What can coaching do for me?
There are a variety of benefits that can come from coaching, and they tend to be individualized. Coaches are there to provide levels of support, teach certain skills, and help clients discover new coping strategies. In fact, if you’re simply looking for personal growth in any aspect of your life, you can typically find the skills and resources through coaching to help with family problems, marital issues, and more. Essentially, a coach offers a different way of looking at things – perhaps a perspective you haven’t yet considered, which makes it easier to point you in the right direction, and find the solutions you’re looking for in life.
Of course, coaches can’t just ‘fix’ everything on their own. It’s about using those resources you learn in your everyday life that can really turn things around. Still unsure about what coaching could do for you? Let’s take a look a few examples of some common benefits:
– Identifying your goals and dreams
– Obtaining the right skills for bettering your life’s relationships
– Managing problem areas in your personal life, like anger, and stress, etc.
– Creating new patterns of behavior for yourself
– Changing your problem-solving perspective
– Boosting your self-esteem and confidence
If I feel as though I can reach my goals on my own, is coaching really necessary?
There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t experiences challenges of some kind throughout their life. Some people can simply get through them better than others, and even then, it’s never a bad idea to have additional support and understanding when it comes to the obstacles you’ve gone through. In all actuality, coaching is ideal for people who understand themselves enough to realize they actually could use some help, instead of denying it. Noticing that your life isn’t necessarily where you want it to be is a big realization and admittance, and taking the steps to change that for the better is something to be incredibly proud of. You’re taking the first step down an incredible path that can lead to long-lasting benefits for the rest of your life, even when challenges come up again.
What makes people come to coaching in the first place? How do I know if it’s the right decision?
While everyone’s reasons for coming to coaching are different, whether they’re going through a big life change, or a specific event like divorce, or just aren’t dealing with stressful situations ideally. Sometimes, the assistance of a coach can not only help with specific situations, but personal issues as well. You may start out looking for one thing, and find on your journey that you can gain so much more through learning the right skills, and having the right kind of encouragement.
In terms of making the ‘right decision’ for yourself, of course coaching is a personal decision, but if you take a look at your life, and your desire is to make a change that starts from within, it’s likely that some form of coaching could be a great benefit.
What can I expect from coaching?
Just like the reasons for coaching are different for everyone, most people can expect different experiences. The good news is that therapy is completely individually-focused, which is why everyone can get something different out of it. Generally, your life, your history, and any relevant insights will be important to the specific discussions, but in a very personal and individualized manner. Sometimes coaching can be focused on a specific need, in which case it’s a ‘short term’ solution, while in other cases, many people go to coaching regularly, each week, to simply look for more personal growth.
Again, coaching isn’t meant to be some kind of ‘quick fix’ where you simply sit back and listen. It is a participatory experience. The more you involve yourself in the process, the better results you’re bound to see. It’s a practice in everyday living, in which you take what you learn from the session, and apply it to your life. Therefore, it’s important to be mentally prepared to make those changes in your life, and desire new perspectives on things.
Do the topics in each coaching session remain private?
There is practically nothing more important in coaching than confidentiality. A good coach understands the vulnerability and openness that must come from each client in order to really get through, so coaching itself can take a lot of trust, and that needs to be developed over time. Make sure your coach offers a confidentiality agreement before you begin your sessions, typically called ‘informed consent.’ It is your choice if you’d like to have your coach share anything significant with your other healthcare providers, but this can only be done with your written consent. Nothing you share in your sessions is to be told to anyone else, with the rare exceptions of suspected abuse of any kind (including child protection), or if the coach has any reason to believe their client may hurt themselves, or others. These situations are a matter of ethical procedures, and sometimes, even the law.