Coastline Coaching

Beginning this journey in the mid 2000’s I wondered how I was going to combine my education and experience in a way that I could help as many people as possible.   Over my years of working with clients in Tokyo, across New Zealand and Australia with healing, relaxation, stress relief and teaching Reiki I have asked, what brought you here?   Breaking it down to the basics every person is seeking a sense of happiness.   A theme that Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania identified in his book Flourish.   After years as a clinical psychologist he too realised that most people are seeking a sense of happiness outside of the satisfaction that they got from their current situation. My personal journey has brought me to the notion of helping healthy people be happy.   While all my clients had a sense of satisfaction about their life they all said they were looking for something else, something more than what they already had. One such experience was a client who came to

We all have our strengths.   Have you ever been asked to talk about your strengths or wondered what your strengths are?   With the shift in psychology to a more positive framework a lot of work has been done to identify what these strengths are.   Gathering information form an incredibly diverse range of cultures and nations and created a collection of 24 virtues within those virtues which they have broken down into strengths. Scholars found that we all possess all 24 of these strengths only at a different degree.   These 24 character strengths then fall into one of the 6 broader virtues which are common across nations and cultures. Imagine the sheer number of strength combinations that are out there.   The number of potential combinations will exceed the number of people on the earth. While we all possess the 24 character strengths they can be ranked from 1 to 24, this is not to say that those that fall closer to 24 are a weakness, they may be aspects of yourself that jus

As psychology has become more involved with coaching, professional opinions have shifted from suggesting that life coaching was an invalad undisciplined industry.   Recognising   the sheer number of people and business employing life or corporate coaches psychology as a discipline has come to view coaching as a positive influence in the world.   The Australian Psychological Society for example has an interest group of coaching psychologists who are invested in introducing the application of psychological principles to life coaching practice. Consider for a moment the traditional intention of psychology, to bring a person form a negative frame of reference, as identified in the diagnostic statistical manual (DSM) to a neutral frame of reference.   The advent of applied positive psychology has taken this a step further, adding the necessity to bring an individual of any state of mind further into the positive.   Applied positive psychology uses established approaches like behavi

What is the difference between coaching and counselling? The hard and fast answer is that coaching is focused on the outcome and counselling is focused on the process. Coaching is typically a short-term intervention that is designed to help you achieve an ideal outcome.  Counselling is a longer process that will help you think differently about a situation to work through an issue in life. Either way the choice to start working with a coach or counsellor will often depend on your intention; achieve a goal, get a better job, improve personal relationships or work through anxiety or depression for example.  The reality is that coaching, and counselling are not always mutually exclusive.   While each has its focus at some point in the process, they may in fact cross over. Whatever the coach’s methods, they will help tap into your potential and support your intention with strategies and interventions.  The coach will focus on the elements you need

A question that has come up a lot is, “What is the difference between coaching and counselling?” The hard and fast answer is that coaching is focused on the outcome and counselling is focused on the process. Coaching is typically a short-term intervention that is designed to help you achieve an ideal outcome.   Counselling is a longer process that will help you think differently about a situation to work through an issue in life. Either way the choice to start working with a coach or counsellor will often depend on your intention; achieve a goal, get a better job, improve personal relationships or work through anxiety or depression for example.   The reality is that coaching, and counselling are not always mutually exclusive.   While each has its focus at some point in the process they may in fact cross over. Consider the roll of the coach, whatever their methods, they will help tap into your potential and support your intention with strategies and interventions.

Coaching is not new though there has a big resurgence in recent years with many methods and models that break down to one acronym or another.   Life coaching like sports coaching is all about helping teams and individuals achieve their potential by instructing them on development of skills and providing encouragement while they work toward their goal.   Winning. So, with sports coaching in mind, as a life coach the goal becomes unlocking potential and maximising performance in life. Facilitating the development of the skills or strengths that are needed to achieve an ideal outcome. Winning. The Life coach may become concerned with the immediate improvement of performance through the development of skills by tutoring, instructing or simply providing an alternative perspective. In recent years psychologists have become interested in life coaching from the perspective of creating methods that will support ongoing success.   Afterall ask any athlete and they will tell you that