At Career Coach Me we adopt a person centered or “humanistic” approach to coaching – based on the principles of psychologist Carl Rogers. This approach assumes that clients are the experts of themselves – they are best placed to make decisions about their future. Clients might feel stuck at times and unsure about what decision to make and it is the role of the coach to help them identify what their blockers are and to support them in exploring and making career choices. Other important elements of the humanistic approach is for the coach to be genuine, authentic and to have an unconditional positive regard for the client. There is confidentiality in the discussion between the career coach and the client.
Usually clients turn to career coaching because they feel stuck in their careers and are uncertain about what they should do. Often clients reaching out for career coaching may be feeling upset, anxious or distressed about their situation. They often are feeling low in confidence and sometimes feel like they have no options open to them. This is normal, and the coach provides emotional support and understanding throughout the career change process, and helps the client to rebuild their confidence and recognise their strengths and what they have to offer.
A big benefit of career coaching for many people is that the career coach is there 100% for them. There are no conflicts of interest. The time they have together is totally focused on helping the client move forward and get to a place in their career where they feel satisfied and fulfilled. A good coach-client relationship will often feel like a conversation with a friend who is trying to help you figure out what to do, but where you do not have to reciprocate and ask the coach how their career is going!
Our emphasis is on asking powerful questions and using active listening and summarizing skills and working in partnership with the client to help them figure out what it is they want from their career and how to achieve that. A sign that a career coaching session is going well is when the client says “that’s a really good question” or “I hadn’t thought of that before”. A career coach helps the client to strategize on ways forward and to develop a strong action plan that helps them get “unstuck” and make progress in their career development journey.
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