Are you struggling to manage the ever-increasing demands of your career, family commitments and life in general? Professional coaching may be what you need to get your life back on track.
As a social worker, you’re constantly giving bits of yourself to your clients, your managers and your colleagues. And then you go home and give to family and friends, a lot of the time, without having time to debrief and decompress from the stresses of your role.
You’re a problem-solver and caregiver, always focused on others, so it’s easy to lose sight of your well-being amongst the demands around you. It’s hard to look after your physical and mental health when you’re running on empty and close to burnout.
That’s where professional well-being coaching can help you. Professional well-being coaching gives you the space to take a breath and step back from the chaos so you can focus on yourself without judgement. And when you have somebody solely focused on supporting your journey to wellness, it’s easier to achieve lasting results.
Coaching has become increasingly popular as more individuals seek support and tools to cope with what sometimes feels like insurmountable work and life challenges. In this article, I take an in-depth look at how professional well-being coaching can help you as a social work practitioner regain your focus, overcome internal and external blocks, and revitalise your approach to work and life.
How does professional coaching differ from professional supervision?
As a certified professional well-being coach for social workers, I’m often asked how coaching differs from professional supervision (I expanded on this in an earlier blog). Briefly, supervision focuses on the practitioner reflecting on work practices, situations and clients while developing new skills to continue delivering quality care to their clients.
Coaching focuses on the practitioner alone. Professional coaching provides a vehicle for the practitioner to clarify their personal, professional, financial or emotional goals and provides practical tools to help them achieve them. A professional well-being coach doesn’t instruct — they facilitate.
Coaching helps you develop strategies for long-term change
Professional coaching doesn’t just help you address current needs.
It’s much more than that. Coaching is a partnership between you and the coach that provides you with the tools to develop strategies that lead to long-term positive change. A skilled well-being coach will help you identify your underlying roadblocks and guide you as you create actionable plans. With gentle support, you’ll create lasting shifts in attitude, behaviour, and beliefs to steer you toward a better life.
Professional well-being coaching sessions often begin with the coach asking you what you’d like to focus on. From there, the coach will help you identify your values, determine your goals, challenge your roadblocks (often long-held beliefs) and provide evidence-based tools to help you reframe your current mindset. Your coach can then help you create a strategy that focuses on achieving your desired outcomes.
Professional coaching offers an opportunity to create a personalised action plan designed specifically for your needs and circumstances. With continuous reflection and self-awareness gained through professional coaching, you can achieve significant personal growth and professional development while maintaining long-term change.
Analysing professional development and performance goals through well-being coaching
When working with you to help you achieve professional development and performance goals, a well-being coach will support you to analyse
the gaps between your desired outcome and your current reality. This analysis can provide insights into why you aren’t achieving certain goals and help establish a plan of action to bridge the gaps.
By analysing your professional development goals, your coach will support you through specific steps to help you reach your desired objective.
These steps may include the following:
- Identifying your values
- Visualising your desired outcome
- Setting achievable goals
- Planning action items
- Determining accountability checks
- Regular progress checks
How evidence-based research can help you work toward your desired goal
Evidence-based research such as the PERMAH model of well-being and Dr Michelle McQuaid’s Culture of Care and THRIVE mindset practices are invaluable tools in professional well-being coaching.
By staying up to date on the latest research and findings in psychology, sociology, and other related fields, coaches are better positioned to guide you as you create actionable plans. Implementing techniques founded on evidence-based research and practices allows you to gain practical skills to help manage stress, reframe your mindset, and start living the life you’ve always wanted.
Is professional well-being coaching right for you?
If you’re overwhelmed, feeling lost and know you need help but don’t know where to start, it may be worth reaching out to a professional well-being coach. As discussed above, coaching enables you to get clarity, identify and understand required actions and provides tools to help you change your life. It can help you change direction and get you back on track to a life of joy and fulfilment rather than stress and despondence. Isn’t that worth considering?
Credible coaches will offer a free discovery call to get to know you a little, talk you through the coaching process and determine if it’s the right solution for you. You can book an appointment with me here if you’d like to learn more about how professional coaching can help you.