According to the International Coaching Federation, professional coaching is an ongoing relationship in which the coach partners with clients “in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole.” The coach supports the client’s goals, encourages self-discovery and holds the client accountable.

To understand more fully what coaching is, how it works and why it is effective, it can be broken down into seven primary pillars that make up the coaching structure.

Professional coaching provides a space to stop, interrupt our default patterns and assess with a fresh perspective.  

Coaching uses a unique and powerful mechanism for supporting one in achieving their goals and dreams. It is a place to consistently make time in our busy lives to stop, slow down and pay attention to our inner cues. In pausing in the neutral, reflective and supportive space of coaching, one has the ability to consciously re-examine what’s happening and make choices to move forward to their “Yes!” Coaching provides the sustained focus to shift the old patterns and continues to support one in creating healthier behaviors until they become new, established habits.

Professional coaching is based on the idea that the individual is the best source of their own answers.  

While outside support can help the individual clarify their thoughts and add useful information on which to base decisions, ultimately it is the individual who knows themselves, their needs and their solutions. Within coaching, the individual is recognized and supported as the “source” for his/her own solution. This is self-affirming and empowering and leads to deeper self-trust and self-confidence. The process also yields more effective, tangible results as follow-through and commitments are higher when the solution comes from within and is aligned with one’s highest needs and values.

Professional coaching provides an ongoing relationship of support.

Results and change don’t happen all at once. Coaching recognizes this fact and supports the need for accountability, breaking down a goal into manageable steps and creating the space to make real-time adjustments to the plan as life happens. Having a committed coaching relationship provides the structure, space and support to keep the individual on track, stay motivated and move forward in awareness and success.

Professional coaching is holistic.

The reality is that life is interconnected and a challenge in one compartment is often linked to and affected by another area of life. As such, coaching can, and often does, address multiple areas of one’s life, relationships and business. It is a freeing space to talk about what is going on in any area of life, no matter how related.

Professional coaching is based on increasing awareness and responsibility.

All our outer results and actions stem from internal mindsets. Achieving goals and creating the life we want starts with seeing things from new perspectives and increasing our conscious awareness to make more effective choices. And behind these concepts lies one of the most important beliefs in coaching—that the individual is responsible for their own life.  

Holding this belief of self-responsibility gives the individual the power to be the creator, to have the ability to makes changes, to take control. Though being responsible can feel a bit scary for many, it is an empowering place. In claiming this ownership of their life, individuals increase their ability to respond.

Professional coaching supports forward movement and taking action.

Part of this expanded client role of responsibility is to take action. The coach guides this process by holding the focus on increased awareness in order to move toward what the clients wants. At the end of each session, the coach will ask the client to make self-requests or invite requests based on what they have heard the client say. These requests often take the form of action steps or inquiries if an action step remains unclear. It is then up to the client to choose to accept the request, modify it or choose one of their own to take as their self-commitment. The coach holds this commitment and supports the action through accountability by following up at the next session.

Professional coaching focuses on the present, and supporting where one wants to go.

In coaching, while the past and its impacts are acknowledged and addressed briefly as needed, the focus is on meeting the client where they are today. In raising awareness and the energy of what an individual wants based on who they are now and where they to be, they are empowered to consciously be in the present moment to make new choices and create new patterns and results.

Focusing on the past can often keep one stuck on the energy of that story line, essentially re-living emotions and increasing the intensity of the cellular memory. Because what we focus on expands, keeping a focus on old storylines that don’t serve us adds to expanding that very energy we don’t want anymore. By focusing on where we want to be and be going, we change that energy into a positive energy of desire and creation.

Jamie Durner is a professional coach and ayurveda practitioner with a passion to help individuals be the best version of themselves in their body, mind and spirit. She offers individual life, business and wellness coaching, group programs, corporate wellness in-services, keynote presentations, self-care home products and healing retreats. For more information, visit AbundantYouCoaching.com.