Situation
“Irene” originally asked for our help with some planning for her new business. She wanted help selecting which markets to pursue. She had many great ideas, a tremendous amount of experience and she had already done good research and analysis on the markets of interest to her. We agreed to coach Irene for a few months.
Approach
It quickly became clear that planning was not what she needed help with. After her preliminary analysis, she had stopped. She was stuck. Through deep listening, strengths-based questioning and compassionate witnessing and feedback, we helped Irene to realize that she was stuck because she doubted herself. She was worried that she would not be able to meet the expectations of the market she targeted. She also had a vision for her business and was committed to making it work. Irene agreed to focus on her self-confidence.
Part way through our 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 could access her own knowledge and wisdom through movement, and that we would then help her integrate her insights 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 myself, more present and more integrated”, all of which made her feel more confident. 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!”
