Coaching FAQs and Fees

Coaching is currently not a regulated profession, but there are a number of professional membership organisations that promote best practice and establish professional standards through training and accreditation. If you'd like to know more about someone's qualifications when looking for a coach, ask them - that's what the initial "chemistry call" or conversation is for.

I qualified as an Accredited Relational Dynamics 1st Coach in 2021. The course is accredited through Culture at Work (equivalent to ILM level 7). I undertake regular professional supervision and am a member of the Association for Coaching, an independent and not-for-profit professional body dedicated to promoting best practice and raising awareness and standards of coaching worldwide. I adhere to their Code of Ethics, which you can download here.

Coaching was initially a term mainly used in the context of sports. In the 20th century it developed into a tool to help professional and personal development and growth. There are different schools and approaches in coaching. One of the best known coaching frameworks, the GROW model, was developed by Sir John Whitmore and colleagues, published in Coaching for Performance, 1992. Other models are, for example, without any claim to completeness, Nancy Kline's Thinking Environment, Clean Language coaching or Co-Active coaching.

In the general sense of the word, coaching is defined as a process that takes people from where they are to where they want to be. Think about your goal(s) - would you like to change jobs, change careers or change the something in your current role? Do you have a big project coming up, but are not sure where to start? Do you feel 'stuck' with your business planning? A coach can help you to get 'unstuck', move forward in your personal and professional life, and be an external accountability partner. Coaching is a solution-focused, results-orientated and forward-looking process.

A cornerstone of 1:1 coaching are structured, collaborative conversations aimed at helping a client to formulate and reach personal or professional goals. If it suits the client's journey, a coaching session can also contain elements beyond talking that are playful, creative or mindful, such as breathing exercises or visualisation. One-to-one coaching sessions with me generally last 50 minutes and can be held in person or online (This can be adjusted to individual needs. The length of sessions, session frequency and number of sessions are agreed with each client on an individual basis). My responsibility as coach is to provide and hold a safe space for you that enables your thinking and self-guided learning. I will be alongside you with openness and curiosity, and I will listen, reflect and question. I work mostly with the GROW model, which provides a guiding framework for our conversations. If I think other methods or tools would be useful during our session, I will suggest them and ask for your permission to go ahead. Nothing in the sessions will happen without your consent, which is part of what makes coaching so powerful. Coaching enables you to take agency and make empowered choices in your own voice. You own the insights and solutions you develop in a coaching session.

My coaching practice is aimed at supporting clients in finding individual solutions that work for them. As such, it is not my task to act as a consultant and tell clients what to do or how to do it. However, if it seems helpful in a session to share some of my experience and expertise in arts marketing to support someone's journey, I will ask for permission to offer an opinion / suggestion. It is still the client's decision whether they want to hear it in this particular moment or not. If a client is more interested in a way of working that combines coaching with mentoring, we can discuss this in our initial phone call and find out if this is a basis on which we can work together.

Coaching is non-directive and focused on the client's self-directed learning. A mentoring relationship is more directive as a coaching relationship, because one of the objectives is for the mentee to learn and grow from the mentor’s experience and advice.

Consultancy sits at the opposite end of this spectrum, because it is highly directive. A consultant is hired for their knowledge and expertise, and they are expected to provide solutions to the client.

The most important difference between coaching and counselling is that counselling is therapy and will be provided by a trained mental health specialist. Coaching can be therapeutic, but it is not therapy.

Counselling is exploratory and aimed at helping clients to “gain a better understanding of your feelings and thought processes”, often by exploring the past. Read more about counselling on the NHS website.

For a more detailed comparison of coaching, mentoring and counselling see this article.

I work with a sliding scale of fees that depend on personal circumstances, whether you are an individual or a corporate client, and how often and where we meet. Please contact me to arrange an initial, free of charge "chemistry call", where I can provide more information, and where we can confidentially discuss your requirements and expectations, and how this could work for you.