Your Coaching Journey

In this episode we are joined by the delightful Dr Liz Donovan who has had a stellar career as a paediatric consultant and neonatologist, as well as being the Director of Medical Education at University Hospital Southampton. Liz came out of retirement to return to Southampton to work on a very special project, supporting medics through a coaching programme.   The Doctors' Development Unit offers s...

On our podcast we regularly explore topics that coachees might bring to a coaching conversation.   One such topic is 'burnout' and as with many topics that arrive at the door of the transformational coach,   this is an important topic that affects many members of the medical community.   Burnout is a complex phenomenon, and we might well be coaching individuals who are at different stages in the b...

Here at Your Coaching Journey we believe that the primary role of a coach is to facilitate the coachee's own thinking around their situation, allowing them to gain new perspectives and consider their options for moving towards their desired outcome.   Coaching is about encouraging the coachee to find their own answers, rather than the coach providing them with them.   So how do we square the non-d...

In Episode 52 of the podcast, we talked about using metaphor in coaching and briefly touched on the coaching approach known as Clean Language.   In this episode we take a deeper dive into the 'Clean Language' approach and explore its origins. We also take a look at what distinguishes it from other coaching approaches and explore some of Clean Language's strengths and weaknesses.   We know that ref...

Here at Your Coaching Journey, we have been training doctors to be transformational coaches on the Doctors' Transformational Coaching Diploma for the past five years and this continues to be our flagship training programme.   More recently we have adapted our learning offering and created a Transformational Coaching Diploma for Lifestyle Medicine. On this programme we train doctors who are interes...

Accreditation - 'What is it?' and 'Why would I want to apply for accreditation?'   These are questions that we are asked from time to time, and so we thought that we'd offer our thoughts on the matter in this episode of the podcast. While it's not essential to be personally accredited as a coach, there are some real benefits for those who do apply for accreditation.   In her role as an accreditati...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions about coaching that have been asked by our listeners.   In this episode we are discussing the requirements around supervision for coaches, tools you can use to explore a coachee's core values, and what you would need to consider when thinking about group and team coaching, as opposed to one to one coaching.   If you have a question to ask about c...

Join us today as we have a fascinating conversation with coach and paediatrician, Dr Nikki Paul. We caught up with Nikki to find out what she had been doing since she successfully completed our Doctors' Transformational Coaching Diploma in 2023.  As well as having a role as a paediatrician Nikki is also a mum and a widow. Since completing the coaching diploma Nikki has seen it as her mission to he...

On our podcast we regularly explore the topics that coachees might bring to a coaching conversation. One such topic is 'change'; a huge topic that encompasses many different potential areas of a coachee's life.   Sometimes, the coaching might be focused on a change that is happening around the coachee or it might be a change that the coachee wants to bring about for themself.   Either way, everyon...

"It's like Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs', isn't it?" is a rhetorical question often posed in discussions around human needs. Maslow's model of behaviour is one of the most oft-cited models of human psychology. Images of the pyramid that is usually used to illustrate Maslow's   hierarchy are peppered throughout social media channels.   Very few people ever delve into Maslow's hierarchy, beyond a cu...

For us, coaching is all about allowing our coachees to have time to think about their situation, their desired outcomes and their ideas for achieving those outcomes.   We know that being truly present with our coachees and holding that space for them while they think to the end of their thoughts is invaluable. This is where their new thinking is generated.   'Time To Think' is also the name of a p...

"How much should I charge for my coaching?"   This is a common question that we hear from new coaches and sadly, there isn't a succinct answer. It can feel like a minefield when it comes to pricing, and we're all looking for that 'goldilocks' amount that feels right for us, and also is acceptable to the coachees that we are attracting to our coaching space.   We can't tell you what you should be c...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions about coaching that have been asked by our listeners.    In this episode we've been asked about the ideal frequency of coaching, tools or exercises to work with clients around issues relating to finances, and whether we use pre-coaching questionnaires for our clients.  Listen in now to hear our discussion.   If you have a question to ask about co...

We do like to catch up with doctors who have been through our programme and to find out how they are using coaching in various ways in the real world.   In this episode we meet up with Dr Natasha Holmes, who leads an extremely full working life.    Natasha is a locum paediatric doctor, life coach, well-being workshop facilitator and mental health advocate.  She is co creator of "The Fully Well Doc...

Coaching often revolves around helping someone to raise their self-awareness, and really start to understand their personality, their values, their patterns of behaviour, their emotional responses, their strengths, as well as their vulnerabilities and weaknesses.   Coaching is also commonly focused on the coachee's interactions with others, what they choose to share with those around them, how the...

On our podcast we regularly explore the topics that coachees might bring to a coaching conversation.   One such topic that shows up a lot in our coaching is motivation or, more specifically, a lack of it. Coachees are often asking how they can feel more motivated, or how we can motivate them.   What we often find is that those same coachees who are struggling with their motivation will provide us...

Metaphors are an aspect of language that most of us will happily use until the cows come home. However, because we are so used to building metaphor into our speech it passes us by, uncovered, and we are denied the lightbulb moments that might guide us if we were to wake up and smell the coffee.    In this episode, we serve up a way of plucking metaphors from a coachee's language and putting them u...

We regularly see psychological and coaching models being shared on social media, in blogs and discussions, and sometimes the sharing sets our teeth on edge.   We've mentioned this before when we explored the myth of Ikigai, and in this episode, we'd like to air some thoughts on a model often shared on social media, Kübler-Ross Change Curve.   In this episode we would like to engage in a little myt...

We can't quite believe that we've arrived at the milestone of recording 50 episodes of the Your Coaching Journey podcast! We thought we might run out of things to say to one another after half a dozen, but here we are, still having great conversations about coaching almost a year on from recording our first episode.   We've loved every minute of it. More than that, we've loved hearing from you tha...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions about coaching that have been asked by our listeners.   In this episode we explore whether, as a new coach who hasn't quite got all the tools at your fingertips, you can still be a great coach. We also chat about pricing, whether it's worth being accredited as a coach, and what you need to think about if you're working in an organisation and they...

If you're a regular listener to our podcast you will have noticed that we regularly discuss how we might deal with different topics that show up in the coaching room. This week we discussed working with coachees around meaning and purpose.     Coachees may not always come to coaching asking for support on finding meaningful purpose, but often they'll talk about feeling stuck, feeling lost, or feel...

Whilst journalling isn't a tool that you would necessarily wish to use in the coaching room, it can still be a useful concept to introduce to your coachees. Well, Helen thinks so anyway. Tom isn't entirely convinced, but has his own ideas around when journalling might be useful. In this episode Helen shares some reflections on journaling and also describes her own experience of keeping a journal....

In our journey through the different approaches to coaching, we'd like to introduce you to Transformational Coaching.   Transformational Coaching is a flexible and integrative approach that allows coaches to explore a variety of topics and concerns with their coachees and to be agile in the coaching room. This agility enables coaches to move smoothly between different ways of being with their coac...

We regularly see psychological and coaching models being shared on social media, in blogs and discussions, and sometimes the sharing sets our teeth on edge.     "What's the cause of this mild irritation?" you may ask.     Well we like to try to get our information sharing right and we carry out plenty of research around the subjects we talk about on our podcast. But we know that not everyone does...

From time to time we devote an episode to questions that our listeners have asked about coaching.     In this episode we explore how to handle a coachee who doesn't seem to be taking action between coaching sessions; what support we should expect to provide a coachee between sessions; how to explore whether our coaching is effective and receive feedback on our coaching; and what insurance you need...