Dealing with stress lately? Wondering how to best help your clients with their wellbeing goals? TCA Head of Training and Life Coach, Sharon Lawton, is sharing a framework she uses with her clients to create healthy habits that support emotional health. Find out more in this article!
Back in April 2019, I read an article that said that according to the WHO, stress has been classified as the health epidemic of the 21st century. Fast forward to now - if nothing else, Covid-19 has taught us many things. Certainly at the beginning of the pandemic when the world “stopped” many of my clients whom I was coaching virtually at the time said to me
“Sharon, with everything the way it is at the moment I’ve stepped off the hamster wheel of life and I’m really not sure whether I want to get back on it again –it’s made me reflect on the important things in life and that there must be more to life than work! Can we explore that together please!”
15 months later we are starting to see a different story emerging as lockdown has affected our emotional wellbeing more than perhaps we care to admit. Charities such as MIND are saying that the coronavirus outbreak has had a real and negative impact on our mental health and wellbeing. Many clients and friends are saying to me that they feel that they are living at work rather than working from home!
As coaches, I believe that this is where we can make a real difference in people's lives, particularly if you are a coach who has a niche in the area of wellbeing.
To lead satisfying lives, fulfil our potential and enjoy good physical and mental health we need to be emotionally healthy.
This isn’t about being happy all the time. As coaches, we can raise our clients' awareness of the fact that our wellbeing is fluid and changes over time.
Our wellbeing influences many things how we think and feel about ourselves and other people, it also affects how we interpret events and possibly most importantly it influences our ability to cope with life, and any changes in our lives and so is a powerful area for coaching.
Wellbeing is also vitally important to us as coaches. The ICF Code of Ethics states that as coaches we need to look after ourselves and develop and maintain the ability to regulate our emotions.
Wellbeing is something that personally and professionally we need to prioritise as coaches. Overall, taking care of our own wellbeing will help us support our clients too - by raising their awareness of mini habits that either help or hinder their overall wellbeing.
When I am coaching in this area I use “WRAP” as a coaching tool. WRAP is officially known as a wellness recovery action plan, however, I have remodelled it when coaching with clients to be a Wellbeing Resilience Action Plan.
When coaching with clients on wellbeing, I use it as a framework to coach in the following way;
• Raising awareness of triggers to wellbeing
• Building awareness of early warning signs
• Creation of a daily action plan for wellbeing
• Development of a personalised wellbeing toolbox
How would you support clients to create their personalised wellbeing toolbox?
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