Why Coaching Works For Empaths

This article gives you an introduction on how coaching works for empaths on their journey in creating a meaningful work life without burning themselves out.

Signs you might be an empath

As an empath you “empathize” with people. You have the ability to understand what someone is feeling and what it is like to be in their situation. In fact, you might be sensitive to the point of not being able to differentiate between your own and other people’s feelings. As a result, you absorb their stress in your own body.

You love to support others. You can read other people’s emotions when you see them and you are a natural good listener. You show compassion without judgements and are a fast problem solver, so people come to you with their challenges. A lot of my clients are very value driven. They care about social, political and environmental issues and they start businesses that make a positive impact for their local community.

What gives and takes your energy as an empath

Often empaths are highly sensitive, intuitive and more on the scale of introversion. That means you get energy from being on your own, introspection, silence, connecting with nature and animals. On the other hand, you get easily drained from overstimulating your senses. Interactions with people too, especially if they share their heavy burdens with you.

As an empath, it is easy to get too involved with other people’s lives and stories.You want to solve all the problems in this world and forget about filling your own cup. If you work with people on a daily basis, it is important that you take time to pull the plug of outside distractions and take time to be with yourself. You can only be of service if you are centered and not constantly steered from outside events. Feeling drained, anxious, indecisive and low in energy are signs that it is time to step out of the stream.

The holistic way of coming back to your strengths as an empath

I experience coaching not as a self-optimization tool to improve ourselves and enhance our performance. But, as a space to just be ourselves, step out of the daily madness, feel our emotions and get to know ourselves better. Especially with important work life decisions, it is super helpful to have someone by your side who understands and supports you. Unlike a friend or a family member, you need someone objective enough not to be biased or self-serving.

Co-Active Coaching focuses on the person as a whole. You may come with a “business” topic, feeling frustrated at work and not knowing where to take your career next. We will work on deeper levels of yourself to get you back into a state where you feel aligned with your core beliefs. As a result, you will take conscious steps towards what’s important to you.

Challenges that you experience as an empath and how coaching can help you

Next, we will go through some of the most common challenges I experienced in my journey and through my clients. I will show you how we work together on lasting change and transformation on each of them.

“I don’t know what I want”

Don’t worry. This is why you need to take time and space to remember or to redefine what matters to you. You will not find the answer on social media or by asking people for advice.

Realising that we are missing meaning and a purpose at work can be a frustrating start. We spend so much of our life time at work. I have a client who is in that space at the moment. Through the coaching, she is allowing herself to feel this frustration, knowing she is not in the right place in her career, working in an industry and role that she doesn't care about. During the coaching process, you (re)define your personal WHY, your core values and what brings you into a flow state. My client is remembering again what is making her alive and what fulfillment looks like for her.

Creating an authentic vision for your unique work life is one of the most powerful parts of coaching I have experienced together with my clients. It can literally move mountains when you know what you want and who you would like to become in the process.

“I don’t follow through”

No more starting and stopping. Your coach is a partner who believes in you and will allow you to reach for much more. That’s why “good” coaching is always more than a nice conversation. The Co-Active process helps you to hold yourself accountable to take action. A coach challenges you and walks besides you when you establish new behaviors that support you in achieving your goals.

Growth means leaping outside your comfort zone, repeatedly. I usually ask my client to come up with one or two manageable actions between the sessions. These will put the “aha” moment they had during the coaching into practice. One client of mine had the challenge to get in touch and have a conversation with 10 people on LinkedIn about the profession she was interested in. She came back in the next session surprised and inspired by how many people were willing to help and share their experience with her. It helped her get more courage to take the next step in her professional path.

“I am stuck and my thoughts are all over the place”

Do you know this feeling when you feel like your emotions have taken over? Your thoughts are running in circles and you cannot find the answer, no matter how much “THINKING” you are doing? That’s why I love the before and after effects of coaching. Come in mad and go out centered. All without judgment, false positivity, or great advice from “I know what is best for you”.

Through coaching, you will recognize your own limiting beliefs. Also known as the bullshit radio or negative self-talk, it tries to keep you safe where you are. But most importantly, it blocks you from taking risks necessary for you to evolve. Through becoming aware of your inner chatter and its role in your work life you can recognize it much faster and consciously choose to act on it or not.

During the coaching sessions you have the opportunity to come back to the present moment, breathe and connect to the wise and genuine part of you. Changing your mental state happens through working and connecting with your body and intuition. It happens by visualising yourself from the outside in perspective. Here you can also realise emotions that you have incorporated from others. I work with meditation and visualisation, helping my clients to respond more calmly to stress and make choices more easily. It also helps them access much more of their creativity.

To act on your strong values and create a meaningful, energizing work life, it is important for empaths to identify what is important to them. They have to move out of a reactive state and create new possibilities for moving forward. Coaching is an encouraging process to regain confidence in yourself and to tap into your empathetic potential.

If you want Clarity, Confidence and Courage get in touch with me or book your free Chemistry Call directly. I would love to get to know you and see how I can support you to create your fulfilling work life this autumn.

Sources:

• https://coactive.com/about/what-is-coactive/#co-active-leadership