5.4 Assignment: Personal Reflection Journal. Developing Your Life Coaching Project
Getting Started
In this Personal Reflection Journal, you will develop a preliminary plan for life coaching sessions you will be conducting in the next course (PSY-563). In the previous course (PSY-561), you chose a particular coaching focus from the list of 12 life coaching categories that you will use extensively as you conduct your life coaching sessions in the next course. You will need to refer to that chosen life coaching category in this Journal.
In this assignment, you are going to develop a plan for approaching your life coaching session so you will feel ready to jump into the implementation of your project when the next course begins. You will need to prepare for and conduct two coaching sessions in PSY-563 with the same subject so that you can measure the progress from one session to the next and replicate what an actual coaching client relationship would be like. Most coaching takes place over a series of meetings.
Here are the questions you should respond to in this assignment:
1. Secure at least one person (or perhaps a second for backup in case the first drops out) to act as a coaching subject for your life coaching capstone project. Choose a person you already have some rapport with but don’t know well. This will make the coaching session more realistic and keep your curiosity about the person high. Who is this prospective person? Explain how you know them and for how long. Why did you choose him/her? Have they committed to helping you with the project? If not, when do you anticipate being able to secure a coaching subject?
2. Does this person have a stated need in the area of your chosen life coaching specialty? Make sure that your subject’s needs align with your chosen life coaching category. For example, if you chose Health Coaching as your life coaching specialty from the list of 12, then you need to choose a subject with an expressed need in that area. In this case, that need would be centered around some aspect of developing healthy lifestyle habits that include a balanced diet, weight management, regular exercise and care for their mental well-being, etc. Explain what that need appears to be in the subject you have chosen. If you are unsure, ask the person before responding to this question so that you can begin to anticipate how to structure your coaching sessions in the next course.
3. Based on your subject’s specific coaching needs, what are some preliminary questions you would like to ask? You can modify these in the next course, but list at least five to get you thinking in the right direction.
4. What principles from positive psychology coincide with those questions that you intend to incorporate into your life coaching capstone project? Name at least three principles.
5. What else do you need to do to adequately prepare for implementing your capstone project at the start of the next course? Reach out to your instructor if you need additional guidance.
By the time you finish this assignment, you should be ready to implement your life coaching project. In the next course (PSY-563), you will be given specific instructions and related assignments that will help structure and implement your detailed plan.
Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
· Identify the specific coaching needs of the chosen coaching subject while aligning with principles from positive psychology and life coaching.
Instructions
1. Read Chapter 10, “When There’s Too Much of a Good Thing,” in your textbook
Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.
2. Open your Personal Reflection Journal, and date and title your new entry. After reading the assigned textbook chapter, respond to the following in your journal entry:
a. Have you secured at least one person to act as a coaching subject for your practice sessions in PSY-563? If not, when do you anticipate being able to get a commitment from a subject? If you have a subject, who is that person and why did you choose him/her? How do you know them and for how long?
b. Does this person have a stated need in the area of your chosen life coaching specialty? Explain what your chosen life coaching category is. How do your subject’s needs coincide with your chosen category?
c. Based on your subject’s specific coaching needs, what are at least five preliminary questions you would like to ask?
d. What principles from positive psychology coincide with those questions that you intend to incorporate into your capstone project? Name at least three principles.
e. What else do you need to do to adequately prepare for implementing your sessions at the start of the next course?
3. Your entry should be a minimum of five paragraphs.
