These days, more and more coaches are moving from head-focused coaching to include the entire body in their work with their clients. Some even use this as their primary coaching technique. Why? They understand that the body is more than just a vehicle to carry the head around! The body has its own way of thinking, holding memory, and understanding issues and challenges in the client’s life. As my friend and colleague Amanda Blake says, “The body is our social and emotional sense organ.”*
Here are a few ideas for working with the body in your coaching. None need to be the entire session–you can add in working with the body to increase awareness, generate new insights, and/or facilitate a shift. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but to give you either a place to start from if you don’t typically use the body in your coaching, or perhaps to provide some new ideas if you already do.
1) Use Embodiment
- Have client sit or stand in a way that reflects how they are currently feeling. What do they notice from here?
- Have client take an empowered/strong stance. Here’s a few prompts you can use.
- Stand up
- Relax your shoulders
- Open your chest
- Raise your chin level with floor
- Look ahead with soft eyes
- Keep you hands loose
- Feet firmly planted, as far apart as feels comfortable
- After client is grounded in this body position, you can ask things like:
- What do you know from here?
- What does your topic look like from here?
- What’s possible from here?
- When a client uses a body-related metaphor, have them embody it literally and ask what they notice. For example:
- I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Have client pick up something heavy and put it on their shoulders. What do they notice?
- I have to walk on eggshells around her. Have client crumple up pieces of paper, put them on the ground to represent eggshells, and walk on them. What do they notice?
- I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Have client get between the wall and something else big (a chair, their desk, the couch, etc.) What do they notice?
- I need to take a higher view of this. Have client (safely) get up on something – a stool, the stairs, etc. What do they see from here.
- What else can you think of? This is a very playful addition to your coaching that almost always generates amazing insights. The trick is not to have them do something different or “better,” but to have them do what they said. There are insights there just waiting for them.
- Have client show you how they are feeling or seeing the situation through gesture.
- I think of this as a clever “hack” to get the client using their body. People are used to using their hands, and for clients who are less in touch with their bodies just showing a gesture may be more accessible. It also works great on Zoom!
- When client is in touch with a new commitment, goal, or way of being, ask them for the gesture of that, and have them practice this during the day as a way to support this commitment (don’t forget to have client create a structure to remember this).
2) Use Movement
- Have client move to a new place in the room to see how things look from there. This is particularly helpful when you are working with reframing/exploring new perspectives. (Many coaches have shared that they love to ask their clients to look out the window.)
- Do a “walk the talk” coaching session – that is, go for a walk and have your client do the same (either in person or simultaneously while on the phone). Movement brings oxygen to the brain and helps us find new ways to look at things.
- Ask client to stand during the session instead of sitting at their desk (bonus points, coach does the same). This is one reason I prefer to coach over the phone–as a coach I like to move around my house. Tell the client to feel free to move as they might be inspired, and check in – where in your house or office are you now? What does this tell you?
3) Use Interoception (Interoception is a lesser-known sense that helps you feel and understand what’s going on inside your body.)
- Ask clients to check in with their body during the coaching. For some, this question can create a “deer in the headlights” response, so I prefer to say something like this:
- I’m going to ask you to focus your awareness on your core. What do you notice in your face, throat, chest, heart area, stomach? Any sensations there? How would you describe them?
- Go slow, and help the client tune their attention to these areas.
- If client typically says they feel nothing, you don’t need to push it, but don’t give up either. Higher interoceptive abilities correlate with higher emotional regulation. Just bring it back gently from time to time and see if client can develop this ability. (All humans have internal sensations, but some are cut off from feeling them.)
- If/when client has interoceptive awareness, you can expand their awareness by asking questions about the sensation, for example:
- How big is it? (I like to use a standard comparison, such as tablespoons, cups, balls, coins.)
- What color is it?
- What texture is it?
- What shape is it?
- Does it have a sound?
- You can repeat this sort of question, because often, the more attention that is given to an internal sensation, the more likely it is to change.
These are just a few ideas for using the body in coaching–it’s also a great place for coaches to be creative in service of their client having more awareness, insight, and shifts in their life.
*If you’d like to understand more about how the body thinks and processes, I highly recommend Amanda Blake’s book, Your Body Is Your Brain.
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