Challenges Faced/Approach Used
From the onset, the main challenges I faced during the engagement was that although Patrick was clear he wanted the coaching to pinpoint what classes he should take/ projects he should spend his time on, he did not know 1) the career he wanted for himself and 2) what kind of future he wanted. At the same time, he was very “stuck” on the idea that the solution to all his problems was to be able to create a resume that he could feel comfortable sending out to prospective employers.
During the first session, I took him through a guided visualization, asking him to imagine meeting his Future Self, set in the year 2023. The visualization asked him to imagine where the Future Self lived, what the home looked and felt like, what the Future Self was like (appearance, personality, disposition, interests, how he spent his time), and conversations he would exchange with her Future Self. I had done this exercise a number of times for previous clients, with the purpose of gaining clarity on 1) their values, 2) their vision/desired state, and 3) any concerns that could be holding them back. Every client I had used this for in the past had found it very fulfilling and very revealing of themselves.
Patrick was a different case though. As soon as the visualization finished, he heaved a deep sigh and told me that he could not do the visualization properly, as he could not even begin to imagine himself ten years into the future. He did not know where he would be (which country, what kind of home, etc), what he would be doing, who would be in his life… In simplest terms, the visualization exercise actually further cemented his feelings of confusion.
Using my coaching model, Life on PLAY, I wanted to bring him back to his foundation/core (discover what his true values are, what he truly wants out of life, so that we could then decide on how to align that with his strengths and then pinpoint a career for him, then from there, decide on what classes and projects to take), I decided to try a more straightforward approach to discovering his values: we went through a list of values. I asked him to select the top ten values that spoke to him, and then asked him to define each of the ten. From the ten, I asked him to further shortlist and select the five values he believes in the most/holds most important. He responded more positively to this and we ended the session with a list of his most important values.
Although the second session ended with concrete results, I could not get rid of the nagging feeling that my client was still unsettled and was still not moving towards a place of peace and quiet. When he sent in his Coaching Preparation Form for the following session, I once again saw the following items: