My full coaching programmes are usually around 12 sessions of an hour each. These are spread out over 6 months to a year to facilitate full integration and embodiment of the coaching outcomes. Having said that, you may need less or more sessions so we will be very flexible around this. It really depends on what you and your current situation need.
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. You already have the answers, deep within. I will help you find them.
At no point will I be giving you advice or solutions to your problems. I will ask you the right questions and offer you images and powerful tools that you can use to find your own solutions and to move forward. I will be your trusted ally along the way, but you will do the heavy lifting yourself through the implementation of tools that build self-awareness and capability.
Each coaching program is highly individualised, collaborative, and evolves as the process unfolds. As one coaching client put it: “What clicked for me about coaching – it’s not ‘I am the coach and I will tell you what to do.’ We collaborated. You listened to what I had to say, then you could say OK this is what I see. Would you be comfortable in working with it from this point of view? Would that work for you? And I appreciated that a lot.”
Visit the Center for Coaching website for Frequently Asked Questions about Integral Coaching.
Phase 1: Build relationship and understanding, explore possibilities, initiate action
I prefer to have the first 4 sessions in relative quick succession (weekly or every second week). We will collaborate in creating a safe space of mutual trust, respect and openness that enables you to bring and explore issues that you may currently be stuck with.
The Integral Coaching process is first and foremost founded in listening with the purpose of truly understanding – not only your presenting problem but you as a whole, unique being. We will use imagery to explore the way in which you currently live life, as well as the possibilities of new, even deeper and more powerful ways in which you can leverage your strengths to show up in the world differently while simultaneously resolving your presenting problem.
During phase 1 we will also collaborate on the desired outcomes of the coaching programs, and start implementing tools that you can use to build the needed capabilities so that you can bring about your desired change.
Phase 2: Ongoing coaching and capability building
We meet less regularly than in phase 1, giving you the opportunity to implement tools and experience change. As Richard Strozzi-Heckler points out: we are inclined to lean on hope and idealism that we, others, and societies will change simply because we’ve been introduced to a new idea. The reason behind this is that there still doesn’t exist a common understanding that transformation occurs because of new practices.
This phase entails ongoing coaching conversations and the design of more tools for use between sessions. These include self-awareness activities (e.g. self-observations), practices and once-off exercises. You will journal about your findings and bring these into the next coaching session. Here we can discuss successes and obstacles.
“I really liked the questions. I really like how you ask a question and you don’t inform me. You allow me to make my own decisions and then based on that you would ask more questions to help me navigate the landscape.” Sara
Phase 3: Refinement and closure
This phase is focused on embedding and refining your desired change, and eventually brings coaching to a close. It includes a review of the success of the program and your subjective satisfaction in the chosen coaching outcomes.
“I am more than happy with what I learnt and got out of the program. What I got out I implemented and it works a charm.” Antionette
“If we cannot see how what we are doing or not doing is contributing to things being the way that they are, then logically we have no basis at all, zero leverage, for changing the way things are – except from the outside, by persuasion or force.”
Adam Kahane, facilitator of the Montfleur scenarios