I was trained as a co-active coach with the Coaches Training Institute, based originally in America but has now expanded into the UK and elsewhere in the world and will shortly be holding its frist course in Manchester. I believe that before clients come into coaching they know and understand what it is. Therefore for clients who may be thinking about coming to me for coaching, in particular those who live in Cheshire, the Wirral and North Wales, I thought I would write some more about how it works.

The nature of co-activity is about both client and coach working collaboratively to further the client’s agenda. One of the cornerstones of the model is that “the client is naturally creative, resourceful and whole”. As I reflect on this phrase I see it as a philosophy at the heart of my coaching and it makes me aware of the shift I have made from being a health visitor to being a coach and able to work effectively and with impact with women who are breast cancer survivors or have suffered from postnatal depression for example.

Let me explain. As a health visitor I was trained to assess the needs of families and plan, deliver and evaluate an intervention. However much I felt distant from the medical model of health I was still out there looking for something that needed fixing in others. What I see now is that I was looking for vulnerability almost as an illness, not for once considering myself and every one of us as vulnerable. Now that I can accept my own vulnerability whilst at the same time knowing that I am naturally creative resourceful and whole I can also see it in others.

And that’s where coaching can be so empowering as the coach holds that belief in the client that she does indeed have the answers to the questions she is asking. So whatever the experience of the client as a breast cancer patient, however low her mood may go in postnatal depression or the impact on her esteem of miscarriage or childlessness, there is always a part of her that remains naturally creative, resourceful and whole. What the coach does is ask the client questions from a place of curiosity to help her look for answers in places she may never have looked before. And I know it works because of the changes I have seen in me and the changes I have made in my life.