I have switched from using Internet Explorer v7.0 to Mozilla Firefox today in an attempt to create a more useful experience blogging. Up until now I have had technical glitches using WordPress with Internet Explorer and I am hoping the Firefox browser will provide a better flowing experience.
Over this past weekend I had an experience of using Coaching and NLP skills with two students I was instructing in a Hypnotherapy Workshop. I saw that the Coaching and NLP techniques I’ve learned flowed naturally, almost without my realizing that I was using them with these two students. It provided me with the opportunity to interact with these students in a much more beneficial way for them and for myself than I would previously have been able to.
I had the very positive experience for myself that it did not matter what the outcome was, the interaction was not about me. I did not feel the need to fix anything, provide advice or my opinion and it did not matter what they chose to do with the questions and information I provided. Most importantly, I was relaxed and felt equal to both of these individuals who actually had more general hypnosis experience than I. I naturally built rapport, asked questions from my curiosity, acknowledged, validated, celebrated, encouraged, asked permission, offered different perspectives and so on.
I saw that I was genuinely curious with what they expressed as difficulties they were having professionally. I found that this curiosity created the opportunity for me to be objective and impartial, to create a large space for us to have a meaningful interaction in and to relax and let go of any concern that I did not have enough training or experience to coach them properly. I was not worried about the coaching process. The curiosity I had naturally brought up appropriate and meaningful questions and kept the process moving forward in a valuable way for all of us.
I left feeling neutral and complete. I had no feelings of having fixed or not fixed anything. I had no feelings of guilt or failure or any other negative burden or judgment of my performance. I actually did not care if they chose to use or not use anything I had questioned, said or offered. This was a very different experience for me.
My doubts that I am ready to start coaching faded greatly as a result of interacting with these two students. I realized that the self-doubt and judgment that I allowed into my beliefs as to whether I was ready to coach disappeared in the process of doing it. By focusing on genuinely being curious, everything else fell into place for me.
