...

If you’re a regular listener to our podcast you will have noticed that we regularly discuss how we might deal with different topics that show up in the coaching room. This week we discussed working with coachees around meaning and purpose.    Coachees may not always come to coaching asking for support on finding meaningful purpose, but often they’ll talk about feeling stuck, feeling lost, or feeling as though they’re in a bit of a rut. At these times a conversation around what their purpose...

Whilst journalling isn’t a tool that you would necessarily wish to use in the coaching room, it can still be a useful concept to introduce to your coachees. Well, Helen thinks so anyway. Tom isn’t entirely convinced, but has his own ideas around when journalling might be useful. In this episode Helen shares some reflections on journaling and also describes her own experience of keeping a journal. She also introduces a journalling method that she would happily invite her coachees to try out. ...

In our journey through the different approaches to coaching, we’d like to introduce you to Transformational Coaching.   Transformational Coaching is a flexible and integrative approach that allows coaches to explore a variety of topics and concerns with their coachees and to be agile in the coaching room. This agility enables coaches to move smoothly between different ways of being with their coachees as required. The integrative nature of Transformational Coaching provides a variety of...

We regularly see psychological and coaching models being shared on social media, in blogs and discussions, and sometimes the sharing sets our teeth on edge.    “What’s the cause of this mild irritation?” you may ask.    Well we like to try to get our information sharing right and we carry out plenty of research around the subjects we talk about on our podcast. But we know that not everyone does the same. So when we know that information is being misrepresented or misinterpreted in some...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions that our listeners have asked about coaching.    In this episode we explore how to handle a coachee who doesn’t seem to be taking action between coaching sessions; what support we should expect to provide a coachee between sessions; how to explore whether our coaching is effective and receive feedback on our coaching; and what insurance you need to think about as a coach.   Do send us your questions, or even drop us a voice note of your...

If you’re a regular listener to our podcast you will have noticed that we regularly discuss how we might deal with different topics that show up in the coaching room.    We recognise that everyone will have experienced some negative thinking about themselves from time to time and that’s just part of the human condition. For most people this can be a little annoying or frustrating, and doesn’t cause too much of a problem for much of the time. But there are times when, for some coachees, the...

Following on from our episode about neuroscience in coaching in this episode we focus on the SCARF model, which has its origins in social neuroscience.    SCARF was developed as a model by leadership expert David Rock and helps us to focus our attention on an organising  principle in the brain; to minimise threat and maximise reward. Rock’s assertion is that this principle leads us to move away from threat and move towards reward. Furthermore Rock identifies five domains that produce either...

Firstly, just to be clear, we are not neuroscientists! However, we do know that having some awareness of key elements of neuroscience can help us to support our clients well.    In this episode we explore our understanding of the disciplines that underpin neuroscience and the complex nature of the interactions of a number of different elements of our physiological neural make-up. We take a look at how we might use some awareness of the brain and body’s reactions to events and how we might...

Coaching is so often seen as an intervention that supports the achievement of goals, and in this podcast we would like to challenge this belief. We will explore the idea that, whilst coaching is often concerned with goals, there is some much richer territory available to us in the coaching room.    A great deal of coaching training tends to start with goals and helping move coachees towards them and organisations tend to have a focus on goal achievement when commissioning coaching. In the...

In this episode we are interviewing a coaching doctor, Dr Amy-Jo Farrow.    Amy-Jo Farrow is an Occupational Health Physician and a Coach for Doctors. Her coaching work focuses on supporting doctors to recover from burnout, return to work, and craft a more sustainable future.   Listen in to find out what inspired Amy-Jo to start coaching, find out more about her personal approach to coaching, her favourite coaching tool and her favourite coaching question.   Resources:  You can contact...

It’s not often that people come to coaching because they’re an introvert, but it is an aspect of personality that can surface in a number of different ways, or sit behind some of the issues that coachees might want to tackle with you.   In this episode we explore what introversion is, how you might recognise an introverted client and what some of the challenges might be for your introverted coachees. We talk about how you might work with someone who has an introversion preference and even...

Following on from our exploration of Gestalt coaching in our previous episode, in this podcast we explore one of the models that originates in Gestalt, the Cycle of Experience (CoE), in greater detail.    The CoE is a Gestalt model that illustrates how individuals move through their experience of a situation. The model incorporates different stages that people might move through in order to complete the cycle and move on to a different experience.    On this podcast we explore the CoE...

On our transformational coaching diploma we explore many different approaches to coaching and the Gestalt approach is one of them. It is an approach that lends itself to working in a transformational way with the coachee and is very much about helping them to become more who they are. In being more who they are, the coachee can start to bring about the change they wish to see more easily.  And if they bring about the change they would like to see in a way that is aligned with who they are,...