Foundations in Coaching: Getting to an Actionable Step
Because I’ve been in over five years of Cognitive Therapy, I want to be aware that I’m not here to heal people and am not trained to. That my role is coach and that is to be in the service of my client and co-create with them. So, I would like to experimenting with the “GROW Model” (McGonagill, 2002, pg.77). I’ll chose a few of the questions for the next peer coaching session and use them if they make sense. The idea that “all practice begins through imitation.” (McGonagill, 2002, pg.63) also resonated with me. I notice that I feel safer when I imitate my previous life coach and therapist. I would like to use that as a base. However, I want to challenge it with different frames in “A Theory-Based Coaching Framework” (Stockton, 2020, Pg.4) especially from spaces that I often don’t explore in “systems/systemic thinking” (Stockton, 2020, Pg.4) and “solution focused” (Stockton, 2020, Pg.4). I will do this by applying pre selected questions provided in the journal in the next coaching sessions.
In reading on social constructionism I was very inspired by “focus less on what the client “wants” - and more on the processes that create the client’s understanding of “want” (Harsch-Porter, 2023, p.83). I want to try this technique in my next coaching session. Such as what do they get for the want i.e. if it’s more time for themself than for their family for instance. What is it that the client is getting from this want? Is it a feeling of relaxation and freedom? If by uncovering the feelings behind those wants that it would surface “multiple possibilities and multiple paths to success.” (Harsch-Porter, 2023, p.83) Perhaps it won’t be wanting time for themselves. It can be being with the family but in a way that achieves the feelings of freedom and relaxation. It could be taking the family to a yoga class or going for a quiet walk together.
Many of these experiments are in the “close” steps of the “FACE method” (FACE, 2022), which are areas I often miss in my coaching sessions. With regards to DEI perspective. Reading through the “Cycle of Socialization” (Harro B., 1997, Pg.45). I notice that I do “internalize my oppression” (Harro B., 1997, Pg.45). This article made me want to stop the cycle. I will do that by taking deep breaths before my sessions and imagining my mentors standing behind me and lifting me up to put on a different mindset of being “humanized through action; not dehumanized by oppression” (Harro B., 1997, Pg.52).
In Social Constructionist “accepts that there are multiple, equally value truths operating simultaneously.”(Harsch-Porter S., 2011, Pg.82). How do we as coaches relate these truths with all the different systems also at play for our client in our coaching sessions?
Appendices – Full Arc Coaching Engagement (FACE): An Integrative Coaching Model. Download Appendices – Full Arc Coaching Engagement (FACE): An Integrative Coaching Model.Updated 2022. Vancouver: UBC Extended Learning. pp. 54-69.
Harsch-Porter, S. (2011). Chapter 9: Social constructionism. Download Chapter 9: Social constructionism.In L. Wildflower & D. Brennan (Eds.). The handbook of knowledge-based coaching. From theory to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 81-88.
McGonagill, G. (2002). Chapter 3: The coach as reflective practitioner. Download Chapter 3: The coach as reflective practitioner.In C. Fitzgerald and J.C. Berger (Eds.). Executive coaching: practices and perspectives. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 59-85.
Stockton, J. (2020, 2nd ed). Coaching Framework for Behaviour and Change: In Pursuit of Reflective Practice. Download Coaching Framework for Behaviour and Change: In Pursuit of Reflective Practice. Monograph Series 2. Vancouver: Canadian Centre for Positive Change.
Full Arc Coaching Engagement (FACE): An Integrative Coaching Model. Download Full Arc Coaching Engagement (FACE): An Integrative Coaching Model. Updated 2022. Vancouver: UBC Extended Learning.
Harro, B. (1997). Chapter 6: Cycle of Socialization. Download Chapter 6: Cycle of Socialization.In Adams, M., Bell, L. A., Griffin, P. (Eds). Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, New York: Routledge.