How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 220
human body is a gateway to the inner world, and so through sharing
the impact the client has on you, you bring the client’s awareness to
‘how’ they are being in relationship with you (and potentially wider
world) which in turn heightens their own self-awareness.
• What we can never know is how the client will respond to the
information you offer. It is not for the coach to volunteer an
interpretation, but to help the client do the meaning making. In
selecting the most pertinent observations the Gestalt coach invites the
client to first ‘stay with’ (i.e. attend to) and then explore their
experience in the moment. The key emphasis is on the client’s
enhanced awareness rather than on finding the ‘right’ answer.
Siminovitch and Van Eron also make the point that by self disclosing
the coach models personal risk taking for clients who may view such
behaviour as too personally threatening.
2. If and when to disclose
• The key question that guides your decision is always ‘how will your
disclosure serve the client?’ If the response is a potential heightening of
the client’s awareness, thus ‘adding to’ what the client already knows,
then you may decide to go ahead. For example, at the end of a
challenging piece of work in which the client had worked through a
particularly difficult scenario about which he had felt very stressed, he
reported that he felt calmer and more at peace which was visible in his
body demeanour, rate and flow of speech etc. A response of “Yes I feel
calmer also” is superfluous and adds nothing for the client. Whereas a
response of “Yes, I can see that and I’m also aware of my own feeling of
satisfaction, of a job well done.
I’m wondering how you reflect on and celebrate your achievements?”
affirms the client and helps him to acknowledge what he has achieved. •
If you are unsure then wait, and by delaying you may get further clarity
about your internal data which might well be of use to the client at a
later point in the session. You might also give some thought to the
consequences of not disclosing. For example, a persistent image or
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