What brought you to coaching?
The sudden death of my son, as I learnt how much he had impacted on those youths and young adults around him, despite the traumatic and unfair treatment he had suffered as a child.
He demonstrated what is love and touched their lives. The eulogies given by those young adults are my wake-up calls.
Most people become a coach to change the lives of others… How has coaching benefited your own life?
Through coaching, my general - and my self-awareness is heightened, I learnt to listen more, to step away from giving advise but rather to ask questions so the person is able to find their own answers (the self-determination theory).
Tell us about your journey as a TCA student. How did the qualification slot in with your busy life?
Coaching taught me to step into the uncomfortable zone which I never dared to. With this, I stopped my procrastination because I finally know what my core values are.
What was the most rewarding part of your Coaching journey?
The most rewarding part- honestly I don’t know. It was such a valuable journey!
I was doing it full-time with a partner to support me, so I had all the time in the world and I did expect to finish it much earlier than the others but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The experience and the time it has taken to mature in this process is my journey.
One of the biggest rewards is learning not to rush – to be patient. I am a very impatient person by nature and I want everything to be done quickly. This might also be due to over 20 years in a corporate environment.
How did you choose your coaching niche?
Niche was another huge challenge. How do I choose? I struggled, to be honest, with my background and experience. I naturally moved towards corporate coaching, yet I kept finding myself life-coaching. And this made me realise, that the most important is knowing who you are, what you stand, the rest will fall into place.
So I found my niche naturally, coaching women like myself who spent years searching for their true self yet never dared to step into it because of the worries of life.
To be more specific, I coach very much on fulfilment, understanding one’s true purpose, identity, so a lot of work is about aligning who they are as a person through my coaching practice.
With my own personal experience, I found the Life Coaching Course alone was not sufficient, as I tend to go very deep with my clients ( these are mentioned many times in my earlier testimonies from clients I coached), so I added the NLP Practitioner programme.
Tell us about the work you do! How are you using your coaching skills?
My work is very ‘wide’ as I coach the person, not the problem or issues. When we help the person see the issue/ situation with a new lens, the problem kind of goes away.
I do a lot of self -study and other smaller courses on brain & neuroscience such as the holistic coaching by Margaret Moore (due to the sudden death of my son) and the subconscious mind from my NLP training, and I realised that a person is truly incredibly resourceful and creative - but only if they allow themselves to tap into it.
This is actually the beauty and power of coaching, we don’t tell the client what to do but use questions, metaphors to help them to bring about that clarity and direction in their life.
In my recent readings on “the healing of the brain”, I read about neuroplasticity in the treatment of chronic pain. They used the technique of visualisation which is actually what we use in coaching too. Good coaches are truly powerful, by just asking that right question, we create that insight for our clients, and they are able to leap forward. When a person is able to truly visualise, our brain waves change. As individuals, we hold the power to do many things if we only know how to tap into our own powers.
So this is what I want to do with my clients – to truly and fully empower them to live their authentic life.
I used a lot of metaphors with my clients especially for those who find themselves stuck, going round in a circle. They are extremely useful as metaphors are unique to each of us – it allows the client to go deep within themselves to uncover what is holding them back so they are able to move forth in their life, the courage and strength to do what they want to do.
What would you say to someone thinking of enrolling and the other students of The Coaching Academy?
The Coaching Academy equips you to coach by not only giving you the tools, but also the confidence.
Embrace the journey of learning not just to coach others but more importantly, to coach yourself. Do not short-change yourself and reach out to the others in the community for support. You will be surprised at how friendly and welcoming this group is.
We are launching our free 2021 Introduction to Life Coaching webinars. They are interactive, informative and designed to help you understand if training to be a life coach is for you.
Take positive action, project forward and plan for a year to remember for all the right reasons. Choose from available dates here.
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
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