In today’s guest post coach and mentor Lottie Moore shares some of her practical experience and knowledge:
5 Ways To Get Your Clients To Breakthrough When They’re Well and Truly Stuck
By Lottie Moore
At some point in our coaching careers we all come across the clients who are ‘stuck’, who, despite our best efforts, are unable to move forwards with their plans, dreams, or ambitions.
As coaches this can be a frustrating process. As an outside pair of eyes, we can often see, or at least guess at, what the issue is that is holding the client back. Quite often it can feel that there is an elephant in the room with us, glaringly obvious, and yet unmentioned by our client despite all our best lines of questioning and cajoling.
Sometimes even when the client recognises what it is that is holding them back from achieving their goals, they are unable to break out of the old, destructive patterns of behaviour. You may sit in sessions with them where it seems likely that they are going to breakthrough what is holding them back, only to see them in a fortnights time to realise nothing has changed.
So how do we help these clients? How can we facilitate them moving forward when they appear to be well and truly stuck? Here are my top 5 tips to creating breakthrough when it’s needed most
1. Drop the F-bomb – sometimes your client may just require some serious reinforcement to realise how important this issue is. A carefully placed f@@k, or equivalent bad language, can bring it home with a bang how pivotal you think this issue is.
2. Use Physical Metaphors – creating great confidence and self-belief in one area can hugely assist your client to live that out in other areas of their lives. Activities like glass walking, or arrow breaking with the throat can have a deeply impactful effect on all areas of life, and learning the skills to use these activities in your daily work is easier than you think.
3. Look Back To Move Forward – you don’t need to be an expert in timeline therapy to assist you client to look back on their past experiences to find out where the initial cause of the limiting belief sits. By uncovering what lies at the root of the problem, they can then start to take steps to move away from past learnings that are holding them back.
4. Create Anchors – although physical metaphors are great for this, they are not the only way to enable your client to use this powerful NLP technique. Get them to think back on a time were they were hugely successful and happy, then assist them to create a physical anchor such as a simple hand movement. When they are struggling with what is holding them back, they can then use this anchor to root them in success and positivity.
5. Be Kind – Life can always seem easier to an external set of eyes, but it’s important to remember that we all have our own shiz to deal with. Don’t let yourself get frustrated or disappointed if it’s taking your client longer than you would have hoped to reach that moment of breakthrough. Sometimes all anyone needs is patience, understanding, and encouragement, so keep being that positive influence in your client’s life, and reminding them of what they are capable of when they set their minds to it.
Clients that take a long time to reach a point of breakthrough can rock our confidence in our coaching ability, but also can be hugely rewarding when they finally get there. I hope these 5 tips will be of use to you next time a client that is well and truly stuck comes through your door.
About Lottie Moore
Lottie is a multi-award winning coach and mentor who lives life outside of the comfort zone. Best known for her firewalking, and physical metaphors training, Lottie is passionate about creating change for the individuals and groups that she works, encouraging them to look beyond their limitations and shine
Lottie loves to connect and can be found at: 
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