Relational Coaching and the Coach's Emotions
Coaching Special Interest Group
This webinar discusses how relational coaching can be an opportunity to unwind strategies for masking our own emotions as coaches.
Event Overview
Writing of relational coaching, Critchley suggests that the “person of the coach must be fully involved; to attempt to withhold him or herself in the interests of impartiality or detachment merely attenuates the creative possibility inherent in the process of fully relating.” (Critchley, 2010)
But what does ‘fully involved’ really mean? What might it require of us, and what opportunity does it therefore offer for our own growth? This group will be an opportunity to discuss how relational coaching can be an opportunity for us as coaches to unwind strategies for masking our own emotions which we may have practised in our prior professional lives.
Starting from an assumption that these learned strategies can become obstacles to the pursuit of relating fully with our coaching clients, I will share insights gained through my own AMEC inquiry process and offer some theoretical lenses which I have found helpful. These include Bowlby’s attachment theory and Winnicott’s ideas on disassociation from the True Self. Where our relational work with leaders often involves a journey towards a more authentic expression of themselves, can it also be something similar for us as coach?
Event Details
Date: 7th December 2022
Time: 12:30-13:30 GMT
Venue: Zoom
Meet the Speaker
Beth Callen
The foundation for my coaching practice is a twenty-year career supporting global leaders and teams at senior levels in the corporate world as an HR business partner. I have worked across multiple countries and cultures and in diverse business areas, but coaching has been a mainstay of my partnerships in every setting. I have a deep understanding of the context within which leaders operate, familiarity with the challenges and pressures they face, and I appreciate that they often lack access to a safe space in which to share their unedited thoughts, feelings and dilemmas. My strength as a coach is my ability to quickly establish a relationship of trust and openness in which leaders can pause and reflect.
In addition to close partnering with individuals, I also have extensive experience of team development and effectiveness work with senior teams, and of managing organisational-scale interventions to drive cultural and behavioural change. I understand the dynamics of organisations and of individuals’ experiences within them.
In my private practice, I’ve coached leaders in both the private and not-for-profit sectors, as well as small business owners. I am comfortable working in both English and French.
