Lifting the Lid on Coaching Supervision

Clare and Steve play in the somatic sandbox with experienced somatic coach Caroline Quaiffe. Derived from Soma (Grk), somatic refers to the body in all its intelligences - including emotional intellect, moral intellect as well physical/body intellect. We also explore the field - the 'intelligence of the system' (Hellinger - family systems). Working this way is a more spacious approach which honour...

Clare and Steve discuss how grief and loss show up in coaching and in supervision, with Madeleine Lankston who finds that much of her coaching has elements of both. As we discussed it, we realised that living loss (vs bereavement) is all around us and it behoves us to process that loss so that we don’t carry the baggage of it into our future. The experience of grief and loss is different for every...

Clare and Steve talk to Nicky Chambers about her history pre-coaching (it’s fascinating!!), and how she brings this previous experience and ways of being into her coaching work. She champions connectivity in all she does. We got onto one of Clare’s soapboxes, around learning to learn. Of course, we ask her when she started supervision as well, and how she has used it right from the word go to supp...

Clare and Steve begin with Steve telling a story about preparing a check-in for supervision - what emerged was a check-in question, “What’s distracting you?”. From here they wander into being ready to learn and trying versus emergence - can we try too hard and does emergence serve us well sometimes? What if as coaches we tried less hard to move our client forward or to ask the right question? Is t...

In a rich, insight packed episode, Clare and Steve chat to Sorrel Roberts as they continue their mini- series of episodes with coaches who have come from a non-traditional route into coaching. Sorrel voyaged from Club Med through Lifestyle Management and working in a high net worth private family office to working at Comic Relief. Sorrel notices how much her past career has supported her in relati...

If you have ever worked as a sole trader for corporates, you will likely have encountered the agony that Clare and Steve discuss in this episode. In particular, they talk about the processes and practices which corporates adopt to streamline their own business processes such as procurement or payment or contracts, but which make little sense – and take lots of time - for a sole trader or limited c...

This episode continues our mini series of conversations with coaches who have come to coaching via unusual routes. Steve and Clare talk with Alun Bedding about his journey into coaching and then into supervision. We talk about what an internal coach might bring to supervision, in order to stay safe and stay sane. We also talk about the triumvirate of professional and personal development that is c...

Steve asks - "do you have a strategy when you start work with a client?" Clare and Steve explore the idea that we might have a strategy and how that might still leave space for the client to make choices and guide their own coaching. Who is leading and what are they leading on in the relationship? Is this about a strategy for the how, rather than the what?

Clare and Steve are joined by Anne Archer to explore mental health in the coaching space. As great listeners, why are we often reluctant to open up a conversation about mental health? Are we uncomfortable because of our understanding about the boundaries between coaching and therapy? Could it actually be unethical to not have the conversation? The spectrum of mental health is broad, from short-ter...

Clare and Steve explore losing work. Can we frame it differently - rather than I've lost work, I've gained space? They discover it's not just about work; what about losses more broadly? How we respond to the idea of loss - our relationship to loss - may say something about us as a coach? Some losses offer new opportunities - such as stopping the commute which used to be our downtime. How does losi...

In this episode, Clare and Steve discuss mistakes. Not only the idea that it’s ok to make mistakes in coaching – and if we don’t, then we perhaps are not challenging our clients enough, risking being “sacked” – but also the idea of making mistakes in what we bring to supervision. They decided that it’s not possible to make mistakes in what we bring to supervision, but often we hold ourselves back...

Continuing the series, chatting to coaches from non-traditional backgrounds, Clare and Steve were delighted to be joined by Charlotte Blair. Now living in Australia, Charlotte began her career in tech sales and now works as a Clifton Strengths coach. Having explored Charlotte’s journey to coaching, supervision and mentor coaching, the conversation moves to reflecting on how our strengths might be...

Steve and Clare walk you through the 7-eyed model, developed by Hawkins and Shohet. This model is often in mind for your supervisor when you come to supervision, and provides them and you with a way to break down and identify potential stuckness or simply to reflect more effectively on your work. You may recognise a question your supervisor has asked you?

Steve and Clare talk about all of the considerations for pricing your coaching. Whether you are new into the independent marketplace or are thinking that it’s time to revisit your pricing model, this poddy is for you. It draws on the research by Clare and her colleagues Michelle Lucas and Sebastian Fox. They wrote a series of articles about pricing for coaching, supervision and team coaching, whic...

Clare and Steve discuss the emergence of strong feelings towards the other party in the relationship - maybe the client, maybe the coach, maybe the supervisor? Maybe you dislike them? Maybe you fancy them? We are human after all. This DOES happen, so when it does, talk to your supervisor about it. Normalise it - others in the supervision group might also have experienced this.

In today’s episode, Clare and Steve explore all of the different permutations of the rhythm and balance of work that we take on. The peaks and troughs, the phases of exploration and the exploiting, homeostasis that stops us from getting out of our comfort zone. If your rhythm is not quite as you might like it to be, maybe that is something to take to supervision to process.

In today’s poddy, Clare and Steve welcome Sam Isaacson, coach, coach supervisor, author of How to Thrive as a Coach in a Digital World, to talk about technology that can support us in coaching and supervision. We went all over the place, including AI, ethics and security (pay attention if you send recordings/transcripts of your coaching via email to a mentor coach!!). He mentions several technolog...

Steve and Clare discuss our relationship between past, present and future, noticing how our present state is often influenced by our past or by our future. Is this different when past and future experiences are held or imagined as positive or negative? Could the negative past be a comfort blanket protecting us? Is the current penchant for selfies and recording our experiences on social media, movi...

Steve and Clare (yes Clare switches it up) talk with Clare Smale about the concept of finite and infinite games, applied to the world of coaching and supervision. Is either right, better, wrong, bad? Those very words are of course the finite game perspective. What’s your baseline position on the finite infinite continuum? To what extent do you feel safer in the finite world of title, qualification...

Clare and Steve continue their mini series of podcast episodes talking with coaches who have followed ‘non traditional’ routes to coaching and experiencing supervision; they talk with Tony Worgan, exploring his journey from journalism into coaching and supervision. Tony compares and contrasts relating in coaching and in journalistic interviewing and our threesome go on to explore the potential unc...

Clare and Steve use themselves to demonstrate how their hobbies, pastimes and passions show up in their coaching, as a way to encourage you to discover your unique blend of coaching. You are a whole person and what you choose to do in your non-working life will have an influence in the coaching room too. It’s time to bring these out of the shadows and to reflect once more on how you have written y...

Clare and Steve continue their mini series of podcast episodes talking with coaches who have followed ‘non traditional’ routes to coaching and experiencing supervision; this time talking with Johanna Hooper about her journey from the high seas (the Navy) into coaching and how she uses supervision, both one-to-one and group. We touched on what Johanna has brought into coaching from that formative e...

Steve and Clare talk about how we show up in group supervision – not so much for yourself as for the person being supervised. How do you ensure that you are in their service, rather than in your own? How do you bring the best of who you are AND blend with the group flavours? What is the parallel process that shows up; that will give you some learning about how you coach back in the “real world”? A...

Clare and Steve talk with Dave Stitt, as they start a mini-series of podcast episodes talking with coaches who have followed ‘non-traditional’ routes to coaching and experiencing supervision. Dave, from a background in the construction industry, shares his journey into coaching and how he discovered supervision more than a decade after he started coaching. Now he’s a convert and values the 1-2-1 l...

Clare and Steve stumble over the topic of disorganised and unorganised in the ‘green room’ and so explore it. Meandering through disorganised, unorganised, organised, time pressure, a sense of control, routine and other experiences, our podcasters invite listeners to understand their own personal experience of these terms. We can be minded to jump to fixing something, by buying a tool or hiring so...