Coaching Today, July 2012 Issue 3
For counsellor-coaches and other coaching professionals

Editorial

Those of you who have connected with me through our dedicated LinkedIn group¹ will know that, in addition to my private coaching practice (and, of course, editing this journal!), I am also currently in training as a dance movement psychotherapist. As I write this, I am approaching completion of my first year of a three-year Master’s degree.

In reflecting on the past academic year, I realise how compartmentalised my working life has become since I began this journey. The time I spend in practical, experiential sessions in university and in clinical placement is spent living in and through my body: sensing, feeling, connecting, empathising and attuning to my peers and my clients. The other half of my week is devoted to my private coaching clients and to producing this journal, and in that time I live in the world of words – emails, telephone conversations and video-conferencing, and writing and editing copy. My dance movement therapy training exacerbates the fact that – despite my dance background – it is still all too easy for me to become disembodied when spending the best part of my day in front of a computer screen, and I wonder how many of us who work mainly online or remotely have similar experiences.

So for our cover feature this summer I was delighted to investigate Clare Myatt’s embodied, somatic approach to facilitating change, and her way of working with clients by connecting through the body. There’s a famous quote that is attributed to the founder of 5Rhythms, Gabrielle Roth: ‘If you put the body in motion, you will change.’ My background as a dancer and my current training as a dance therapist leads me to believe that ingrained habits that have proved resistant to change can be shifted through working on a deep, emotional, physical, sensory and somatic level: one that cannot be accessed through intellect alone. These sentiments are echoed in our Chair Jo Birch’s column. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

For all of that, the fact remains that we live in a digital age and I’m sure I’m not alone in conducting a large part of my coaching practice virtually, via telephone or Skype. Therefore, I am also pleased to feature a comprehensive step-by-step guide to Skype coaching – or ‘Skoaching’ – by Dr Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Dimos Kyritsis, in their response to our special feature on online coaching that appeared in our launch issue back in January this year.² The authors – who are  based in the UK and Greece respectively, and produced this piece together by conversing remotely – highlight the particular benefits of this approach when working internationally and cross-culturally. Their article is particularly apt for this issue, which also sees the launch of our new Thinking Global series.

Finally, inspired by a new book that suggests that gender differences should be taken into account when we coach men and women, coach and freelance journalist Eve Menezes Cunningham explores the subject of gender in coaching and asks, ‘Is there a “right” way to coach a woman?’ What do you think?

Thanks again for all your positive feedback on our journal and keep your suggestions for feature articles coming. I’m excited and inspired by the rich diversity of our profession and I hope you’ll find some of that diversity reflected here in this edition. Your ideas and contributions are hugely appreciated.

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!

Diane Parker
Editor
editorial@bacpcoaching.co.uk

Disclaimer and copyright