Self-care for coaches and the role of supervision

The EMCC UK Health & Wellbeing special interest group met recently to discuss self-care for coaches and the role of supervision, with guest speaker Ana Paula Nacif. The group reports here on the discussion.

We discussed the importance of self-care for coaches to help them maintain their effectiveness and wellbeing. Coaches are very good at supporting others, but while they are looking after others, who is looking after them? Here are some of the themes of the discussion:

Coaches’ wellbeing is also an ethical issue

In 2022, an interim statement on health and wellbeing was added to the Global Code of Ethics, and it included the question: what priority are you giving your own self-care?

There are increasing demands on coaches

These include:

• Time and resources management
• Impact of digital coaching and ‘always on’ connectivity
• Demands from clients, sponsors and others involved in their work and/or business
• Feeling alone and isolated in their practice
• Emotional labour: concerns about clients and the emotional toll it takes

On top of that, we all have our own personal challenges and pressures to contend with.

Feeling stressed and under pressure can lead to burnout. Coaches are the main tool for coaching and the state of their wellbeing will affect their interactions with clients. Our ability to engage, listen, empathise and hold space for our clients can be impaired if we are not feeling well, or if we are over-stretched.

Supervision and self-care

Supervision can support coaches to improve their engagement with self-care. It can be difficult for coaches to find spaces to open up and discuss how they are feeling and talk about their personal challenges. In organisations, if coaching supervision is provided with the intention to ‘quality check’, psychological safety may be low and coaches may decide not to share their personal stories.

The view in the group is that supervision can support coaches in many ways, but ‘quality control’ may not be conducive to growth and development.

Supervision can play an active role in:

• Helping coaches recognise their self-care needs
• Increasing self-awareness
• Understanding the impact of personal wellbeing on client work
• Encouraging self-care practices
• Signposting to resources
• Accountability

A question that came up during our discussion was whether supervisors should be more direct in raising wellbeing as a topic for supervision. Coaches agreed on the importance of wellbeing, but also raised the point that supervision fulfils many different purposes. Perhaps there is room for more education around what supervision is and how it can be used.

What can coaches do?

They can include self-care in their daily plans and explicitly address their wellbeing and self-care needs in their professional and personal development plan, and share that with their supervisor.

They can also:

• Implement daily self-care practices
• Practise self-awareness: Are you aware of how you are feeling? Can you spot the signs that you are stressed or overwhelmed?
• Energy management: when is your ‘best time’ for client work? How do you recharge?
• Reflective practice
• Support: where do you go for help?

About this discussion

The group facilitators were Marian Rosefield MSc (MAPPCP), and Andrew A Parsons PhD.

To contact the group about this article, please email them here: healthandwellbeing.sig@emccuk.org

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