What Comes After Your Semicolon?
I belong to a weekly group coaching session. It has become a very important part of what I do. It’s my safe space to talk about the challenges I’m facing and to have my coach and group ask me questions to help me work my way through these challenges.
We all get a chance to talk and be questioned and it’s powerful stuff.
One of our group has a tattoo of a semicolon. It’s a reminder for her of a mental health issue that she overcame.
It turns out that the semicolon is a favourite symbol of those who have had mental health issues, including suicide attempts. The symbol represents the fact that although the story could have ended at that point, it didn’t. It continued.
We got talking about what might come next for us. If our existing story ended today, what new story would we write for ourselves?
Powerful Stories
It’s powerful stuff, imagining a new story, particularly when the story you’re currently living is actually pretty good.
How could life be better? Specifically how could my life be better?
The conversation that followed has lead to days of reflection.
Group Coaching Is Powerful
Adding group coaching to your offering is adding a powerful tool. Not just one that can leverage your time and therefore your income, but powerful for your clients too.
Having spent many (many!) hours being coached, this is the first time I’ve experienced this kind of group coaching. I have been in groups before, but they tend to have had an agenda and not been ones that are simply designed as coaching spaces.
The connectedness and closeness that the group has created is astonishing. I already knew those involved, now I feel I know them to a whole different level. We have each others’ backs too. Not in a ‘go on, you can do it!’ way (although that does exist) but in a deep, almost visceral way. I care very much about what’s going on in the lives of these women.
We do, of course, hold each other accountable for the actions we set each week, but it’s so much more than that.
If you don’t offer group coaching to your clients not only you are missing out, but so are they.
Group Coaching Training
The Coaching Revolution’s ICF accredited course offers training in how to run group coaching sessions. Many coaches find the ideal of group coaching a struggle because if the coaching session should be all about the client’s needs and wants, how do you spread that across several clients?
Rachel Wade (MCC) is our course tutor. She is also the coach who leads the group coaching session that I attend each week. She is an awesome coach and an equally awesome tutor.
If you’d like to find out more about our course, you can do so by visiting our website.