The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” In a coaching relationship, the client and coach play unique roles, but move together as equals. A client is a whole and complete person who is seeking a space to creatively move through challenges and meet goals that they articulate. A coach creates space, through asking questions and reflections for the client to meet those goals. In a coaching relationship there is no hierarchy and the coach is not a mentor or therapist, they are a peer who is showing up in relationship with the client.

If you have a goal that you need some additional space, accountability and/or resources to work towards, coaching might be for you! These goals should be personal, meaning that they are within your control to shift and you have the agency and space to do so. They can be personal or professional goals, so long as they are your own. They don’t need to be fully and clearly defined to start, if you have a feeling that there is a general area you’d like to see change in, some of our work could be articulating a clear goal.

Coaching is confidential. This means that you have the space to try new things with me that you might not otherwise have. If there are other people it’s important to work with as part of your coaching engagement, like a manager or a participant in a 360 review, I will be clear with you about what will and won’t be shared. You having the space to play and create new versions of yourself is important to me, and confidentiality is part of the foundation of trust that is required for that to happen.

The time that a coach and client are working together towards the client’s goal or set of goals is called a coaching engagement. In a world where we are often asked to seek expertise to solve problems, it can feel overwhelming and intimidating to articulate goals you have for a coaching engagement. With Woven Experience Coaching, here’s an overview of how the coaching relationship begins.

1. You reach out! This can happen via the form on my website or by emailing hello@wovenexperience.com

2. I will follow up to set up a free 30 minute chemistry call. Coaching is built on relationships so it’s important for both of us to feel like we can work together. If at this point you don’t feel like I am the right person to help you meet your goals, our engagement ends. No hard feelings at all.

3. In that conversation, I will get some information about what your goals are for the coaching engagement. If you decide you want to work together, I will also send you a coaching intake form with some additional questions for you to reflect on. Responses to these questions help me build a fuller understanding of what your goals are and how we can work together.

4. Using the data from our call and the survey, I will put together a proposal for the engagement. This includes the number of sessions I suggest, timing for sessions and a re-articulation of what I heard were your goals for the engagement.

5. You will review the proposal, we will make any necessary changes and then we will get started!

You might be thinking, holy moly Anna, that is a lot of information you gather before we even begin coaching! And you’re right. Having all of this information up front helps me more fully understand what you are looking to get out of our time together and make sure I am doing everything I can to help you meet your goals. You’re spending both money and time to be here with me and I want you to feel like it was valuable!

We will start coaching sessions! Depending on the details of our coaching contract, we will have a clear number of sessions and duration of session articulated at the beginning of our work together. Unless otherwise agreed upon in our contract, sessions will be held on zoom and will range from 45-90 minutes based on need. You should also expect to spend some time outside of our sessions on reflection activities that we agree upon together.

As I said above, coaching is a relationship. You can expect me to be a warm and present facilitator who asks you to dig deeper and create greater understanding and accountability for your goals. Learning happens in a space that is slightly outside of our comfort zone, but is not unsafe. You can expect me to create a lot of space in the learning zone, but not cross your boundaries. I expect you to show up prepared and ready to engage in coaching, whatever that means for you. I will consistently ask for your feedback and will offer feedback if needed, aimed at making our time together as impactful as possible.

As a coach, my job is to create space for you to articulate your goals, make a plan to reach them, alter your plan as needed and eventually meet your goal. In that kind of relationship, my job is to move with you, holding the overall goal that you’re working towards and making sure we stay on the path that you want to be on towards that goal. Imagine the two of us are moving through a forest. At every fork in the path, I am reflecting back to you what I am hearing you say you want and using that reflection and questions, you are deciding where to go. By the end of our engagement you have built a map for where you want to go based on your needs.

As a consultant, I offer organizations maps I make to reach a destination they are seeking. The key difference here is that I have done the work to identify the mile markers, decision points and outcomes they are able to achieve if they choose to walk down this path. It’s important to not mix the two because in a coaching relationship, the map should be your own to make sure you are meeting your goals.

Disability Doula is a term coined by disability activist Stacey Park Milburn and represents the ways that disabled folks support the rebirth of newly disabled folks. As an article in the 19th news shares about disability doulas, “Becoming disabled can significantly change a person’s life. Many of those shifts aren’t discussed in a doctor’s office, and there’s no easy how-to guide to follow. Disability doulaing fills those gaps. It can involve practical work like sharing diagnosis journeys and personal experiences with doctors or medication. It can also look like a friend helping another apply for Medicaid or file complicated insurance claims.”

In my practice, this looks like active, hands on support for newly disabled people or disabled people navigating a new disability. For some things, like wanting connections to new resources related to a diagnosis, we can connect via zoom. For other things, like figuring out what foods you can eat on an elimination diet, or using a new mobility aid in public, you would need to be within 30 miles of Edmonds, WA.

I want to recognize that the language of being a disability doula and the beginning of this radical practice came from radical, queer disabled femmes of color. As a white, queer, disabled woman this is not a practice I created. I have been called on in this role for many years and it feels true to my experience to call myself a disability doula, in full recognition of the history and power of those that came before me.