A Cinderella story-style stagecoach powered by DALL E3 If you were a coach twenty years ago, people asked “which sport?” Now the world and her wife are ‘coaches’. Not to mention AI coaching. In our growing gig economy, advisors and consultants are ‘coaches’ and in the digital realm, ‘coaching’ is a go-to-market strategy for the cottage industry of our times: Content Creation. So, if you’re a certified coach struggling to distinguish what you do, or someone wondering whether coaching IRL might support you, here are 6 ways to distinguish real coaching from other 'coaching' out there : 1. Real c ..read more

This blog is intended for coaches and trainee coaches looking to deepen their capability and confidence in coaching. Lesson #1 : It's not about the methodology What some are calling the coach industrial complex, is a mixture of untrained 'coaches' and graduates from a forest of different schools who have ‘named, claimed and framed’ specific coaching methodologies. Keen to develop, we coaches pick our way through the forest, trying to figure out which schools to choose and then what to discard and what to integrate from what we learn. Last month’s blog explored the idea that it’s not ..read more

This blog is intended for coaches and trainee coaches looking to deepen their capability and confidence in coaching. Why is this important? The ICF core competencies include a whole domain on ,co-creating the relationship. At Bamboo Being, we believe that how we ‘show up’ either fosters co-creative relationships or gets in the way of them. Integral Coaching places a significant emphasis on a coach's way of being, believing it's central to fostering effective and transformative coaching relationships. The idea of ‘way of being’ goes beyond techniques and what we say or do in coaching sessions t ..read more

A practice template for a coach who want to build trust in yourself (and others) and a client who struggles with trust in themselves ..read more

A self-observation template for coach who wishes to better understand what is behind their decision-making ..read more

This blog is intended for coaches and trainee coaches looking to deepen their capability and confidence in coaching. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Coaching is a quickly evolving field with a bewildering array of approaches. Coach training schools are the ‘driving schools’ of coaching, preparing coaches for credentials but often with little depth in the philosophy of coaching overall. Academic institutions teach theories and survey the field- but often with little practice. It can be difficult to reconcile what we learn from different types of training - not to mention all the books, podcasts and vid ..read more

This blog is intended for coaches and trainee coaches looking to deepen their capability and confidence in coaching. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT James Flaherty, the founder of Integral Coaching, writes in his book “Coaching, Evoking excellence in Others” that relationship is the first and most important operating principle in coaching. The ICF core competencies include a whole domain on co-creating the relationship. At Bamboo Being, we believe the relationship is the ground from which growth happens not only for client but for the coach. WHAT ARE SOME USEFUL DISTINCTIONS Is there a difference betwee ..read more

Dear Friend It's been a while. Thanks to those who asked whether they'd fallen off the mailing list, or missed the newsletter in their in-box and sorry for not being in touch sooner. As a practice dedicated to renewal and fresh possibility, it feels fitting to write you on May Day, the original pole-dancing day when the arrival of spring and fertility is traditionally celebrated in parts of Europe. But focused as we are on workplaces, it also feels fitting to be connecting on Labour Day, or International Worker's Day, when we celebrate workers across the world. In China and Japan, the beginni ..read more

Brainstorm by Dan Siegel Between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, Dr. Daniel Siegel busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence—for example, that it is merely a stage of “immaturity” filled with often “crazy” behavior Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberativ ..read more

Bodyfulness: Somatic Practices for Presence, Empowerment, and Waking Up in This Life by Christine Caldwell Breathing, sensing, and moving—the ways we know our body—carry tremendous contemplative potential, and yet, we so often move through our days unaware of or in conflict with our physical selves The Pocket Guide to Polyvagal Theory, The transformative power of feeling safe By Stephen Porges The polyvagal theory explains the biological origins of a variety of social behaviors and emotional disorders. This book distills that theory into practical clinical tips, explaining its relevance to t ..read more