I can´t believe how quickly this year has passed and I am plotting my research paper which I would like to do on NLP and coaching… and then I heard the MP3 where Laurene said people did their paper on… NLP and coaching! Maybe I just need to not want to be doing something special and just get the job done.

I do believe that NLP and coaching are a marriage and for me it would be unthinkable to do coaching without knowing about nlp.

Dont know yet how to structure the research paper, but I am planning it in my head. I have read so many book on NLP and on coaching, and some on both. Let´s see how that goes.

As to the other work, I finished my oral exam, i wrote up my written exam, my coaching model is ready and i am making it look more appealin, the powertool´s topic is ok, just need to write it out.

So still some work to be done. but positive it will all get done by monday 27th!

Though I enjoyed the powertool classes, it is not something I find myself adding to my coaching. The extreme perspective can certainly work, however, I have other tools which are more powerful to me. I use perceptual positions from NLP.

I think one of the biggest difference between ICA coaching and my NLP coaching is form versus content. I am used of doing training and coaching in form. With powertools we are bound to words; responsibility versus blame, reacting versus responding… Again, this will work but is just not something which works for me.

I emailed Laurene to ask if I can create my powertool around 4 powerful questions:

What happens if you do “X”

What does not happen if you do “X”

What happens if you do not “X”

What does not happen if you do not do “X”

In the case of responsibility you could use it like:

What happens if you take responsibility?
What does not happen if you take responsibility?
What happens if you do not take responsibility?
What does not happen if you do not take responsibility?

I was happy to learn she was ok with this so let´s see how we can get this tool created!

Ciao!

Noëla

What a rollercoaster… This summer has been great but in no way a relaxing beach, swimmingpool experience. Work! It all comes together which is nice, yet in timeframes posing a challenging period.

New business communication trainings in different european countries and NLP training in the Netherlands apart to my business in Spain.

With ICA I am nearing the amount of 80 hours in class by the end of the week! Another 46 to go until the last week of October.

Tonight is my oral exam for Supervised coaching and I feel a bit nervous as I do not know the format of this exam yet. I know I have the skills so I am sure I will be ok.

I enjoy the focus the classes give on different aspects of coaching. However, I find the items miss depth. One of my coachees expressed this by saying it seems to float on the surface, I see it as being given hands and feet but not a body to tie it into. I am fortunate to already have done my training elsewhere. I do like ICA, and it again meets my outcome .

Wish me luck tonight!

Last week I noticed how content I was to have the last FC100 class. Though I realise it is necessary for new coaches to get this foundation in, it did not hold new information for me other than getting to know the ICA coaches and the structures of the classes.

I did send Karen an email as I am curious to learn how ICA structures their training in the sense that students can start coaching after this FC100 module while not having any tools or models to coach from. I could understand that being difficult for new coaches and all my ICA coachees commented on this too.

So this is the win for now and I am positive loads will follow…

My win for the this post is:… I had my 1st supervised coaching in which I had to coach a client. And I was nervous. I am used to the intimicy of being with my client and not used that people are listening in. Feeling of being judged, school time all over And then I remembered I know what I do, I am a good coach already and improving every day.

I love coaching,  I have the best job in the world, it is my passion so I can not go wrong. The feedback verbally was very positive and the written feedback elaborate and again a pass. It is a 4 page document where Jamee put x’s in the boxes. And ofcourse I was curious as to the boxes which were empty. Did I need to get that in my next coaching session or is the time retraint of 15 min not going to make it possible for all boxes to be ticked.

And I have allocated many hours to ICA classes as I want to not have everything left for the last minute.

This morning with the coaching model class with Bill, I found out that this need not be such a challenge as I thought it to be. I already work with a model and was just not conscious about it

So, it is all coming together. I am enjoying my ICA coachees as it is strenghtening my telephone coaching skills. Most of my coachings have been in person since I have 2 practises and as I am very auditory, I love using the phone for coaching too. The flexibility is great when you can coach through phone!

Signing off feeling good and confident and… hot! Spanish August is very very hot…

Lining time, what a linear thing to do. Yet, to get this course finished, that is the plan!

The current status is that I have not been putting the amount of classes in I had hoped by now. I still have another 3 months to finish up and that means going into a higher gear.

Very happy with my current peer client and I hope I have just found a new client. I already have 3 clients from outside ICA so that can then be a check.

Just downloaded all the (assessment) forms I need for my exam. Everything needs to be ready 6 weeks before the exam on December 5th, making Friday October 24th the ultimate deadline.

I love the fact that I am being coached and it is very insightful to be on the other side. It really gives a good contrast to how I do my coachings and how it is to be a client on the other side. I remember 1 coaching I got upset tht i was “told” to do my homework, hahahaha… so I suppose I do not like being told things

So for this moment my score is good as to reflection. Connection i know is very important to me as I am constantly reading books in this field, listen to cd´s, look dvd´s. I feel I am constantly connected to coaching as this is my profession as well. Regularity in being coached and coaching myself. I have not put in the hours I would have wanted, due to business commitments as I am just setting up a new business. So, overall, I think I am doing pretty well!

I have no idea yet what my coaching model will be, the power tool I need to develop and the case study which needs to be written but I am confident that will happen in the next couple of months.

Will check in later!

I just got back from a wonderful coaching seminar with Joseph O’Connor in London with PPDL, the NLP training company I work for (www.ppdlearning.co.uk). He has founded the International Coaching Community. He wrote together with his wife Andrea Lages “How Coaching Works: The Essential Guide to the History and Practice of Effective Coaching (Paperback – Jan 1, 2008)”. It gives a lovely overview and helped my some time ago to get a more systemic look on how coaching developped.

Now having him seen coach and train, I even more appreciate this book.

He had lots of interesting “stuff” and one of the things that stuck with me was about values. I use values in my coaching and he added an interesting thing. You can only be aware of your values when they are challenged! So, if I say I am honest, I can only know this when tempted to do something dishonest. This proved a wonderful insight which further enriched my learning.

Noëlla

Hurra for flexibility ICA!

I really got confronted with my limiting beliefs on rules and regulations…

ICA states on the website you can only start coaching when you have received 12 coachings yourself. So, when I was doing the maths for my timeline, it didnt add up! At least, it would become quite difficult to graduate in December.

My coach Ricardo suggested I contact Karen and discuss this with her. And I got a lovely respons back. Because I already hold over 500 coaching hours, I could already start coaching! Thank you Karen.

So, this is such a great reminder that things are not written in stone, and that by asking you can get such different outcomes.

From a Sunny and Warm Spain, ciao for now.

I can´t believe how fast time flies and at the same time I know it is all relative as Einstein would surely comment.

The last couple of months have been quite exciting; building my new medical preventive centre in Calpe Spain is taking so much of my time. I love this new way of dealing with health in a systemic way yet it takes time to fill the centre with specialists and therapists. We needed to express more we do regular treatments as well, pacing patients so in time we can lead them with their consent to a different, natural approach to health.

Yesterday after my class on “Acknowledgement”, I was reflecting back on doing this course and having so little time. And, this can be the best thing that ever happened while doing a course I decided! I stretches my flexibility even more, and pushes integration of skills to a different level as it will just go directly to the subconscious. I do realise I have had already extensive training and up until now, most classes have been interesting yet no really new things have come up. I love listening to the questions of new coaches while getting great stories, information and questions from the trainers. As I have done NLP training, with some of the suggestions I might not necessarily agree and I found it amusing that I apparently have some strong beliefs around certain areas!

I am certainly back to reading and I just finished “The Biology of Beliefs” (Lipton) which I can only recommend. A fantastic book, check http://www.brucelipton.com/store/biology-of-belief.

Then I have finally bought 2 books from Moshe Feldenkrais, who developed education for body movements to move the brain, check www.feldenkraislearning.com.

And last but not least, I finished the book “Freedom is everything and Love is all the rest” from Owen Fitzpatrick and Richard Bandler. Alhough I do no like the size of the book (too big!) and that is has a hardcover, I love the contents. And, I got it signed a couple of weeks ago by Richard Bandler. For the first time I participated in a 4-day seminar in Amsterdam “Using more of your brain for a change” with the developer of NLP. I truly got inspired by just watching and listening to him. And, I have decided I want to become more expert in hypnotherapy as this is just such a great way of helping clients in an even quicker less “yes, but…” way, through the subconscious.

And, very important, I have a great coach! Ricardo is a Master Practitioner in NLP and trained with the NLP institute i work for in London. Imagine my surprise when we found out we both did ICA. He is a great person so I am very lucky. And, it is new information for me to not be the coach but the coachee. As I have never been coached, this provides so much more information about the process and what coachees can go through, and I feel it is a privilige to get assistance on things which I  want to improve. So, thank you ICA and Ricardo!

More later…

Doing the teleclasses is fun and as I am in the beginning with the FC100, it is nice to listen in and hear how to start a business, how to do a trial session, how to structure a session and more. It brought be back at how I started. Very insecure and I felt I was a fraud… I charged too little, I spent too much time, wanting to get everything done in one session.

 I was counting how many coaching/therapy hours I have because of my ICF accredition and I am near to 200 hours, while my coaching work at an NLP training center in London (www.ppdlearning.co.uk) will add at least another 200 hours.

It is my life fulfillment, I love doing what I do. And isnt that a great knowing…

So, I know am looking for a peer coach and needed a topic. Of course, many topics as I have many areas where I want to further improve. I checked with my partner to get another perspective. He looked at me and asked me if it would not be great to keep my perspective of things instead of allways joining the “other side”…

I started wondering what made him think that… and then started laughing!

One of the skills I have as a coach is leaving my beliefs and values behind, stepping into the world of my client. Looking at their world and finding out about their map as this is not the territory. I belief this is really important in coaching.

But….! When running a company and dealing with a business partner, I want to stay in my perspective! I start feeling for them and tend to agree with them as I can see how they make sense out of what is going on for THEM.

So, I changed my post on the discussion board as nobody responded to my looking for a peer coach. Bill, one of the trainers, suggested I should put a more specific post which made me think on what the topic which made me ask my partner…

And, I have already two responses within a day! Getting more specific, I do that with my clients and can not help smiling when this is something I can do more of as well.

 Till the next smile