Embodied coaching

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                   A unique approach that welcomes and involves the body within the coaching process.

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Effective coaching can help you to find more meaning in your personal and professional life, enabling new insights into your relationship with yourself and others, your unique purpose, your creativity, how you deal with adversity and your interconnectedness with the world around you. It can help you discover how to live from the inside out, enabling your talents to ignite in the world and helping you trust your inner compass in any situation.

 

Coaching as a process involves curiosity, openness, subtlety and being able to consider multiple perspectives.

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Some of my key principles for coaching are:

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• No one is broken or a problem to be solved - yet the right support can enable a person to become more resilient and gain insights into hidden influences that shape their lives.

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• Knowledge is empowering - learning about areas such as projection and group dynamics, confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance, non-violent communication, nervous system regulation and the impact of shame can support a person to become more self-aware and change their perceptions, behaviours, the quality of their relationships and their life situation.

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• The quality and depth of the coach/client relationship is THE most important part of the process. Research has shown that the most important elements affecting change in the client include development of rapport and trust, the authenticity and empathy of the coach and how they facilitate a safe and boundaried space.

 

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How does this coaching process work?

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I offer a package of face-to-face coaching sessions (minimum 6) to support you to feel empowered by your life as it is, right now - and support future growth, emotionally, psychologically, professionally, creatively, physically and spiritually (whatever the latter means to you – this could be connecting to a felt sense of wonder about life/nature, or have a religious or mystical basis). The length of the coaching process has been developed in line with evidence that shows how effective coaching can be in creating lasting neural change - if this takes place over a minimum period of 4-6 weeks.  The process needs to involve empathetic support (the mirror neuron effect), regular activation (homework/actions) and follow-ups each session.

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This work incorporates a mixture of coaching on your personal and professional goals, collaborating with you to generate creative solutions to challenges, and body / energy work that can reveal important insights. The body cannot be separated from the brain, and its sensations are a constant wellspring of information that should be welcomed within coaching. Working directly with the body is therefore a key aspect to the work I offer, and is unusual in this field.

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The space we will create together will be intimate and nurturing, yet professional and boundaried. It will require a willingness from you to enter into an honest, open, potential challenging relationship where you will be seen, deeply supported and inspired to move forwards in different aspects of life.

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Ensuring high quality coaching is essential in order for you as client to achieve positive outcomes (both intended and unintended). Elements affecting this quality include the depth of rapport established between us, my experience as a coach, how I am accountable to myself and my clients, and by taking a systemic approach to coaching (acknowledging that the coaching context extends beyond the individual, and is always relative to a much wider web of human and natural systems).

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My core values within the coaching process are honesty, directness, compassion and a total focus on you. A nature based framework is used – incorporating the themes, rhythms and symbolism of nature and the seasons. Other elements include working with story, imagery and visualisation.

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My experience, skills and qualifications

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• I have provided coaching to heads of start-up organisations, covering strategic planning, creative ideas development and support in dealing with challenges.

• I have 15 years’ experience as a marketing communications professional, working across the non-profit, public and private sectors.

• I have helped to set up and run several small organisations, and developed staff wellbeing and change management initiatives.

• I have experience working and collaborating successfully with individuals at all levels within an organisation, as well as external stakeholders – requiring excellent interpersonal skills and skills in conflict resolution and non-violent communication.

• I am highly empathic with a natural aptitude for creative problem-solving and big picture thinking. My approach to my life and work is rooted in systems theory.

• I have a Level 1 certificate in counselling skills, basic training in bereavement counselling and have undertaken coaching skills training.

• I am a trained massage therapist, with a VCTC qualification in Swedish massage, aromatherapy and reflexology. I have undertaken a one year training in Shiatsu/acupressure and also practice Reiki.

• I have experience of creating modern day rites of passage for adults and young people - including use of ritual and ceremony to mark significant life transitions.

 

The following areas inform my work:

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• Conflict resolution and non-violent communication.

• Approaches for nervous system regulation – in order to move out of long-held fight, flight and freeze responses.

• Reichian body psychotherapy, which I have received as part of my own development.

• Movement practices that empower, enliven and have the potential to activate healing in a person, for example 5 Rhythms Dancing and Feldenkrais.

• Systems theory.

• Depth psychology.

• Shadow work.

• Principles of Gestalt coaching.

• Constellations work.

• The work of individuals including Brene Brown, Bill Plotkin, CG Jung, Irene Lyon, Marion Woodman, David Whyte.

 

Some key themes which we will explore as part of the coaching process:

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• Nature as a teacher

• The stories that have shaped you

• Dealing with ambiguity, uncertainty and paradox

• Exploring and setting boundaries

• Dealing with conflict in healthy ways

• Projection, transference and transactional analysis

• Working with archetypes such as the Queen, King, Fool, Magician and Lover.

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