Coaching Conversations
Saturday, 12 June 2021
CASE STUDY WALKING AND TALKING AS A THOUGHTFUL SHERPA
CASE STUDY WALKING AND TALKING AS A THOUGHTFUL SHERPA
In this post I reflect upon my experience as a Coach, using a real-life case study. As a Coach I engage in training and continuing education pursuing and maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
CLIENT
The client as an entrepreneur was reflecting on his ‘self’ and his patterns and how these affected his life, his work, his passions and interests. The client is very successful but prone to periods of positive creativity and production followed by periods where energy and mood may be low.
The coaching sessions were an exploration of the inter-connectedness of personal-life and professional-life and also the past, present and future, with a view to better understanding of self, motivation, patters and exploring goals and habits and which are most helpful to growth and progress.
SESSION(S) CONTENTS
The is an anonymised and generalised summary of a series of coaching sessions over time.
As an initiator to the face-to-face coaching sessions the client undertook some self authoring. Writing about past, present and future and highlighting key events that have shaped their thoughts, feeling and beliefs and the path of their journey provided a number of topics from which the client could select, reflect upon and share in discussion.
The face-to-face coaching sessions were generally in the form of a conversation when walking. The outdoors can be liberating to the mind and body and the somatic process of walking can be kinaesthetic and keep people in touch with their feelings, as opposed to across a table thinking cognitively in what at times might otherwise feel like an interview rather than coaching.
The outdoors also provides plenty of metaphors for unconscious thought to explore and manifest by observation, description and analogy. Talking about life, people circumstances as fish, waves, water or the journey as a path, beach, fields or the circumstances as bright, cloudy or clear provides a richness and safety in dialogue (by talking about abstract concepts without the risk or burden of reality).
By talking in metaphors we can talk cognitively about relationships, events, patterns, thoughts and feelings without the emotional charge that could encroach or constrain if we talk about reality. This allows mature reasoned thinking without the defensive distortions that can sometimes happen when issues are personalised or personified.
This is not to lessen or disregard the reality, but to explore ideas in psychological safety (and sometimes in anonymity) as concepts before applying them to reality, and adapting them to become useful tools, habits and practices. This allows consideration of new perspectives and approaches which can be throughly examined, thought and felt before bringting them into contact with reality and ‘ how could you do that in your life ‘.
The client is a very intelligent and deeply thoughtful person and coaching session are generally not problem, process, solution formulations but a thinking space for them to consider their purpose, process, priorities and plans.
In a nod to the GROW model, and to ensure outputs and outcomes the coaching conversations conclude with 1. what has been most useful 2. what will you put into practice and 3. when will you do this and often 4. what from our conversation would you like to explore further. However in contrast to the GROW model the outcome is not prescribed at the beginning but discovred in the journey.
REFLECTIONS ON APPROACH
I have enjoyed both the client and this approach, perhaps because both reflect my thinking and feeling values and an interest in exploration rather than overly hasty solutions. The client seems to valute the approach as evidenced by the thanks and feedback, but also the enthusiasm to continue the approach.
There are downsides, the coaching sessions tend to be deeply thoughtful and quite long, sometimes a walk can be between 1 hour or 1.5 hours, which may not suit many clients, but the client as an entrepreneur considers these an investment in himself and his business since the two are clearly linked in terms of value, identity and productivity.
REFLECTIONS ON CONTENT
I have found it really interesting (but not surprising) the linkages, patterns and influences of home, life, work and the path of past, present and future and it seems to me that in looking after the client as a whole person oe must explore all the elements of the thinking, feeling, being person (according to the clients interests and willingness to be open).
REFLECTIONS ON RELATIONSHIP
I like this client, but am always cautious and conscious not to become a friend at the expense of being a helpful coach. The aim is to follow the clients thinking and then deepen with challenge and questions. The client will think, reflect and offer their conclusions (and possibly justifications) but this is always preferable to any prescription by me. The judgement and choices must come from the client, even if the inquiry comes from me. I am therefore agnostic, impartial although curious and so the partnership is more akin to a sherpa helping the mountain leader than a guide cutting a path through the jungle: I follow with thoughtful questions rather than lead with intent.
FEEDBACK FROM THE CLIENT
I’m very happy with the write up. In fact I’d probably be happy with a named testimonial.
The other thing you could do is add this paragraph.
“In keeping with my usual mode of working with clients with respect to publishing material, I showed the above text to the client before publishing here. Not only did he give consent to publish but he added the following two paragraph of his own.
“Working with Tim, as my ‘Sherpa’ for the next pitch of this increasingly exciting mountain range, has been a brilliant decision. I tend to think I am quite difficult to coach, as I ‘know too much’ about coaching and leadership development – which often gets in the way of the process of turning that process back on myself. I find I am too intrigued at understanding the coach’s technique to engage with the process at surface level.
One of the great things about working with Tim has been his ease at taking the conversation to the meta-level, of why the present question is a useful one, and even meta to that of why I find it especially interesting, before diving back into the ground level of the discussion at face value. This ease with the layers of meaning, alongside a properly challenging presence to guide the conversation back to the agreed purpose has made the work much more enjoyable and sustainable.
Thank you Tim, looking forward to our next view from the mountain top.”
RESOURCES
About coaching and my approach. https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
Other resources / blogs https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coaching-and-mentoring/ http://thinkingfeelingbeing.com/coaching/ https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/ https://adaptcoachingconversations.blogspot.com/
About me
Former high-performance athlete at Commonwealth Games and World Champs, now an experienced Management Consultant,used to working with people and teams helping them achieve their goals.
Management Consultant MBA
Experienced team and change facilitator
International Coaching Federation ICF Trained Coach
Volunteer IoD Mentor
Chartered Management Institute Tutor for Level3,5 & 7
Sports Coach - Rowing and Triathlon
Qualified Personal Trainer
Monday, 3 May 2021
CASE STUDY SUBLIMINAL COACHING (BEING COACHED WITHOUT HAVING STARTED COACHING)
CLIENT
Over a series of meetings the client was always talking about coaching, the need for coaching, the value of coaching and being too busy for coaching. They were procrastinating and ironically engaged in a meta-conversation (being coached about their feelings toward being coached) without realising it.
SESSIONS
In this unusual scenario there were a series of email and meeting to discuss coaching, and indeed a contract for coaching, but no session with an agreed goal or objective. The sessions would begin with conversation, which is a usual approach to rapport and understanding recent events, what's on the clients' mind and some useful context to the coaching topic or theme.
However the conversation would ebb and flow, and meander, without there ever being an expressed aim or intent. As a coach I allowed this to happen, on the basis it is the client's time, priority and direction and although I might intervene with observations like "That would be a great topic to explore in a coaching conversation" the client would not take the bait and it isn't for me as the coach to force the topic or the timing.
Notwithstanding this the conversations were relevant to the clients state of mind, ambition and reflection as they pondered on recent events and how they felt about them. At times it was like friends having a chat, albiet that as a coach I consciously took a more listening, empathetic and curious approach to the conversation rather than joining in with my own experience or advice.
The client spoke of his sense of belonging, freedom and connected-ness in some group situations and the opposite in others. The former being substantially informal and educational (encouraging ideas and discussion in a safe environment) whereas the latter being professional (where comments tend to be evaluated and judged). This pattern, albeit in different forms and stories, appeared to repeat itself over a series of on-line meetings.
The client mentioned having read the book "From Contempt to Curiosity: Creating the Conditions for Groups to Collaborate Using Clean Language and Systemic Modelling" by Caitlin Walker. This was an insight to what may be on their mind.
We did discuss TA in the context of a conversation about cliques, out-groups and being patronised.
Transactional analysis - is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social transactions are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult-like) as a basis for understanding behavior
The discussion of belonging, trust and ability to speak freely in a non-professional environment and the feeling of being judged or in an out-group in a professional environment caused me to think about team dynamics, belonging, affiliation and Adult Attachment
Adult Attachment theory is used to categorize adults’ state of mind with respect to attachments. The classifications are secure-autonomous (F), dismissing (D), preoccupied (E), and disoriented/ disorganized (U/d).
This thinking affected my choice in response, borne out of curiosity but it did not crystallise into an agreed theme or topic of conversation. We did not, for example, specifically discuss "belonging" or "attachement". My preference being that it should be client who chooses what to explore and what labels to attach to their thoughts and feelings.
The client is hoping to start coaching soon...when things are less busy.
My view is that the client is not yet ready, or perhaps that I am not the right coach for them. Either way it does not seem to be that we have found the circumstances to move from discussing coaching to doing coaching and pushing the client when they are not ready does not seem helpful.
REFLECTIONS
I suspect there may be some questions about drawing observations and conclusions from the pre-coaching dialogue which may appear judgemental (in so far as they are in the mind of the coach rather than the client) and therefore contrary to the coaching philosophy which is non-judgemental.
The fact that the client does attend meetings, and does talk, often for a full hour, is evidential that they are getting something from the conversation. Otherwise of course they would simply send a cancellation by email.
This is not coaching in the conventional sense of GROW. Nonetheless there has been coaching, since there has been conversation, reflection, evaluation by the client about their circumstance, the meaning and value behind their relationships and their aim from coaching.
The GROW Model is a simple four-step process that helps you structure coaching and mentoring sessions with team members. GROW is an acronym that stands for: Goal. Current Reality. Options (or Obstacles).
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
CASE STUDY SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR SEEKING TO CHANGE THE WORLD
CLIENT
Over a series of meetings the client, a small business entrepreneur, was considering their products, services and business. The coaching was therefore partially about plans, operations, ambitions, approaches and goals. However all entrepreneur's have a bit of themselves invested in their business. Something of their personality, traits, hope, fears, virtues and vices and coaching will very often touch upon personal issues, past experiences and future ambitions.
SESSIONS
The small business entrepreneur has a successful and growing business that may be described as social enterprise given the focus in helping people in crisis and addressing very sensitive issues. There was a blend of hard-nosed business focus to set and meet goals as well as an emotional understanding and empathy for the entrepreneur and the community that they are seeking to support.
The sessions explored products and markets, clients and consumers from a business perspective, but also as vulnerable people with needs for communication, support and understanding. Coaching talked about 'imperfect leadership' and the concept of having to help yourself before you can help others (Example putting on a mask or protective gear in order to better serve and support others.)
We discussed different ways of employing, engaging and remunerating people. And the different ways of licensing and product production. This looks at the short-term (kitchen table pick-and-pack) as well as warehouse and outsource. We also looked at what can quickly and easily be scaled. All the time reflecting back, how can this be done in a way that is consistent with the value and social purpose of the organisation.
The sessions explored the differences between clients (who sponsor or buy services), customers (who demand, need, want services) and consumers (who use, take-up, use-up services). The discussions reflected on their different needs and how best to communicate and serve them in a way that is supportive and sustainable. We explored a variety of products, tools, and pricing for each stakeholder group and how these ay be organised in a coherent way that can be funded and functional as a successful business providing a valued service.
Given the business aspect we talked about various models including LEAN-Canvas, MVP, Sprint, Agile, Prototyping. But we also touched upon the clients personal issues, past experiences and future ambitions which are the blueprint for the organisation and the meaning behind the artefacts.
REFLECTIONS
The sessions were a mix of coaching and mentoring. They explored the meaning and purpose of then business as well as the experience drive and ambition of the client. The sessions were conversational and active with provoking models, ideas and reflecting on what has been tried in the past and aimed for in the future.
This was business coaching, a mix of person, role and organisation and understanding how each has implications for the other. I found myself particularly drawn to the book Executive Coaching: Systems-Psychodynamic Perspective by Halina Brunning
In coaching it is important to understand the Person, Role and System
You should consider;
The clients personality;
The clients life story;
The clients skills, competencies, abilities and talents;
Their aspirations, progression and future aim;
Their workplace and environment in which they perform;
Their current organisational role.
Reference http://www.brunningonline.net/halina/coaching.html
I found the balance of business and personal exploration compelling,
and the person and business social enterprise interesting and rewarding
to explore. Perhaps because as a coach I too am a small business
entrepreneur seeking to change the world. It is therefore interesting to
consider transference, counter-transference and collusion in the client
and coaching relationship.
In a coaching context, transference
refers to redirection of a client's feelings for a person or situation
to the coach. Countertransference is defined as redirection of a
coach's feelings toward a client, or more generally, as a coach's
emotional engagement with a client or their pursuit.
Read more
Transference vs. Countertransference: What’s the big deal?
https://www.therapistdevelopmentcenter.com/blog/transference-vs-countertransference-whats-the-big-deal/
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/transference#takeaway
In
this case I am a coach / mentor and not a business advisor, colleague
or friend. Although I like the client and the business and their
combined purpose I am not overly invested or blinded in a way that would
undermine the client / coach relationship.
COACHING STYLE
There
are various coaching styles, four of which are as summarised in the
right side-bar [1] Person-centered coaching, [2] Psychodynamic coaching,
[3] Behavioral coaching [4] Existential coaching
My approach is
to use all of these in different measures to suit many clients with
diverging needs in a variety of circumstances. I see these as resources,
tools and approaches to be selected for the particular person, need or
task. As such my coaching can be very different and does not always
contain itself within one 'school' or approach.
I am not adverse
to offering resources, guides, reading, models, insights, homework,
questionnaires, assessments where these can help provoke awareness,
provide resources, create options or choice. These are are open to the
client to explore. They do not constitute advice, recommendations, or
prescriptions. Coaching is not magic and there should be no mystery. My
approach is always to offer the client whatever resources and support
may be useful to them. Sometimes that is just listening.
I have written about various styles here https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/
No1 Psychodynamic https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no1.html
No2 Cognitive https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no2.html
No3 Solution Focused https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no3.html
No4 Person Centered Approach https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no4.html
No5 Gestalt https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no5.html
No6 Existential Coaching https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no6.html
No7 Ontological Coaching https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2020/08/different-approaches-to-coaching-no7.html
IMPORTANT NOTES
The
Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or
maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All
coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above
has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst
providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for
the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All
coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms
and Conditions
https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
Sunday, 2 May 2021
CASE STUDY INFLUENCING OR PERSUADING IN RELATION TO COVID VACCINE
CLIENT
The client wanted their parents to have the COVID vaccine, but felt that their parents were hesitant. The client wanted to explore ways of influencing or persuading without the topic becoming heated, or indeed provoking an opposing response.
SESSIONS
The session explored the parent and child relationship and the adult to adult relationship and how conversations could be very different in mode 1 (parent and child relationship) compared to mode 2 (adult to adult relationship). This lead to an exploration of how to set-up the best mode for this type of conversation.
There was also an exploration of the thinking and feeling differences between people and whether influencing or persuading should be based on logic (facts) or emotion (feelings) and indeed whether it should be PUSH (you should, you must) or PULL (what do you think if, what do you think of).
There was also discussion of the risks/reward pay-off and whether the motivation might be carrot (we can travel to places with a vaccine) or stick (not having the vaccine is a high risk)
This combination of relationship modes, thinking and feeling, carrot and stick, PUSH (telling) and PULL (asking) provided a complex and rich combination of options and approachs which offered the client choice and flexibility. This made the feel far more confident about how to approach the future conversation.
REFLECTIONS
The session was a client-lead Carl Rogers style coaching with the work, thinking and outcomes coming from the client based on occasional questions and curiosity from the coach. This was less about how to win an argument, and more about having many options available when going into a discussion. The client was very happy having explored different strategies and thinking about what combinations would work best for them in this scenario.
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
The article below provides some context to the coaching style adopted.
https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2021/03/finding-your-own-coaching-style.html
CASE STUDY IDEAS TO SUPPORT MOTIVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY IN A VOLUNTARY GROUP
CLIENT
The client is a leader of a voluntary group and looking for ways to inspire and motivate the team who are sometimes less enthusiastic about the mundane but necessary admin tasks, or who perhaps need support in making jobs simpler and faster to get done.
SESSIONS
The session explored the challenges of leading volunteers and the potential difference between what they enjoy doing (why they volunteered) and what needs doing (to keep the organisation going.)
We discussed the time, talent and interests of individuals and how we might better align them to tasks, and perhaps how to make takes simpler (with technology and templates) and easier (with support and guidance) and indeed how to prioritise (do, ditch, delegate or delay)
We talked about what the issues may be and came up with 3 broad themes: {1} a lack of umph, drive or passion {2} a lack of skill or experience {3} the challenge of priority and time management, getting tasks done.
We talked about how to ensure that there were fun tasks to maintain interest, enthusiasm and engagement to off-set the occasional but necessary dull tasks, and ways to share work and reward success, effort and tasks done. We explored the idea that at least 33% of the task need to be "fun" to sustain the drive for the 66% of tasks that are necessary.
We talked about how aa pile of tasks (Example say 52 tasks to be done in a year) can be daunting, but one per week, can see simple and achievable and therefore the need to package work into doable chunks that do not seem too difficult or overwhelming. We noted doing small tasks first can create a positive snowball effect of confidence, progress and commitment.
We talked about recruitment helping to share the load, and also recruitment to bring friends into the organisation and therefore making things fun to do (because you are doing the tasks with friends). This lead to a useful conversation about streamlining and improving the recruitment and on-boarding process.
We also discussed the importance of communication. {push communication} sending things out and {pull communication} making things available to look-up, download or refer to. The aim being to standardise and simplify communication so that is is simple, clear, predictable and useful rather than simply overwhelming.
We noted that good communication is clear, concise, relevant, accurate, timely, efficient, relevant and reducing the volume and adding the quality of communication may help with coordination, collaboration and community. For example a weekly newsletter may be better than 20 separate emails. For example routing all communications via a coordinator may help with feedback and consensus.
REFLECTIONS
The session was a conversational coaching session drawing out possible issues and different means to address them. The session followed the agenda and priorities of the client, albeit with questions from the coach to gain understanding of the issues and elicit possible options for the client to consider what may be suitable, feasible and acceptable for the voluntary group.
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
The article below provides some context to the coaching style adopted.
https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2021/03/finding-your-own-coaching-style.html
Saturday, 27 March 2021
CASE STUDY IDEAS TO IMPROVE CREDIBILITY AND INFLUENCE
CLIENT
The client wanted to explore ideas to improve credibility and influence in their role.
SESSIONS
The session explored the context and why they wanted to explore ideas to improve credibility and influence. It also inquired about evdence: "What is an example of..." and "How will you know..." to understand what the issue looks like, and what success would look like, ostensibly as objective measure of success for reflective practice.
The client shared their observations on what others did to demonstrate credibility and influence, and their skills, experience, attributes, behaviours. They compared this to their themseles. The coach and client explored what seemed to work and what didn't and the different strengths and weaknesses of others' approach and the clients - noting some of the key unique strengths (skills, experience, qualification, data) that the client had which others did not.
The unique strengths that the client had (but had not previously appreciated) provoked some awareness of opportunities. The coaching conversation moved on to the topic of meetings as a key forum for influence and explored what happens a. before, b. during and c. after meetings and what opportunities may exist to improve credibility and influence at each step. This identified opportunities for 1. circulating data ahead of the meeting, 2. having one-to-one pre-meetings, 3. managing the contents tone and direction of the meeting (by speaking first) or 4. managing the conclusion taking on-board everything said (by speaking last) each of which was explored for pros and cons and how that might be helpful.
This lead naturally to a conversation about the decision process or path: the sequence of events and time-frame in which decisions get made. The client realised that they did indeed have influence when they considered the process and time-frame. They had not previously considered the impact of their contributions.
This opened up a new dialogue about the sequence of events and time-frame in which decisions get made and how they may exert greater influence and demonstrate credibility. We briefly explored MBTI / DISC personality types and the learning and thinking preferences of each, and the impact of this on influence and persuasion.
REFLECTIONS
The session was a textbook approach of person-centred coaching, aided by the knowledge and self awareness of the client with only minor prompting and questions from the coach to open up areas that the client had already identified, but not yet fully considered or employed. The session reflected all the skills, resources and knowledge that the client already had, but provided a forum both to consider them more carefully, but also a 'call to action' to start using the ideas and employ reflective practice to gauge their success.
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
The article below provides some context to the coaching style adopted.
https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2021/03/finding-your-own-coaching-style.html
Friday, 26 March 2021
CASE STUDY FEELING ANXIOUS ABOUT A JOB INTERVIEW
CLIENT
The client was feeling anxious about a job interview.
SESSIONS
The session explored feelings of guilt, anxiety and excitement associated with potentially leaving their old role and starting a new one. Through inquiry each feeling was discussed in a mix of both rational argument and emotional feeling. This surfaced further feelings about readiness, competency, ability each of which was probed along the lines 'How would you know?' or 'Who would be the best judge?' .
There was a repeated discussion about factors that were pushing or pulling the client in one direction or another. These factors included logical, emotional, carear, family, stability, opportunity and ambition considerations. The client articulated a clear plan of preparation and readiness for the job interview, and indeed the evaluation criteria for accepting or rejecting the role.
By splitting the events into a sequence of 1. before interview, 2. after interview and 3. making decision, it became clear that not withstanding their apprehension about the job interview, the anxiety was linked to the decision.
The coach invited the client to think about 'What would it be like going into the interview knowing that you are going to reject the role?' . The client immediately felt relieved understanding that they could make 'decline' the default option. This appeared to remove all the anxiety, leaving the possibility of accepting the role, but with no assumption (and therefore pressure) that this was inevitable.
The client later wrote a Thank You by email: Thanks again for today’s session.... It’s helped me so much, I already feel much lighter
REFLECTIONS
The session certainly removed the clients present anxiety. There may yet be a challenge if they are offered the role and need to make a decision, but there is merit in "Don't cross your bridges before you come to them" (Don't worry about problems before they arrive.) and the session put the client in a better frame of mind for the next two steps, which may indeed help calm clarity for the third step should it ever come to that.
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
The article below provides some context to the coaching style adopted.
FINDING YOUR OWN COACHING STYLE
https://adaptcoaching.blogspot.com/2021/03/finding-your-own-coaching-style.html