Journey to Awareness

My coaching journey is a fascinating one. I have been in the psychotherapeutic profession since 2008. While practicing psychotherapy in different circumstances I found it difficult to apply for those who are future oriented. Coaching appeared as an effective tool for people with issues of moving forward or those who feel stuck in life. However, the person who is stuck or fixated on their past psychotherapy works better.?

In moving forward, I found powerful questioning to be an effective tool. When a person talks, their talks usually revolve around their issues. It is important to pick the correct point of talking that has been emphasized by the client. This can be the tonality, pitch, or emphasis on specific words. Focusing on the non-verbal behavior of the client is also important here. Client’s gestures, posture, body positioning, movement, etc. are also important aspects to be noticed. All of this requires active listening and presence for the client.?

Here, active listening is very much crucial. In coaching, listening is something that we do using our whole body and all our senses. While a coach is listening, they are listening by ear, eyes, mouth, head, body, etc. Leaning forward and remaining present for the client is crucial for developing trust among the clients.?

Another important aspect of coaching is that the coach needs to be calm and composed as well as welcoming. The coach’s body positioning, sitting arrangement, etc. can give some non-verbal cues to the client. A coach with confidence, a smiling appearance, and openness to experience can easily build trust and acceptance for the client.?

In addition to these, a non-judgmental attitude is important to build trust and safety among the clients. Being non-judgmental means observing without evaluation or assessment. When we add our opinions, assessment, and evaluation to any kind of observation then it becomes judgmental. Clients never want to be judged. If such issues happen clients start to feel uncomfortable, and they ultimately don’t trust the coach.?

In this connection, confidentiality is another important aspect to be considered for a coach. Whenever clients express their secrets or issues to the coach, they make them vulnerable. Usually, they share such issues of their life that they don’t feel comfortable sharing with others. There remains a subtle fear among the client that these secrets may come out or they may fall into vulnerability. To address this issue, it is important to ensure the confidentiality of the issues. A coach must have the capacity to state it and manifest it with confidence.?

Lastly, I would like to mention about the expertness. In doing coaching expertness is very much important. This expertise may come through practice and mentoring. While doing coaching with peers a lot of self-issues come out which often don’t come to show. This opens the area where to work and how can we reach an expert level. Also, a variety of issues may come up that can puzzle you. Hence, practicing can make us prepared for noble issues to come up. In addition to practicing with peers, mentoring sessions with a mentor coach also bring a lot of awareness. There are always some dark areas about self. These unexplored areas of self can be brought into awareness through mentoring sessions. So, I would say that this creates an overall awareness through this program which is a life-long resource.?

Author - Md. Salim Hossain