Coaching from a 'Gestalt' perspective
A metaphor
Many years ago I made a charity parachute jump,(that's me in the photograph!) a great challenge for me. In the plane, the jump master said he wasn't going to push - I had to make the leap myself. I sat in the open doorway, looking down at the fields below. How could I, someone afraid of heights, pitch myself out there? But I felt the jump master's presence behind me, heard his voice 'You can do it' - And I did.
Risk and support
When you have the satisfaction of taking a risk that is meaningful for you, your whole life can take on a different perspective. After my parachute jump, I had a stronger sense of my potential. If I could do that, I could do many other things that I thought were beyond me. As long as I had the right support - just enough of it. Since that time I've taken many risks and completed challenges- being successfully self employed as a therapist for the last twenty years has been one of them. I have been convinced over and over again that if I take the leap, the net will appear (or the parachute will open, taking me down to a good landing). That jump master is still behind me saying' you can do it'.
Most of us, steeped in our self-sufficient culture, believe we must manage on crumbs of support. It feels an up-hill struggle to achieve what we want. We can wander around in a fog, not even knowing what we want. We don't take time to become aware of our deepest desires for our lives.
What can be achieved.
It is amazing what can be achieved when you add the right amount of support and challenge. As your personal coach, I attend very carefully to what you say you want. Initially, I will ask you to complete a survey to assess your current situation and discover where you are strong in support and where you are lacking. During the coaching sessions we create the goals that you want to achieve and look at the ways you might block progress towards them. We will also work on your becoming more aware of blocks as they arise and how to eliminate or work creatively with them.
Assessing what you need
During the assessment we will work out together what coaching arrangement might be suitable for you. You might like:
- regular weekly phone calls to help you focus and plan and see how taking small trackable steps can accumulate;
- a four-hour intensive to give you a strong start;
- to join one of my coaching groups.
I can offer you all these options and by listening carefully to what you say in our assessment meeting will tailor the exact type of support that is right for you. Either one of the above or a combination of them.
My coaching approach is informed by my long training and experience as a Gestalt therapist. (Read more about Gestalt therapy on the other pages of this website)
As both a coach and a therapist, I will help you to increase your awareness of how you experience the world right now, and support you to mobilise your energy and take action. I will give you strong encouragement and suggest plenty of experiments and actions that emerge from our dialogue together in order to help you reach satisfaction. I believe in the paradoxical theory of change - change can occur if we become more aware of who are, in all our aspects.
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