What To Expect When We Work Together!
1. You’re The Boss
You decide how the goals we discuss fit into your life. Not the other way around. If your goal is weightloss, I won’t tell you that you need to eliminate any certain food completely, because I want you to shift the belief of “good” or “bad” foods. Instead, I'll give you the knowledge and wisdom you need to make informed choices that fit your lifestyle at YOUR speed. Tiny habits create big change! I am here to primarily guide to help you discover your own solutions to improve your wellness and overall health, not necessarily weightloss. If we just focused on weightloss and never explored WHY you keep "dieting", we would not be developing together a plan for LASTING change. Although weightloss may be experienced, together we are moreso continously moving forward in many specific area's in one's life, so a domino effect will more than likely result in MANY positive milestones along the way! Score!
2. Progress Over Perfection
Because the process of self-development is full of ups and downs, I believe everyone should be able to hit their personal goals at a pace that’s right for them.
3. “Small” issues
It’s easy to feel like you need to talk about “deep” or “serious” issues in our sessions. But remember, there’s no “correct” topic to discuss in life or health coaching. You can talk about whatever you want.
True, some people hire a life or health coach to address something specific, like losing weight or building stronger relationships with others. But sometimes, people are just going through a life transition and want someone to talk with and help them cope with the change.
If you’re finding it tough to open up, I'd just like to welcome the idea that nothing is off-limits.
People talk about everything in life and health coaching. They talk about their hopes, dreams, fears, disappointments, hurts, shame, conversations with their mom, interactions with their partner, perceived failures as a parent, or even their most recent date.
Not sure where to start the session? Begin by recapping what happened since we last spoke, good and bad — we will always start the session with the positive, and from there, we can determine what we'd like to explore further together.
4. Patterns and behaviors
It may be a good idea to track your thoughts, patterns, and behaviors by keeping a journal between coaching sessions. This can be especially helpful if you’re shy or find it difficult to remember things on the spot.
Of course, you don’t have to bring your journal with you or read from it in session. But writing things down allows you to look for patterns in your feelings and behaviors that you might want to address with me.
For instance, a person may observe that they have been feeling inadequate or insecure and this would be a good thing to address with their coach.
5. Present feelings
You might have felt sad, angry, or depressed during the week, but if you’re not feeling that way right now, you don’t have to start with that. Focus on how you’re feeling in the present, and just say how you feel — even if what you’re feeling is just, “I didn’t really want to take this hour for coaching today because I’m slammed at work.”
The truth is, what you need from our sessions together will change day to day. It’s OK if you went in thinking you’d talk about your relationship and instead spent the whole session venting about your boss..and sometimes what you need at the moment is someone to allow you the space to just vent.
6. Relationships
This doesn’t just mean your love life. If you're comfortable, it's perfectly fine to talk about all your relationships, whether that’s your partner, your family, or your friends. If not, that's okay too! It's not about what I want to discuss, it's just what you want to discuss!
Do you feel like you have support at home? Do you feel like you have other people to share your feelings with, or do you have difficulty opening up with others too, not just your coach?
Relationships are important to your mental health, and they play an important role in affecting your mood and feelings on a day-to-day basis.
So, if you’ve been avoiding someone when they call, let your coach know, maybe you two can explore why you're avoiding that phone call.
Even if you feel like you have good relationships, talking about them might help you realize the things that are working in your life — and the resources you can lean on out of session.
7. Past traumas
This one might sound obvious — or conjure up stereotypical images of lying back on a chaise lounge a la Freud — but the truth is, if you’ve been focusing on your present in your last sessions, you might not have gotten around to filling in your coach on your past. Taking a moment to step back from your present and choosing to talk about your past could help you address some feelings you’ve been bottling up or left unresolved.
8. New life challenges
People in sessions tend to have something they want to address, however, it is not always a problem. Sometimes, it is a feeling or an emotion that is unfamiliar to them.
When clients experience new aspects of life, like childbirth, marriage, relocation, this can ignite untapped areas in their life that they need help understanding. While not always able to articulate what that feeling is, they are able to recognize that something is different.
If something has changed in your life and it’s making you feel different in some way, bring it up. You don’t have to talk just about the “bad” stuff. Change can be good and yet still bring up new feelings you might want to explore in a safe, nonjudgmental space.
9. Avoided thoughts and conflicts
This could be something you’re ashamed of thinking, or something you think is “silly” to worry about. Maybe it’s something you think is “insignificant” or “stupid.”
We all censor ourselves and judge our feelings. But coaching is exactly the place to explore all our thoughts and feelings, even the ones we feel like we shouldn’t be having.
For example, lots of people think they’re not entitled to be upset about the pandemic because they haven’t experienced as many hardships, like job loss or the death of a loved one, and yet they’re still having a hard time coping with its impacts.
It’s OK to feel whatever you’re feeling, and it’s definitely OK to bring it up in our coaching sessions.
I like to send a short and sweet pre-fillable questionnaire to ask clients to think about what they’d least like to talk about at that next session. It’s usually a good sign of where the trouble is.
We often avoid talking about things that are uncomfortable, painful, or difficult, and yet when we let them fester, they get worse. Consider our sessions to be your safe place to talk through those things you’d otherwise avoid.
10. When to end your coaching sessions
Coaching lasts as long as you'd like! You might find yourself at some point wanting to take or break- or maybe just check in with me on a monthly basis instead of weekly. So, if you reach a point where you previously found it easy to think of things to talk about, and now you’re not, it might be a sign you’ve reached a point to take a break. It's recommended you stick to coaching at-least 90 days before making the decision that you're ready for a break. You'll have the option to continue coaching on if you'd like, but it's completely up to you. I like to suggest when clients feel this way to think back to our first session together. Does it feel like you accomplished what you set out to accomplish? If so, have you identified new goals along the way that you could shift to instead? If you’re continuing to feel like you’re learning more about yourself, or you’re gathering new information and resources, it’s usually a sign that you’re still getting something out of coaching.