"Before I spoke to Chris, I felt like I was going round in circles with a life changing dilemma.

Friends and family were supportive and offered their opinions but I was  not making any progress. In just one session, through listening and reflection Chris gave me space to hear myself clearly and I came away with renewed clarity and purpose."  

Dr Jessica Buchan (GP)


What is coaching?

The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as ‘partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential’. I see it as involving a series of conversations designed to support you to make progress in directions important to you. The starting point may be just to get clearer about which direction to head in; if you have a particular goal in mind, coaching supports you to become clearer about how to move that way, how to deal with issues that come up and how to keep yourself motivated so that you stay on track.

How I work

My starting point is to explore what you would most like to gain from coaching, and also if there is anything you wouldn’t want. For example, what words naturally follow these two starts to a sentence?
       
What I’d really like from coaching is…       
What I wouldn’t be so keen on is…

Once we’ve identified the purpose or purposes you’d like coaching to serve, my role is to be an ally to you in this. If you’d like to become clearer about your direction, or talk through a particular decision you face, or be supported in moving towards a particular goal, then our coaching sessions provide space for this. Coaching can be as short as a single session or can continue over a period of weeks, months or years, depending on what is needed. Sessions are often at monthly intervals, but can be more or less frequent; we design together a coaching plan to provide the support you require.

What I bring
With over twenty-five years experience of helping people find their strengths and follow purposes important to them, I draw upon a wide range of coaching tools and psychological approaches. As well as having well-developed listening skills, I draw upon motivational interviewing (for tapping into deeper motivations), positive psychology (for cultivating positive qualities and emotions), problem solving (for opening up new ways forward), story-telling (for strengthening creativity and our sense of purpose in life), resilience training (for dealing with stress and adversity) and eco-psychology (for deepening our feeling of connection with life and belonging in the world).

The Coaching Contract
I charge £90 an hour or a reduced rate of £450 for a series of six sessions. I charge a 50% cancellation fee if a session is missed or cancelled at less than two hours notice. I ask for full payment within two weeks of each coaching session, either by cheque, direct bank transfer or paypal (details supplied when coaching arranged).

I am a member of the Association For Coaching (UK), and follow their code of ethics and good practice. This includes respecting the confidential nature of our coaching conversations.