Why wouldn’t you prefer a life coaching session that addresses the whole person that you are?
Everything Involves the Whole You – So Should Coaching
In your day-to-day life, at times your focus might be trained on your thoughts – what think about an issue and how you analyze your options. Or, you could be distracted by your stomach because it’s twisted in knots over the same pressing issue. You can’t just separate your brain from your stomach or stomach from your brain. Each offers you important input into solving your issue.
The point is your whole self is with you wherever you go and it’s involved in whatever you do. Therefore, why wouldn’t you consider your whole self whenever you aim to solve a problem or fulfill a want, or a need?
Shouldn’t coaching be the same and engage all of you, not just cognitive parts? After all, when you harness all relevant aspects of yourself, you bring more resources to problem-solving.
Coaching Above the Neck
This sounds basic and obvious, but most coaching models prodominately look at and work with just part of the person, usually the thinking and analytical parts of the mind. They emphsize powerful questions. Until recently, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) discouraged their coaches from working with feelings. For them, that was the purview of therapists. Fortunately, their model is gradually opening up.
Which Person Is Whole – the Coach or the Coachee?
The Coach as the Whole Person
Quite a few websites refer to whole person coaching as a model for coaches, meaning how coaches can bring their whole selves to the session. For them, this means expanding and deepening coaches’ observation and interpersonal skills to improve their coaching style and facilitate more supportive and impactful coaching process.
These are good additional skills. Expansion of the coach’s awareness of their client’s status helps them give better support and facilitation. A broader picture of the context (e.g., work, home, health) can ultimately speed up the communication concerning contextual issues.
However, a lot of unpackaged background information can introduce unintended bias on the part of both parties. The coach could unintentionally misinterpret some of the coachee’s thoughts and feelings based on the coach’s personal experiences and understanding. Moreover, the coachee may deliberately withhold or reframe background information if adequate trust has not yet been established. The process can bog down into unimportant or irrelevant details.
Plus, any uncorrected misinformation and misinterpretation can linger long into the coaching relationship and disrupt the process and progress.
The Coachee (Client) as the Whole Person
A survey of the internet, suggests that a smaller set of training institutes and practitioners focus on client wholeness. Typically, they delve into a more complete set of variables that act upon the client or the coachee’s current problem and situation.
A coach might accomplish this using a standard lengthy intake process to assess various aspects of the client’s life such as work or career, personal, and family dynamics, emotional issues, finances, health, wellness, self-care, leisure, and other lifestyle variables. The process still amasses an abundance of information and requires considerable time investment. And, some clients could view this type of inquiry as invasive and irrelevant.
Coaching to Help Clients Embrace and Access Their Wholeness
There is yet another alternative. I and some other practitioners use the term more comprehensively to mean coaching the complete person and using a whole person model to facilitate the coaching process.
This blog adopts this vantage point. It looks at how the scope of life coaching and its tools can broaden to incorporate and engage the client’s complete self. In so doing, more relevant personal resources and power can be brought to bear on the client’s issues.
New Mind-Body-Spirit Tools and Practices Galvanize the Coaching Process
Within this group of whole person or holistic coaches, you’ll find a variety of tools and practices introduce coaching session. They could incorporate mindfulness, somatics, meditation, and dream analysis for greater self-reflection and flexible thinking, which in turn can open your perspective and reveal more opportunities for action.
For example, an assessment of body language and body posture can help you explore your embedded thoughts or beliefs concerning their self-worth, confidence, boundaries, and expectations. Adoption of a new posture and demeanor signals chemical and energetic change within the brain and body to encourage and support your desired goal.
By acquiring skills of intra-relating, you can turn inward and learn to interpret the interceptive signals from your body as they relate to different circumstances and options. In time, a framework of how you sense your life evolves. You can then use this framework to access greater self-awareness and understanding of your true self. In other words, the body becomes a potential tool for navigating difficult and complex choices as well as building self-confidence.
Alternative Healing Practices For Coaching
Finally, more life coaches are bringing alternative healing practices into the coaching session. As a Master energy healer, I can offer my clients the benefits of Reiki and other energy healing modalities. Among numerous other benefits, energy healing can help you ground, center, and relax. It also releases blocks and opens you to your mission or purpose. Working with the chakras helps you identify your full story and in so doing release any energetic imprints on your life today. And, it creates a fully holistic whole-person approach to coaching.
Life Coaching For the Whole Person Is Your Best Choice For a Coaching Session
In sum, a life coaching session can be enhanced in an infinite number of ways to better work with and support the whole person. When looking for a coach, make sure to assess what tools and practices prospective coaches have to bring to your sessions. Consider also how they can help you build your skills to help you show up in your life fully resourced, self-aware, and confident.
