The Coaching Academy Blog

I was drawing to coaching because of my desire to help individuals on their life journey to achieve what they have always thought was “impossible”.

As a teen and twenty-something I struggled constantly with my weight, always being a good 2 to 3 stone heavier than I am these days. With my first pregnancy at the age of 25, I put on further weight, and after my son’s birth although I lost the extra baby weight I had put on, I was left feeling very unhappy about how I looked and fed up with the previous pattern I had followed of yo-yo-ing up and down.

For me I reached a point where I was so fed up I decided to do something about it myself. My weight loss achievements came through sensible eating, good exercise, but most importantly a vision of what I wanted to achieve, and I didn’t stop until I got there – and happily I’m still the same 9 years and another baby later. As a result I began to train as a Nutritional Therapist. I knew I wanted to specialise in weight loss, but also knew it wouldn’t be as simple as giving someone an eating plan and telling them to do it! That was when I started to investigate coaching as what seemed like an incredible way of supporting someone through such a tough journey – enabling them to concrete new habits and build their will power and motivation.

With the Nutritional Therapy Diploma underway, I took up a Personal Performance Coaching Diploma as well and began to work out how the two could fit together very well as a package for clients in the future. I was amazed to learn through the coaching training, how powerful the right questions can be! Whether I was gaining practical experience as a coach and asking questions to others, or whether I was being ‘practised’ on, each scenario was an eye opener, and a source of fascination to me at how quickly a coaching session can move you along in an area that can seem otherwise unachieveable.

Most rewarding I think was the sense of satisfaction and joy for a client who made huge progression with a goal, or who found that what they had thought was the goal, wasn’t in fact that goal, but now they knew what was. Helping a client to work out what is important, and also that an investment of time in themselves could help them and others around them so much.

For me I got the most enjoyment out of the practical live learning sessions. Each time I would come away so buoyed up and full of enormous enthusiasm and positive energy – both from the trainer and the fellow trainees – all of whom are following the same thought process and gaining the same drive and education from the sessions. Since qualifying as a coach, the coaching has fitted seamlessly into my nutritional therapy practise, and has enhanced what I can offer to clients so much. It really is a very unique selling point for me, in the area I live in, to offer the nutritional information and education, as well as offering the journey of coaching to allow those clients the opportunity to really make huge progress on their new regime and tackle any emotional issues attached to their weight management.

Whilst doing my coaching qualification, I was also studying Nutritional Therapy as I previously mentioned. That was all alongside my two young children who I looked after full time, and a part time job in a bar a couple of nights a week to bring in some extra cash! It was an enormous challenge, and at times I was exhausted – but so excited about where it might take me in a professional capacity, and the thought of doing something I loved, as opposed to the office job I did prior to having children that I didn’t enjoy.

Now I am using my coaching skills as a way to help my clients achieve their weight loss goals. That is my primary niche and one that I am loving tweaking and developing with the use of some great coaching tools as I go. Sometimes I work face to face with clients, but more often I work over the telephone, which make it so much easier logistically, and allows me to take on clients from far and wide.

In the next two years I would be very happy to see my services become renowned as an expert in weight loss coaching, and I would like to focus on certain groups of people – my clients are mostly women and I would like to continue this with individual and group sessions for new mums, and also for brides to be. But I would love to encourage more male clients as I feel they don’t have as many options as women when it comes to weightloss issues, but from my experience of the few men I have worked with, they have great will power and motivation and just need to be on the right track.

My favourite coaching question is: “how will this impact on your life” or “what will happen if you don’t do this”? Either way it gives the client an opportunity to either embrace the positive benefits of what they want to do, or if more appropriate, encourage them to feel the pain of where they are right now and how that will continue if they don’t make changes. Very powerful.

What I enjoy most about coaching is the feedback from clients when they realise their progress and achievements. It really is fantastic to hear a client so happy that they have finally, with a different approach, gotten to where they want to be and rewarded themselves with time spent on self-development. As an individual it makes me feel great, and often after a coaching session I am myself feeling the joy of that client and feel like I can do anything!

If you are looking to be a coach yourself I would advise you to go for it – it is an amazing journey, and even if you don’t develop the training into a career, it can only help you on a personal level. I would encourage anyone thinking of training to train with the Coaching Academy as their trainers are inspiring and quality of training is high.

If you are already in your training with The Coaching Academy then make the most of the time. Complete all documentation as you go along – don’t try to do it retrospectively – too hard! Read as much and as varied as you can. Keep a tool box – you find great tools all over the place and they are so valuable when presented with an unusual client, or someone who is a bit stuck.

If you are about to qualify then don’t sit back and wait, start thinking about your niche, how you might like to specialise in coaching, as a general coaching practise seem much harder to market and talk to people about – also it seems the public wants a ‘specialist’ in whatever it is they want to be coached on.

If you are a coaching doing a similar thing to me, then I would love to hear from you. I think it is a great thing to share tips and ideas with other coaches of a similar niche, as all coaches have their unique approach and therefore any enrichment of others’ experience is just that, and never a threat.