Professional coaching for challenging times

Although it may seem daunting, coaching is simply a series of conversations in which we work with you on a one-to-one basis to help you move forward from stressful or challenging situations, and bring about desired changes in your life.

To do this, we provide an friendly and non-judgemental environment in which we listen and ask questions about what is going on in your life, as well as offer relevant feedback, tools and exercises that will help you move forward in ways that are right for you.

You are always in control of the conversation and we don't tell you what to do, impose advice or guide you in any particular direction - we simply help you to work through your situation and develop powerful strategies and solutions that fit with your needs.

Amongst many other things, coaching will give you:

• A safe and neutral environment for you to talk through your situation - enabling you to untangle your thinking, see things more clearly and find some often much-needed space when your mind feels overwhelmed.

• New and different perspectives on your situation - enabling you to find fresh and more powerful ways of tackling it.

• Tools and strategies to boost your coping resources and wellbeing - helping you to navigate stressors and challenges more effectively, and find some calm and balance in your life, regardless of what is going on.

• Greater understanding of your own strengths and competencies - boosting your belief in yourself and your ability to cope in demanding times, both now and in the future.

• Deeper awareness of what is important to you in life - so that you can be clear about your priorities, and can use these to guide the way when times are tough.

• A clear plan for moving forward - based on what is important to you, as well as what you want to achieve in the future. We also support you to achieve these goals.

Coaching shares similarities with counselling or therapy in that it offers a safe and supportive space in which you can talk through what is going on in your life without judgement. However, there are also several important differences:

• Coaching does not offer therapeutic intervention for mental health disorders, such as severe anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, although we can support you to move forward positively following professional treatment for these.

• Whereas certain forms of counselling look predominantly at what has happened to you in the past in order to help you resolve issues, coaching focusses on what is going on in your life currently and where you would like to be. This doesn’t mean that we won’t explore past events with you, but will only do so if it is relevant to helping you move forward.

• Whilst counselling helps you resolve and cope with issues, coaching is more concerned with helping you build your resilience and develop the resources needed to deal with challenging events more effectively.

• Where counselling often considers what has isn't working in your life, coaching is more focussed on helping you look for the positive, such as your own strengths and capabilities.

There really is little preparation needed...

If possible, try to ensure that you have access to a quiet, comfortable space where your won't be disturbed for the duration of the coaching session - this helps to reduce distractions and gives you the space you deserve.

We also recommend that you have a notepad and pen/pencil handy for each session - these may be required for some of the exercises that we use, and it can also be really helpful to make notes of strategies that you find useful or things that come to mind during each session, so that you can remind yourself of them later.

Before each session, it can be really useful to spend a few minutes thinking about what you hope to get out of the appointment - this helps to focus your mind and ensures that you get the most of coaching.

Apart from that, just grab a cuppa, take a few minutes to relax and you're all set to go.