Coaching

What is coaching?

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
Do you want to be even better at what you do?
Do you want to reach your full potential?
Would you like to clear those blocks that are holding you back?
Do you worry someone will ‘find you out” – do you feel insecure?
Do you want your personal history to have less influence over who you are today?

If you can relate to these questions then my approach can help you. Together we can make a big difference to your life and who you are.

Coaching is a courageous process. It’s a process for those of you wanting more than you already have… you know its out there and just want a helping hand to guide you on your journey to becoming who you know you can be.

Coaching can assist in many ways; it’s an attention shifter. Coaching helps you move your attention from “there’ to ‘here”, when being ‘there’ isn’t helpful to you!
Coaching allows you to break a bad cycle and assists in the process of finding different solutions.
NLP forms the basis for our coaching practice. It’s effective and allows awareness and insights to grow and develop. Oh and its thought provoking, challenging, creative and a lot of fun too!
The question I get asked the most often is what kind of discipline do you come from, what kind of coaching do you do?
My background, my own knowledge bank if you like, comes from business, my skills come from psychotherapy, hypnosis and NLP this experience means I can work with whatever comes up in the coaching process.
I work holistically, with honesty and truth. If we bump up against a challenge, I don’t brush over it, we go there and address it.
The process can be smooth and enlightening, but sometimes the path can get a bit bumpy on our way to the top of the hill where the sun is shining : )
The process is focussed and reflective; it sharpens your awareness and opens up your insights about yourself and others. At times it can be directive. It’s really what you want it to be. How we set the contract up depends on our relationship and your outcomes.
Coaching is a relationship, its an outside input and observation – it’s a thinking partnership.

Who Benefits from Coaching?

I work in many ways with different people:
1 to 1 coaching sessions – either in person, on the phone or using skype however works best for you.
Breakthrough sessions – one or two day sessions ending in a board break – works great if there is a particular problem and you really want to give it some attention and transform it.
Outdoor Coaching, works well if you are a person who thinks on the move, come and join me in the Derbyshire countryside and lets walk and talk and move your situation forward!
Sessions can vary in length, please enquire.

Who do I work with?

Coaching for kids/children
I work mainly with teenagers and have worked with younger children. My approach would be useful for:
Sleeping problems
Confidence issues
Bullying problems
Increasing assertiveness
Helping young people identify themselves and the world around them.
Decision-making, career choices, etc.
Preparing for exams and help with studying techniques.
Guidance with emotional awareness, insecurities or difficult situations.
Young people who are gifted and feel they don’t fit in and yet do have a sense of what they want to do, or maybe they need permission to do what they want to do.
Young adults
Individuals looking to progress their personal and professional development. Maybe you feel stuck in a rut, know you are capable of more and don’t know how to get there.
Individuals who have specific problems and need an effective solution. See the NLP page.
Organisations who are looking to support and develop their teams, managers and executives.
CEO’s who want a ‘thinking Partner’ alongside to bounce off. Many CEO’s and Directors have coaching because they do not have the networks needed to support them professionally or emotionally. They can feel inhibited to discuss issues with colleagues, they can feel isolated and have to face difficult decisions alone. Within this context Making Changes supplies a thinking partner, an independent ear, honest feedback, and facilitates direction without judgement or hidden agendas.
Coaching can be a stand alone programme or can be part of a leadership or developmental/change programme. Coaching before a programme creates an attitude of curiosity and readiness for the programme and after the programme provides on going support to continue the change into the future and beyond.

I also work with:

Individuals in organisations who may have potential and have difficulty reaching it. They may be highly sensitive, or shy or lack self esteem and confidence.
Organisations with individuals you may have experienced trauma and are prepared to support them in order help them back to work. The employee returns to work sooner and fitter and the company benefits through productivity.

Costs

Coaching sessions can be bought by the session, or by a group of sessions or engage me on a retainer.
How is coaching different to mentoring, counselling and psychotherapy?

Coaching

Provides support, it challenges, it facilitates self awareness, it allows that which is unconscious knowledge to become conscious.
Coaching provides an arena for looking at strategies; do they work? How could they be improved upon?
The relationship is based on trust and respect and is a collaborative process that accelerates learning; its a process of self-discovery that expands capabilities and improves performance. It’s a conversation with an outcome. Its questioning that leads to deeper understanding of self, its professional development.

Mentoring

Is a personal relationship with someone who has prior and usually greater knowledge of the subject that you are exploring or involved with. It’s a relationship that allows the learning to go back and forth. Its based on trust and respect. A mentoring relationship can last a long time, even a life time and sometimes happens naturally in the workplace. It can be a ‘teach me all you know’ situation.

Counselling

Is a reflective process which is usually centred around an emotional response or situation. It’s a listening process for a specific situation. It’s a conversation in a confidential setting. Counselling will differ from one practitioner to another depending on what has been studied and the approach that is being taken.

Psychotherapy

Is to a certain extent a reflective process and again is centred around particular personal issues that maybe a coach without a clinical background would be unable to manage. It’s a process that has movement, it is a process that encourages the issue to become psychoactive [psychoactive means that the issue becomes active in trance] in order for change to occur. Again the process will differ from one practitioner to another depending on their training and interest.