When I went into the field of Coaching for a career, I considered ‘who’ I’d want to coach. Who would be my niche market? Would it be people who wanted to be healthier? Would it be executives? Or people who wanted to identify their life purpose?
I didn’t know initially, but I did know one thing…coaching helps all kinds of people and I knew I had a gift for helping people, especially men. Most of my Coaching graduate program was made up of women. Most of them felt nervous about coaching men…what about transference and counter-transference? Would I need to set boundaries with men I didn’t have to with women? I was confused…what is happening in your sessions with men? The same thing I do with women I do with men – ask powerful questions, acknowledge their strengths, help clarify goals and set measurable and specific things to work on from week to week. In coaching, you can go as deep as you want in terms of understanding what something means to you, how important it is for you to change in a given area, and what you are willing to do to effect desired change. This depth of feeling and knowing creates a kind of vulnerability in some people….that’s when you know you are on to the good stuff!! Ah ha! It is nothing more than that.
Men need and want to be heard, valued, and cared about just as much as women do. To have another person who provides that for you in your life is incredible. Men don’t tend to ask for help as readily as women do (I’m generalizing here of course)…and I believe they can benefit from help just as much as anyone can. Coaching is a powerful partnership which allows the client to get clear on what they want for their life and how to get it. I help men and women to do just that. I give men permission to say and do what it is they have always wanted to their whole lives. That is coaching. And coaching is life changing.
