How Coaching Works

The Focus Is on You and You Alone

The Nature of Coaching

Coaching is an ongoing relationship between you and me that helps you focus and realize your vision and goals. My role as coach is to hold open, non-judgmental space for you to explore your fuller self. I believe that you are good and whole and that, therefore, you have within you what you need to move forward. Your role, as client, is to bring as much of yourself as you can to each session. You drive the content of each session since this relationship is about supporting you and your needs.

"Our coaching time has given me tools to effectively communicate how I would reach the desired outcome when dealing with a team member or team. It has really taken me from the frustration I feel to a place where I can come to an understanding of what the team member will need in support from me to reach that desired outcome. People are responding better to me due to the growth I've experienced."

Gayla, Founder & CEO, USA

Is Coaching For Me?

As a coach, here are the types of clients I want to work with.

For Impact Leader You are concerned about bringing your authentic self to your work.

You're Stuck You have experienced a crisis of purpose or identity. What has worked in the past for you doesn't make sense anymore.

You Want to Move Forward You know that there is something new to lean into and you want to explore it. Paying for coaching is an investment in yourself and you're ready to make that investment.

What Coaching Is Not

Coaching is not therapy, mentoring, or consulting. The evidence-based coaching that I practice draws on the best research from therapeutic models, but the focus of our relationship is on your growth, not pathologies. Any issues that may arise regarding mental health will be met with compassion by me and with assistance in helping you find an appropriate mental health professional.

Mentoring can best be described as desiring to walk a path that someone else has already traveled. While good mentors will certainly use coaching skills, the mentee mostly desires to follow a path well known by the mentor. Coaching, on the other hand, assumes that I, the coach, have no specific expertise in the areas of your profession. Instead, my expertise is in the growth and development of adults as individuals which can be applied to any context in which growth is desired.

Consulting is specific knowledge passed on to the client. Our coaching relationship assumes that you have the content you need and I have the processes that will help you best apply your content in a meaningful and healthy way. In other words, I do not enter our coaching relationship with a set agenda except to honor the agenda that you bring.

What Does Coaching Look Like?

Typically, we will meet every other week for your first 5 sessions by video conference for one hour. After your first 5 sessions, we will most likely meet every four weeks and then continue to add more time in between sessions the longer you continue with coaching.

The hallmark of coaching is self-responsibility. You set your goal for the session and I provide the framework for exploring and reaching that goal. Our first 5 sessions are more structured to give you a solid foundation for a lifetime of continuous learning and is always focused on your goals. You can expect powerful and clarifying questions, focused and fine-tuned planning tools, and accountability. As your coach, I'll have high expectations of you and support you thoroughly.

You will typically have homework to do between sessions. The homework will relate to something you have identified that you would like to work on to test and/or solidify what you are learning about yourself in the sessions.

What Is Psychosynthesis?

Andy draws on the evidence-based model of psychosynthesis as the major framework for his coaching style. Psychosynthesis is a framework developed by Roberto Assagioli, a contemporary of Freud and Jung. Assagioli's path is one of transpersonal development, that is, the accessible experience of the energy that pervades the Universe. The search for Self-realization is an inner journey that goes beyond everyday experience and is the most important journey we take in life. Psychosynthesis life coaching is a journey of recognizing the parts within you that have significant influence on the choices you make in life, acceptance of those parts as pieces of you but not totally you, and coordination of those parts to achieve the goal you have set for coaching.

All true coaching is life coaching. Your life is interconnected and your goals for your leadership and business flow out of who you are. Psychosynthesis gives you the foundation to truly choose your actions and behaviors which gives you the ability to meet your goals.

Assessments

An assessment is a typical starting place for coaching. The idea of any assessment is to open a doorway of awareness for you. Assessments tell you something about yourself that you are usually blind to. When you gain this information about how you might view the world and how others might view it differently, you have the chance to step through that doorway of awareness and decide what to do. Coaching should increase your ability to choose what you want to do rather than just act out what you normally do. Assessments often offer a shortcut to awareness about yourself.

Andy is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and uses the CliftonStrengths assessment in a unique way with his training in psychosynthesis. He will also soon (spring 2023) be one of the first coaches in the world certified in the PrinciplesYou personality assessment.

 

Confidentiality

The best environment for your growth in a one-on-one coaching relationship is when there is complete confidentiality between us. You, as the client, must know that what you say stays between us. This means that I will not report on our coaching to partners, boards of directors, supervisors, or any other person. If a condition of your organization paying for you to receive coaching is that a report of your progress is made back to them, you and I will work together on your self-reporting. You are my client, even if someone else pays the bill. I will not accept any arrangement in which I am required to report to someone else on your progress.

Despite this confidentiality arrangement, coaching is not a privileged relationship. I am required to respond to legal requests regarding information about our coaching relationship.

"It helps to really take that time for myself and kind of go through how I'm thinking and help me process."
Lori, Executive Director, USA

Try Coaching Out for Yourself

If you would like to explore coaching with me, sign up for a free 30 minute coaching session. It allows you to get a feel for the processes and whether I would be a good coach for you. There's no pressure to sign up for a coaching agreement afterwards. I will simply send you an email asking for your feedback for me with an invitation to continue our coaching.

Check Out Pricing Options

Coaching priced for leaders in for impact industries.