Much of the time, our lives can run along well-worn tracks which carry us relatively smoothly through the world.

Inevitably, however, at some point the tracks run out or a kink occurs which throws or halts us. Sometimes these work themselves out as we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and off we go again.

Sometimes these highlight where our old life-skills and strategies need updating, which can be easier and longer lasting when you have someone alongside to support and question.

I work alongside individuals at times of these ‘openings’, these interruptions to the status quo.

Issues that people bring to coaching include: improving relationships and communication at work or at home; values and life purpose / vision; work-life balance; next step / career progression; managing stress; self-image or self-confidence; anxiety.

An interruption may occur in one area of life. You may notice, however, that life / work / mind / body / spirit don’t divide neatly into tidy, separate areas. With this in mind my coaching approach includes as much of you as possible. If you’ve had coaching before you may find this approach different. It aims to produce outcomes which are lasting and powerful across different areas of life.

You can probably best think about the purpose of this type of coaching as an opportunity for your development, in which the range of actions available to you expands.

How does it work?

Usually I’ll invite you to work with me over a number of months – because sustainable change and learning take time. We meet (for approx. 90 mins) a couple of times a month on average – it takes on-going, attentive support for development to take root. We meet in person in East Oxford when possible or online when not.

We begin with an intake conversation (90 mins to 2 hours). We’ll talk in depth about you, your current situation, what you make of it, and about the topic you’d like coaching to focus on. I then go away and think about how best to support you.

When we meet, alongside our conversations I may invite you into any of the following, during and in between sessions:

Self-reflection exercises to support you in increasing your awareness of the ways you operate in the world – and the actions and the limitations that these bring;

Practices of taking repeated action with the intention of supporting you in developing new competence and the ability to take new action;

Reading – I may recommend a book / quote / poetry or some text to help illuminate your situation.

All of this aims to support you in developing greater competence, skill and creativity to address current and future challenges and opportunities. We’ll work on excellence in the skills needed to address your coaching topic along with your capacity to be both self-correcting (able to tell what’s happening and where this differs from your intentions) and self-generating (able to continue to develop once this chapter of coaching has concluded).

Short-Term Coaching

Sometimes you may know exactly where you want to go, with some idea about what you might need. Short-term coaching, over one to four sessions, can help with exploring a specific goal, the steps towards bringing it into being and the obstacles which may appear as you take them.