Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) | Brenda Miller, Life Coach, Seattle

Q. What is Professional Coaching?

A. According to the International Coach Federation "Professional Coaching is an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life. In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of the conversation while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client's progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are today and what they are willing to do to get where the want to be tomorrow. "

Q. What is Radical Awareness® and Radical Awareness® Coaching ?

A. Click Here for that answer..

Q. What type of people choose to partner with a professional coach?

A. People who...

want to stop self-defeating behavior
are interested in learning about their purpose in life
want to learn and grow
are exploring new career paths
want to have someone forthright and objective in their lives who can be a sounding board and a friend
are seeking deeper spiritual connection
want to develop their skills and talents to get better than they are at present
are in transition of any kind
want stronger relationships
want greater abundance and prosperity

Q. How is Professional Coaching different from Therapy? Consulting? Training?

A. Coaching can be therapeutic and it is not therapy. While many coaches know a great deal about human nature and relationships, it is not the job of a coach to figure out your behavior, delve into your past, or ask you a lot of "why" questions. It is the job of a coach to assist you to identify your goals and help you develop strategic actions and thinking processes that will move you toward achieving those goals.

Consulting offers answers and expertise in a specific area. Most coaches are consultants. All consultants do not coach. Coaching facilitates discovery by assisting clients to find their own unique answers.

In training, there is a specific learning agenda and the trainer's job is to provide a structure for learning a specific set or body of information.

In coaching, the client designs the agenda and the coach's job is to hold the focus on whatever agenda the client designs.

Q. What's the difference between Professional Coaching and Sports Coaching?

A. The Sports Coach comes to each meeting with a set agenda or goal. The Sports Coach wants his/her goals to become the client's goals. Those goals are usually competitive and involve concepts of "client wins/opponent loses."

Opposite from this, the Professional Coach comes to each meeting with no personal goal or agenda for his/her client. The Professional Coach's only goal is to honor the client's goals. Each meeting focuses on what the client deems important.

Q. How did the Service of Professional Coaching develop?

A. The profession of coaching for non-athletes began in the late 1980's. The first coaches worked almost exclusively with top executives in medium and large businesses. These executives found that having an independent person to interact with on a regular basis was extremely valuable. Key figures in the profession recognized that the value of having a coach could be offered to a much wider audience if more skilled coaches were available. Coach training programs and schools for coaches have been established and coaching is becoming increasingly well know.

Q. If I feel good and life seems great to me right now, how would coaching benefit me?

A. The exciting thing about coaching is that you don't have to be coming from a place of need to derive benefit. Most people, no matter what their circumstances in life, want more - whether it's to be more of something, to do more of something, or to have more of something. Professional coaching is the way for people to get more - in any of those areas.

Q. What areas could I focus on when I hire you as my Success Coach?

A. Whatever seems important to you at the time that we meet. For example:

Personal Growth/ enjoyment/success

Balance of anything that feels unbalanced to you.
Increase your self-esteem and self-worth.
Achieve goals and get better results.
Take charge of your life.
Understand your choices.
Deepen your spirituality.
Release guilt and negativity.
Find peace and contentment.
Make life easier.

Career

Find your passion and make it your profession.
Career guidance - no matter how many careers you've had or how old you are.
Mid-life transitions / changing careers.
Adapting to change (career and otherwise).
Your career after 60.
Interviewing tips and techniques.
Job search assistance -how to be your own headhunter.
Resume assistance.

Relationships with significant other, family, friends

Interpersonal skills
Communication skills - saying what you want to say, so that who you say it to hears it the way you want it to be heard.
Romance
Committing
Being assertive / asking for what you want.

Financial Freedom

Feel 'worth it'
Do what it takes
Budgeting and savings

Q. How long does it take to achieve results through Professional Coaching?

A. When we work together I will ask you for a three-month commitment to start. After that time you choose how long we stay in the relationship. Some people find that coaching helps them through a difficult time or with a special project and that three months are enough. Other people are so excited with the results they achieve that they want to continue on and on. Some people choose coaching for life!