Podcast: Arts-based and Trauma-informed Coaching
Nearly a year ago, I was invited onto the podcast of the Association for Coaching as part of a series in which they spoke to different coaches with very different areas of expertise and backgrounds about a day in their life.
This week, the conversation was released, and I hit play with some trepidation. Why trepidation, you might wonder….
Well, a year can be a long time. Some years bring us answers, others ask questions. Some years slot pretty seamlessly into our narrative of life, whereas others feel distinctly like the transition between chapters or even books.
For me, this last year has been one of those years that shaped me more than others. I definitely feel like I’ve switched books, maybe even genre! A mix of personal experiences and a deepening of my skills and approaches to coaching have led me to a place where I feel very anchored in my work and can articulate the flavour of coaching I’ve created over the past five years with more clarity.
I can see more clearly how the different strands of my story have shaped what is present today.
From a professional perspective, I’m weaving together the ups and downs of two decades in corporate and leadership roles with my training as a creative arts therapist and work in clinical settings. I understand how hard and problematic workplaces can be and how fulfilling and rewarding it can be to be part of an organisation or team where you encounter interesting people, projects and opportunities to learn and grow.
From a personal angle, I’ve come to understand different parts of myself more deeply; I’ve been curious about family and ancestral dynamics that have shaped me, and made sense of the inevitable and deep changes that happen for people who live and work in a culture different from the one they grew up in.
Throw in one global pandemic, the opportunities of working online and relocating to the countryside, and I’ve arrived at Sensemaking Space in its current shape, knowing full well that it’ll keep shapeshifting and be forever a work in process, like we all are.
Therefore, listening to this conversation almost a year on, was interesting and fun! Apart from the slight weirdness of listening to oneself, I was curious whether I had changed again, or some more… and I was somewhat relieved when the conversation felt like it could have been recorded just a few weeks ago. It sounded like me and offers a pretty accurate reflection of Sensemaking Space right now, even though there’s no such thing as a very typical day in my life.
I felt a small wave of love for my nervous self at the start which instead of saying that I live one hour outside of Melbourne, put me one hour outside of Australia - so you can find me somewhere in the icy cold Bass Strait!
But once we had that settled, the conversation was a chance to articulate why working with arts-based processes can add so much to the self-exploration coaching offers. I’m also sharing what trauma-informed coaching means and most importantly, how it unfolds in my coaching approach, programs and sessions.
I hope this conversation brings some inspiration to fellow coaches and offers an insight into what working with me might look and feel like if you’re curious and looking for a coach right now.
Click here to listen to this podcast episode and let me know what you think or whether it brings up any questions in you!
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If you want to explore arts-based and trauma-informed coaching in a 1-on-1 setting, book a free Discovery Call or find out more here.