The HRsource Meta-Coaching Experience: A Client’s Perspective

Claire H sent HRsource this testimonial in August 2020. It offers a super overview of what to expect in coaching sessions, and how Adelaide is able to work with Millennials who want a change of direction.

“At the beginning of June I was referred to coaching sessions by a friend and was very lucky to be pointed in Adelaide’s direction. During six sessions over several months, Adelaide’s guidance has been crucial in getting me to where I am now – which is a far way from the point I was at when we met! Adelaide’s coaching skills have helped me find clarity, set goals with a clear plan to achieve them and crucially built confidence in myself. 

This is the first time I’ve ever undergone any form of coaching and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was an unknown for me, and a big step outside of my comfort zone. Adelaide’s warm personality quickly established a safe space, where I felt comfortable expressing myself and built an essential level of trust. Before we started our sessions, I felt directionless and trapped in my current job, which I knew I wanted to move on from but didn’t know how to move forward.

Straight away, Adelaide explained what coaching is and how our sessions could help. I really responded to the onus of the sessions being driven by me. More than anything else this meant that in every one of our calls, I had a strong feeling of taking agency over my work situation, and that I had support and a sounding board along the way. It’s a very empowering style of coaching and now that our sessions have ended I feel confident in how to proceed to the next step, and feel the motivation to keep pushing forward.

In our first sessions, Adelaide’s coaching style almost acted as a mirror and helped me to reflect on what it was I wanted to achieve, and why. The result of this is that I have clarity on exactly what direction I want to take my career in. I found that clarity much quicker than I thought I would, and I think this is completely down to Adelaide’s ability to create a non-judgemental, supportive environment where I could be myself, without worrying about what anyone else was thinking. We broke down each session into setting achievable, tangible goals so that each time we met I had made progress. This was incredibly motivating and reinforced the sense of moving forward every time we spoke.

When setting new goals and how and why they would be useful, Adelaide did a wonderful job in helping me to keep pushing further every time and consider creative questions and possible solutions. This was brilliant because it was making me think about things from outside the box, which I wouldn’t have done without her guidance.

Adelaide also did a huge amount of confidence-building exercises with me, because it became clear quite early on that while I am confident in my abilities, fear of failing has been holding me back. We did a number of exercises that helped me move beyond this type of thinking. One of my favourites is that where I kept repeating ‘I’m trying to do x’, Adelaide pointed out that I wasn’t ‘trying’, I was already ‘doing’. Mantras and affirmations have been really helpful to me in building confidence and not giving the energy and space to negative thoughts. Visualisation techniques were also very helpful as it meant I gave myself permission to imagine succeeding and how that would feel, rather than worrying about all the things that could go wrong. 

Now that we’ve finished our sessions, I’m incredibly grateful to Adelaide and her clear, unwavering support. Having not really known what to expect during our first goals, I feel like Adelaide helped me make the absolute most of our time together, so that on writing this now, I feel like I have come a long way. I know what steps I need to take next to achieve my goals, and she’s given me the tools to keep going. Thank you Adelaide.”

If you are considering coaching, contact us on 07711199732.