How do you deal with resistance or conflict in a coaching session?

Importantly a coach has to be able hear/feel/see/intuit the resistance. Resistance shows up in clients in many different ways. Naming it as the elephant in the room helps raise client awareness. Naming it becomes an important part of the client seeing it and exploring it and its impact. Resistance is not bad in itself. Resistance can be a rich source of information for the client. Typically resistance will show up when client values/beliefs/identities are being challenged or are in tension, and these are often invisible directly to the client.

Coach empathy can show up in a number of ways; Reflecting the impact you see in the client of the resistance; Inviting client metaphors as they begin to name and explore the resistance. Be careful to avoid all judgement statements or making up stories. The use of Clean language can be helpful here.

I agree with this 100% and this is one of the first steps I do in any coaching scenario. Being able to quickly build rapport is an invaluble tool that allows for a smoother transition through the coaching process for all involved.

Validating and empathizing with your client is a powerful step in addressing resistance or conflict. By acknowledging and accepting their feelings and perspectives, without judgment or agreement, you create a safe space for open dialogue. Demonstrating understanding and genuine care for their experience builds trust and rapport, fostering a collaborative and supportive coaching relationship. Additionally, leveraging positive feedback, appreciation, and encouragement helps reinforce their strengths and achievements, further motivating their growth and development.

1. Shift perspectives 2. Empower transformation 3. Foster resilience Challenging and reframing beliefs and assumptions helps clients explore new viewpoints, unlocking fresh possibilities for growth and change. By questioning long-held beliefs, coaches inspire clients to embrace change, overcome obstacles, and tap into their full potential. Challenging beliefs cultivates adaptability, equipping clients with the mindset to thrive in a changing world and seize opportunities.

If empathy is about heart then challenge is about backbone. A coach must be comfortable with degrees of provocation to challenge and disrupt the client stories and beliefs. I once worked with a manager who cared deeply about their people. They wanted to be known as a good manager. They had a story about how giving important critical feedback eroded the idea of them being a good manager. Good managers don't upset people or be mean. I heard flawed thinking and offered what I heard — good managers withhold important information needed for growth and lie to their people? The well-judged provocation created humour and openness to explore what else was hiding here.

One way a coach can support collaborate here is to support the client in exploring a few different perspectives (there are perspectives everywhere). Take some time having the client embody these different energies and then invite them to choose the one they feel will have most wisdom to offer on their topic. Brainstorm here to generate potential experiments and move to comittment.

This is a really badly framed question, and hence the AI answers sound plausible but are fragmented. By asking about resistance or conflict, you're not identifying a specific issue. Everyone who engages a coach will have some elements of both, maybe under other labels, which is why they engage a coach. You coach the whole person, not just 1 or 2 extracted assumptions. So the answer to how to handle someone with those issues is ... to coach them well. The AI responses are not steps - they are fragments of good coaching practice, but they are misleading, because the question was so badly framed, and there's a lot missing. Sorry, but GIGO.

Resistance in people is the sign of a lack of rapport NLP terms as a coach its about asking yourself what is it that has created a lack of rapport, at that point? Then its about working with the client to create the right environment to challenge the thinking, the belief, and what the client really wants...its all about them not me/you as a coach