A question I am frequently asked by coaches is whether coaching is compatible with healing or whether those are two different modalities. 

The answer is yes; a coaching space can be a healing space. And it doesn’t mean you need to have learned any healing methodologies or see yourself as ‘a healer’ to create a healing space.

Why cultivate a healing apace?

In these turbulent times, where so many are living in uncertainty, where the future appears less safe and secure than the past, people carry a lot of worry and fear. High levels of stress and anxiety are common, and this has a debilitating effect on individuals and families.

There is an opportunity here for our coach sessions to become more than a place for people to think through options, strategies and actions; they can become sanctuaries where people can lean into their worry and fear, and just be with it.

What is a healing apace?

A healing space is any space in which a person is capable of relaxing the stressors in their mind and body to the point where they have access to their most resourceful state. 

When you are present in your sessions with your heart wide open to people’s pain, you are cultivating to a healing space. When you choose to be an empathetic, non-judgmental, loving presence, that creates a healing space. Unconditional love is the power that heals all. 

What happens in a healing space?

People are willing to be vulnerable, to speak about their deepest fears, and to look at underlying structures of thought and belief that give rise to the fear.

In a healing space, people can come face-to-face with their pain, lean into it, give it voice, and do the work to release the patterns of thought and emotion that keep them living in the grip of fear. A healing space allows for negative thoughts and emotions to be expressed in any form, knowing that all is held without judgment.

When this happens, people begin to decompress, relax and trust more.

How does a coaching space become a healing space? 

A healing space is not a ‘problem solving’ space. Coaches needs to let go of the idea that our role is to resolve the issue or make our client’s pain go away. A healing space is born of the heart’s energy, not the intellect’s problem-solving ability.

When you as the coach can let go of your own impulse to fix or make things better for your client, and open your heart to simply be with the pain arising, you are cultivating a healing space. When your presence radiates unconditional love and acceptance, your clients will know that in this space they are free to be as they are, without needing anything to be different than it is. 

Let the energy and intelligence of the heart lead

A coaching space that is a healing space has its own unique energy. It will feel like everything, including stress and anxiety, is accepted as it is. People are not accustomed to being in such spaces. They are used to standing in judgment of things that are deemed unhelpful or limiting. People can be their own worst critics, even judging their own pain negatively. But with you in a healing space there is no judgment, there is no need to fix things or solve the problem (though that may still happen), and all is accepted and loved as it is.

The result is that stress, emotionality and negative energy will naturally dissipate, and your clients will naturally open to a higher potential within themselves. You don’t have to drive people to awareness through powerful questions. You simply need to hold space for what is there —a space woven of the energies and intelligence of the heart — and watch what happens when you do. 

.