Personal Coaching FAQs
This section is designed to answer your questions about coaching in general and specifically coaching with Carol Ross.
What is coaching? What can it do for me?
How is coaching different from therapy?
How do I know if you're the coach for me?
What is coaching? What can it do for me?
Coaches partner with clients to identify and achieve personal and/or professional goals. The focus and direction taken during coaching is based on the client's expressed interests, goals, and objectives.
Coaching is focused on moving the client forward to create the life they want. By having dedicated time to work on goals with a coach as a partner, clients are able to progress more quickly and more easily than if they were on their own. A coach helps the client to focus their energy on "the right stuff" and provides the appropriate tools, support, and structure.
An underlying belief in coaching is that the client has the answers. So part of what a coach does is enable the client to uncover his/her own answers. While coaches will give advice from time to time, coaching is much more effective if the coach "gets out of the way" and lets the client come up with the answers that are right for them.
Some of the benefits that my clients have experienced from coaching are:
- More resiliency in dealing with life's ups and downs
- Better decisions in both personal and professional life
- Higher quality of living based on one's values and true desires
- Increased energy
- Bigger, yet more attainable, goals through focused action
How does coaching work?
For a monthly fee, clients receive three 40-minute coaching sessions, as well as email support in between sessions. Sessions generally take place over the phone but can also take place in person.
Coaches use a variety of techniques to help the client achieve their goals, including:
- Championing
- Asking powerful questions
- Providing safe spaces to experiment and learn
- Clarifying
- Challenging assumptions
- Providing new perspectives and reframing
- Giving honest feedback
- Slowing down to reflect and plan
- Holding you accountable
- Celebrating wins
- Being unconditionally supportive
- Identifying energy drains
For more information on coaching in general, visit the International Coaching Federation website:
http://www.coachfederation.org/aboutcoaching/about.asp
http://www.coachfederation.org/aboutcoaching/nature.asp
How is coaching different from therapy?
Therapy heals past emotional traumas. Coaching is focused on the present and helping the client move towards a desired future. The therapy approach is one of fixing the client while the coaching approach holds the client as naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. Coaching is a partnership between the coach and client, where the coach is helping the client find their own answers. In contrast, the therapist is the expert, giving advice to the client. An excellent article on the difference between coaching and therapy, written by Patrick Williams, is "Coaching Vs. Therapy: The Great Debate" . Patrick Williams is known in the coaching field for helping therapists make the transition to become coaches.
Part of being a competent coach is knowing when clients should be referred to a therapist. On a spectrum of human behavior running from dysfunctional to highly functional, individuals who fall into the dysfunctional area should be seeing a therapist and not a coach. For these individuals, my own red flag is when I have difficulty viewing them as naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. Moving up in functionality, there are individuals who can benefit from both therapy and coaching at the same time. Areas where the client is stuck, not able to progress forward (e.g., because of past emotional trauma) would be a topic for therapy. And yet the client could be making progress in other areas with coaching. Another good article by Patrick Williams on this topic is The Potential Perils of Personal Issues in Coaching.
How do I know you're the coach for me?
The right coach for you will be someone who you trust to act in your best interest and who has the expertise to do so. Sometimes this means encouraging you, sometimes it means challenging you or even confronting you. When you have the right coach, you'll have a sense of a partner walking beside you, helping you discover new ground, develop different perspectives, and achieve more than you thought you could. Each coach has their own unique style in which they partner with clients.
Like many other coaches, I offer a complimentary 45-minute get acquainted session with no obligation to you other than to come to the call prepared with something you'd like to be coached on.
Other ways to get to know me:
- Listen to me coaching a volunteer on a real-life issue by going to my podcast, Live Action Coaching.
- Read my blog
- Read articles that I've written about my life experiences
- Listen to my other podcasts, Leading With A Whole New Mind and Conscious Living, Conscious Leaving.
- Read the About Us section.
- Read what my clients have to say about me.
Look for these signs of good coaching as described by Coachville, a well-respected coaching school and valuable resource for coaches:
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To learn more about each of these coaching proficiencies, go to: http://www.coachville.com/15prof.html
How do I get started?
Ready to invest in yourself? Contact Carol for a complimentary consultation.
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