Bringing the best of you to your clients – a way of accessing your most resourceful states as coach - enabling you to be fully present and available to your clients – and to yourself!

There is lots of emphasis on the skills, knowledge and approaches in our ongoing development as coaches but it’s our way of “being” that makes the ultimate difference in the coaching relationship. This is often subtle and unspoken – and clients can feel it. Given that we are the raw materials (we are the instrument) how do we ensure we bring the best of ourselves to our coaching clients?

Let’s face it, life happens – and sometimes circumstances mean that we aren’t always calm and grounded or in a positive headspace. Sometimes we may feel a bit depleted. For those of us that are self-employed there are the demands that running a business brings, managing our energy levels when it’s busy and digging deep into resilience when the client enquiries slow down…

To bring the best of ourselves to our coaching we need to also resource and sustain ourselves.

This is where Sophrology comes in.

• Sophrology offers practices which can be easily integrated into day to day life that can calm, energise or ground you depending what you need in any given moment
• It offers a blend of gentle movements and dynamic relaxation exercises, breath work and visualisation which can be used to release tension, invite focus and shift to resourceful mental states.
• Sophrology is a methodology drawn from Eastern wisdom (yoga, meditation and mindfulness) and Western psychology (e.g. visualisation in sports psychology) which offers tools to cultivate “an alert mind in a relaxed body”.
• It enables us to reconnect with ourselves and restore to balance

*More about Sophrology below

Session purpose

To give you an experience of a methodology called Sophrology that when practiced regularly can help sustain you as a coach.

• Enabling you to access your resourceful states – so that you can be fully present and available to your clients
• Exercises that you can call on in the moment to ground yourself or to increase energy and focus
• Methods that can sustain you through the ups and downs of managing a coaching practice

*More about Sophrology

People may be familiar with meditation and mindfulness and there are overlaps between these things because Sophrology is in part informed by Eastern traditions. Where it differs is that brings awareness to the body – settling the body so that the mind can begin to be calm and focussed. Sophrology is about bringing the body and mind into harmony and regular practice opens up the opportunity to build some self awareness that goes beyond the intellectual – to tap into whole body wisdom and the possibility to expand conscious awareness. Sophrology is described as “a study of consciousness in harmony”.

Also known as 'Dynamic Relaxation', Sophrology was created in Spain by neurologist and psychiatrist Professor Alfonso Caycedo in 1960. For over 60 years, it has been widely used across Europe in diverse settings including corporate environments, elite sport and healthcare and has been advocated by high flying CEO's and Olympic athletes. It is officially recognised by the French Government and in Switzerland.

Sophrology offers practices which can be easily integrated into day to day life that can calm, energise or ground you depending what you need in any given moment.

It is a methodology that is used in many fields:

• Managing stress and anxiety
• Improving sleep
• Mental preparation for future events
• Shifting moods – energising you when you need a lift
• It requires no particular level of fitness and can be done sitting or standing

A lifelong fascination with what it means to be human and how to successfully navigate life and work led Sarah to train as Coach more than 15 years ago.

As an Executive Coach (PPC) she specialises in working with people who are transitioning into leadership roles – partnering with them to tap into their innate capacities and to leverage their strengths; her work with teams focusses on improving communication and building team alignment.

In her own professional development, Sarah has become increasingly interested in how we create the conditions within ourselves to respond creatively (rather than reactively) to the challenges that work and life throws at us. This curiosity has led her to study nature-based wellbeing approaches (she’s a qualified Forest Bathing Guide with TFBI) and to train in a body-mind methodology called Sophrology.

Did you know, members of The Henley Centre for Coaching receive webinars (circa. 10 per year) free of charge as part of their membership?

To find out more and to purchase membership visit The Henley Centre for Coaching web page.