Coaching in Holborn, Central London

How a Session Works

What a Coaching Conversation Looks Like

A coaching session is a structured conversation rather than free-ranging chat. Your coach will usually ask what has happened since the last session, what is working, what is not, and what you want to focus on today. Expect direct questions and, where relevant, practical tools such as goal-setting frameworks, visualisation or breathing techniques.

Coaching assumes you are broadly functioning well and want support moving toward a goal, rather than treating a clinical difficulty. If, in the course of coaching, something more suited to counselling or psychotherapy comes up, a good coach will say so and suggest that route instead.

Coaching Compared with Mentoring or Consulting

Coaching differs from mentoring and consulting in that the coach does not typically tell you what to do or give expert advice on the subject itself. The work is built around your own thinking, drawn out through questions, with the coach acting as a structured, accountable sounding board.

Some coaches, including practitioners at our clinic, combine coaching with other trained skills, such as hypnotherapy or breathwork, which can add specific techniques into an otherwise conversation-based process.

What the Evidence Says

Coaching is a less formally regulated field than counselling or psychotherapy, and the research base is smaller and more mixed, partly because goals and methods vary so much between coaches and clients. Reviews generally find coaching can support goal attainment, confidence and wellbeing for people without significant mental health difficulty, though it is not a substitute for treatment where a clinical condition is present.

We would rather be clear that coaching is not a treatment for depression, anxiety disorders or trauma, and will suggest counselling, psychotherapy or a GP referral if that looks more appropriate than continuing with goal-focused coaching.

Safety and Standards

Coaching is not a regulated profession in the United Kingdom, and anyone can call themselves a coach. The practitioners we work with combine coaching with recognised clinical training, such as hypnotherapy qualifications, which gives an added layer of training and ethical accountability beyond a coaching qualification alone.

If you are experiencing a mental health difficulty rather than a goal-focused question, tell your coach, as they should direct you toward counselling, psychotherapy or your GP rather than continuing with coaching alone.

What People Bring to Coaching

None of these require a diagnosis or a crisis. Coaching starts from the assumption that you are managing well enough and want a structured way to move on something specific.

• A decision that has been sitting unresolved for months, such as a job move or a change of direction.
• Confidence in specific situations: presenting, interviews, difficult conversations at work.
• Performance under pressure in sport, music or public speaking, where the skill is there but the execution slips.
• Habits that keep reasserting themselves, from procrastination to how the working day is structured.
• A new role or bigger remit, and the step up in how you work that it demands.
• A sense of drifting, where nothing is wrong but nothing is moving either.

How a Course of Coaching Is Usually Structured

The first session is longer on questions than answers. Your coach will want the full picture of what you are trying to change, what you have already tried, and what would count as this having worked. That last point matters, because vague goals produce vague sessions. Agreeing a measurable outcome at the start gives you both something to check progress against.

Middle sessions tend to alternate between reviewing what you tried since last time and working on the next obstacle. Between-session actions are part of the method rather than optional homework, since most of the change happens in the fortnight between appointments rather than in the room. Fortnightly is a common rhythm, giving enough time to act without losing momentum.

Towards the end, sessions shift to consolidating what has changed and making sure it holds without the appointments. A good coaching relationship is designed to finish. If you find yourself booking indefinitely with no clear goal, that is worth raising directly with your coach.

Coaching, Hypnotherapy or Counselling?

• Choose coaching if your focus is forward-looking, practical and goal-based, such as confidence, decisions or habits.
• Choose hypnotherapy if you want to work directly on a specific habit, fear or pattern using focused relaxation techniques.
• Choose counselling if you are dealing with an emotional difficulty rather than a specific practical goal.
• Ask about mind performance coaching if your focus is specifically on performance under pressure, such as in sport or public speaking.

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