Coaching

Why coaching

As the demands of modern life increase many are turning to coaches to help address the gap between how we are and how we want to be in our personal or professional lives. Coaching is for healthy people wanting to move forward with some part of their life that  matters deeply to them.  This is distinct from mentoring (providing advice), consulting (providing expertise), or counselling (healing past underlying wounds).  Coaching is the art and practice of guiding a person from where they are toward the greater competence and fulfillment that they desire. It’s about getting into the stuff of life in the here and now and with the support of a coach, accelerating change and achieving results.

How an Integral Coaching™ Program Gets Results

“Integral Coaching™ is a discipline that enables clients to become more aware of their current approach to a situation, to see new possibilities and then build sustainable new competencies to achieve outcomes that deeply matter to them. The coach and client are dedicated to the unique developmental needs of the client.” Integral Coaching Canada.

My coaching is grounded in the Integral Coaching™ method which believes that if you could have achieved the results you wanted on your own, you would have done it by now. But you haven’t, not because you haven’t tried, but rather because either you don’t know how or you don’t have the capacities (or “muscles”) to do it on your own in a sustaining way.

This method enables me to get underneath the current situation you want to transform (or what we call your coaching topic) to see how you have been approaching it up until now. Together we’re able to see why you haven’t been able to sustain the change you’ve been striving for. The Integral Coaching™ method enables us to more effectively identify and work with long standing patterns while at the same time building the ability for you to move in your desired new direction. We’re able to work on both at the same time! This means that the grip of the past is being loosened while we simultaneously create new ways of moving forward. In this way, profound results are attained in short periods of time, results that are sustainable and endure long beyond the coaching relationship.

The Integral Coaching Certification Program (ICCP) is an Accredited Coach training program with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is the only ICF accredited Integral Coaching training program that meets and surpasses Masters Level ICF training requirements. For more information see: https://www.integralcoachingcanada.com

What is involved?

Generally I meet new clients for a free introductory session to explore whether a coaching program is what is needed at this time, if we feel we’d like to work together and, to review the details of the coaching process. We can do this by phone or over a coffee or tea.

Intake Session
This session focuses on how you have been approaching your topic (the area of focus of our work together) up till now and what your frustrations are. This is what we’ll call your ‘past based’ or ‘current’ way of being in your topic.  We also discuss what you would see as success, or your future desired outcome.  This session generally is 90 minutes.

Offer Session

This session is when I present your coaching program for us to discuss.  This is why it is called an ‘offer’ as you get to help co-create it with me.  Based on my assessment I’ll present a new approach and identify the developmental objectives for the program along with a suggested time frame to develop the capacities needed to sustainably support this new approach. At the end of this session we’ve created an agreed upon path forward. This session generally lasts 90 minutes.

Cycles of Development
The duration of most coaching programs is somewhere between 5-10 months.  During this time you work on practices that I design and co-create with you. Most practices include observations (new awareness), a new doing (capacity or ‘muscle’ development), and reflections all designed to increase your awareness and your capacity.   We work together to adjust your program each step of the way as you learn and grow into your future way of being in your topic, compassionately pushing your edges while also allowing time for embodiment. This is called ‘cycles of development’.  Coaching sessions are generally once every 2-3 weeks and your practices take about 20-30 minutes a day.

Completion
At this session we review your progress and how your new way of approaching your topic is manifesting itself reliably and sustainably.

I coach in person for the Ottawa area and provide coaching via Skype or phone for those elsewhere.

“When death comes, I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world” 
Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems.