How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching

coach can be a supportive figure from the client's past and present: best friend; loving grandparent; caring youth group leader. Coaches can also be transpersonal guides whom the client has never met, such as a fantasy or historical figure. An all-purpose figure that embodies many energies is very useful: the Goddess, god, Buddha. Archetypal energies can also be useful, but each has its own limitations (e.g., the Lover will always say the solution is to love, while the Warrior will always tell you the solution is to fight). DOUBLE Start and end the action phase with doubling the client. Doubling is one of the most important and client satisfying actions to take in any one to one session. Use a variety of doubling techniques (e.g., cognitive, containing, expressive, etc.) The deepening double is especially useful with timid clients, those who have difficulty accurately labeling feelings, and with those who have difficulty tapping into the depth of feeling. With the deepening double the client becomes her own double. To utilize the deepening double, do the following: After the client makes a statement to her significant other in the empty chair, place another empty chair behind the client in her own double position. Ask her to sit in the chair and make another statement on the same subject to the significant other. Then place another chair behind the double chair. Ask the client to sit in that chair and speak from this deeper place inside herself. If necessary, place still another chair in the double position behind the other ones and reverse the client into that seat to make a statement. You can put pillows, stuffed toys or scarves in the empty chairs to hold the spot for the client. After the client has said all she needs to say from the deepest double spot, move her gradually forward to the outer self, first making another statement from each double position and ending with a statement from her outer self to the significant other. Another wonderful aspect of this technique is that you can double for the client in each of the double positions, providing support and encouragement for expression. 521

How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 204