Coaching and Authentic Movement with a small business owner

Outcomes

Situation
Irene (not her real name) originally talked to us about helping her to do some planning for her new business in computer and website consulting. She wanted assistance in sorting out which markets she should pursue. She had many great ideas, a tremendous amount of experience and she had already done a good deal of research and preliminary analysis on the markets in which she was interested. We agreed to coach Irene for a few months.

Approach
It became clear after two coaching sessions with Irene that it was not planning that she needed help with. After her preliminary analysis, she had stopped. She was stuck. Through a combination of deep listening, strengths-based questioning and compassionate witnessing and feedback, we helped Irene to realize that she was stuck because she doubted herself. She had become afraid that she would not be able to pull off her new business. She was worried that she would not be able to meet the expectations of the market she targeted. At the same time, she had a vision for her business and was very excited and committed to making it work. Irene agreed that the issue for her to focus on was her self-confidence.

Part way through our agreed upon number of coaching sessions we offered to combine our coaching with Authentic Movement (see Authentic Movement for Individuals and Groups, Authentic Movement as an innovative practice and Individual Leadership Coaching ) We believed that Irene would benefit from accessing her own knowledge and wisdom through movement, that we would then help her integrate through coaching. Irene agreed to try Authentic Movement. She found it so helpful that she decided to participate in a five-session Authentic Movement series with us, to further her exploration of herself through dance and movement.

Results
Two months after working with us, Irene reported that she was “more in touch with herself, more present and felt more integrated”, all of which made her feel more confident of her ability to create a successful business. Irene said ”I am surprised that I got so much from the coaching. Things got addressed but not how I thought – both the task and the person!”

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