181. Why Nervous System Regulation is the Key to Effective Coaching

Safety is essential to healing, but you may wonder… What does that even mean? (and what in the world does that have to do with effective coaching?…)

After all, we are usually physically safe during coaching, right? However, cultivating emotional safety is a foundational piece of being a highly skilled and effective coach.

Safety provides a container for emotional connection and creativity to happen. This includes problem-solving creativity. When we create this space as a coach, transformational work will happen. This is how we serve our clients to their full potential. 

The absence of safety in coaching means a client who is stuck, spinning, rigid, frustrated and ineffective. You may not have recognized this as the cause, but trust me - these are indications that your client is not feeling safe internally.  The good news is - you can begin to cultivate safety and teach them how to do the same for themselves. 

My conversation with Leah Davidson in this episode will help you understand the importance of coaching through the lens of emotional needs and the nervous system. That approach is what will help you create the safety needed to make coaching more effective for your clients. We’ll dive deep into understanding certain pieces of the nervous system and how it affects our and our client's ability to feel safe–so you can become a more effective coach in everything you do.

The ripple effect of trust and safety in coaching

As any kind of practitioner, first and foremost you have to have a level of trust and safety within the relationship with your client for anything to work. That's why cultivating trust and safety is such an important starting point in the Master Coach Training program.

We need environments where our nervous system senses safety in order to create better relationships, better connections, and better growth. At the core, it comes down to knowing ourselves better and understanding our nervous system. That’s when we can truly create safety within. 

Building a deeper understanding of the nervous system

Our nervous system tells us whether we are safe or in danger. That distinction in our body is based on past experiences, life, personality, and other factors. This is why it is so crucial that not only do you understand your own nervous system, but you help your clients understand their nervous system. 

The lens through which we view the world affects everything. As a coach, you could have every safety cue out there and say all the right things. But if a client is bringing the lens of danger, they are going to be looking around for that danger. It's important to know that our nervous system is shaped by thousands and thousands of experiences–and it's not always accurate. But it is always a factor in our and our client's ability to feel safe.

We want to create safety in our coaching sessions to the degree that we can so our clients have the opportunity to understand how to create safety for themselves. That will play out in the areas that they're trying to change in their lives and help create a transformation.

Understanding the nervous system will help you do your best work

There are so many opportunities to dive deeper into this. Master Coach Training pre-enrollment is open, and Leah Davidson has a phenomenal journal that walks you through understanding and regulating your nervous system.

The more you know about your nervous system, the healthier it is. You will go into consults and sessions and your...