Co-active coaching

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Henry Kimsey-House, Karen Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahl · 1992

What it is

Co-Active coaching is a coaching model, not a psychotherapy. CTI calls it a relational model for coaching, leadership and life. It works with values, identity, purpose and how people relate, not only with goals and actions. CTI says it sits at a different level from GROW or solution-focused…

Format

• A. Getting started (initial session or sessions).
• Goals: foundation-setting, which orients the client to coaching, begins designing the alliance, and starts clarifying issues and goals. The book says it has no standard format.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Frequency and number of sessions: the book gives no fixed count. It describes common formats: weekly appointments, often by phone, or in-person meetings, under fixed contracts of three, six or twelve months, or open-ended. Session length is not given. CTI certification requires 100 hours of paid coaching and a roster of five paying clients.
• D. Completion. The published Co-Active sources used here do not set out an ending protocol. The Global Code of Ethics requires coaches to suggest ending when a client would be better served by another form of professional help. Suggested ending: review against the original Wheel of Life and goals, acknowledge who the client has become, name the structures they will keep, and agree whether and how to resume.
• Version followed: the Co-Active Model as set out in Kimsey-House, Kimsey-House, Sandahl & Whitworth, Co-Active Coaching (4th ed., 2018) and as currently taught by the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) in its core curriculum (Fundamentals, then Fulfillment, Balance, Process and Synergy, then certification). Source status: the model, designed alliance, foundation-setting, Wheel of Life, discovery questions,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the coach monologuing.
• compliance to please the coach.
• relief or a reorder of priorities.
• a "no". Accept it and stay curious.
• reframes the client experiences as dismissive.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.