Maria Connolly, LPC
If the words “grateful” and “thankful” were colors, in the shade of red, which would be the darker, richer red? Many of us use those words interchangeably. They are closely related. But there are fundamental differences between the two. Understanding the difference between thankful and grateful will deepen and enrich your mindfulness practices.
I congratulate you! You’re doing very well at incorporating a self-care routine into your busy lives. You’re eating better, sleeping longer and deeper, and exercising more. And it’s paying off! You tell me that you have more energy and feel so much better. I’m proud of you. But may I bring to your attention a trend I see? People are trying to steal a few moments to cram self-care into the busyness of life, which ultimately diminishes or negates the intention of self-care. The result I’m seeing is that this approach doesn’t allow space for soul care.
Do you feel powerful? If your answer is, “Some days, yes; some days, not at all!” I understand how one day you can feel full of energy and clarity; and then the next day you feel drained, deflated and uncertain. Our personal power is dramatically affected by external forces beyond our control… or are they?
We’re living in interesting times. Many women have been inspired to do something more meaningful with their lives. They have a spark, an inspiration, a message they need to share with others. Do you feel it too? Perhaps, in the moment, this idea fills you up and makes you feel powerful. But the reality is we live in a world that can easily drain your power away, if you let it.
This may be controversial, but I have to speak up…
As coaches, we’re often told we need to specialize in one area to stand out from the crowd, like nutrition coach, business coach, public speaking coach, mindset coach, personal development coach, etc. But to make a real difference in our clients’ lives, we can’t be so hyperfocused on only one aspect of life. Everything affects everything else. We need a holistic approach and that involves a self-care mindset!
We can learn a lot from plants. They are constantly in a cycle of growing and changing. If you pay attention to and provide what each plant likes and needs, you’ll have a lovely, productive garden. Of course, they can suffer transplant shock when they’re moved from one spot to another, but when you give them the right amount of a plant food like MiracleGro, they take off like crazy! What does this have to do with your personal and professional growth?
We similarly are constantly changing, but we’re not necessarily growing unless we choose to do so. But aren’t we the happiest when we are growing? I know I am. And that’s where the Miracle Grow of Mentor Coaching comes in…
I feel most energized and alive when I’m learning skills and growing. It’s led me to a life that I absolutely love! Is that how you feel? Would you like to?
Along my journey of personal and professional growth, I became very impressed with the training from the International Coaching Federation. So much so that I became an ICF Professional Certified Coach. It’s a perfect fit for where I am in my journey. Now I can help fellow ICF members complete a rigorous credentialing process designed to develop and refine their coaching skills. And I’m incorporating my refined coaching skills into my Somatic Coaching sessions.
But I wasn’t content to stop there! I wholeheartedly feel as did Mahatma Gandhi, when he said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Soon after getting that certification, I took an amazing class with InviteChange Mentor Coaching Certification. It was a 14-week intensive that ended October 4, 2023, and I want to give a shout-out to Janet Harvey and Jennifer Starr for the amazing class facilitation and overall leadership! The way the class was set up modeled the Mentor Coaching concepts I wanted to learn.
My journey:
When I decided to invest time, money, and energy in the course I was super excited and a little scared. Even predicting ahead of time that I was going to be challenged, I hit a point mid-way where I wanted to quit. But I told myself that I had overcome difficulties before and that I could do it!
I kicked and squirmed and I started to imagine all the ways I could get out of the discomfort.
Surprise, surprise, the main obstacle was me. I was getting in my own way. I was trying to be perfect and forgetting that learning involves making lots of mistakes. After all, Yoda said, “The greatest teacher, failure is.” It was helpful that remember that I had been here before and that in the past I found a way to overcome the obstacles.
This is what happens whenever we learn something new! Once I reinstated a beginner’s mind attitude, I was able to move past and move on. This was a powerful reminder to bring this learning into my mentor coaching and invite coach-clients into that generative and humbling space.
While both mentoring and coaching involve a supportive relationship between two people, mentoring tends to be more broad and holistic, with a focus on the mentee’s overall development, while coaching tends to be more narrow and focused on specific objectives.
Coaching is typically a more focused and goal-oriented relationship in which a coach helps a client achieve specific objectives or outcomes. Coaching is usually short-term and task-oriented, with the coach helping the client to identify and overcome obstacles, develop new skills, and achieve specific goals.
ICF Mentor Coaching is based on helping coaches put into practice the ICF core competencies in a much more comprehensive and cohesive way. My Mentor Coaches have changed the way I view myself, my clients, and how we interact with each other. My practice is so much more intuitive now as I clearly hear what each client is saying.
My mentor coaching takes it many steps further. I incorporate all the principles I’ve learned from the International Coaching Federation and InviteChange with everything else I’ve learned — as a traditional therapist, plus the combined wisdom of different methodologies like Hakomi, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Trance AND Feldenkrais AND Somatic Training AND Embodiment Training from the Strozzi Institute! Through this broad and varied base, I promote embodied confidence by teaching somatic tools to help clients act from a place of stability and trust even in uncertainty. I don’t do it in a cookie-cutter way either. Each person gets a tailored-to-them program.
When you partner with me, I’m all about respecting, adapting, listening, supporting, understanding and acknowledging, but I’m not doing the work for you. Galileo Galilei understood the importance of this years ago, when he said, “You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself”. My clients discover their wellspring of innate wisdom, courage, and strength from within. It’s so empowering and transformational!
Are you exploring coaching as a career option? Or is coaching already your profession, but you want to make a greater difference in the lives of your clients? Perhaps you feel unprepared or you want to take it to the next level? I encourage you to check out the International Coaching Federation. It’s the Gold Standard of coaching!
And if you’re committed to being an ICF Mentor Coach and would like to achieve your ACC or PCC credentialing, I’d be honored to partner with you. Let’s schedule a time to meet via Zoom and talk about it more!
Thank you for the photo Taha Mazandarani.