The FLOW Coaching Model

A Coaching Model By Cheryl Colvin, Health and Wellness Coach, UNITED STATES

Coaching Model: FLOW-Focused, Learning on Wellness

The F.L.O.W. coaching model is a representation of my own experience shifting my mindset to improve my wellness goals. Many people are looking for wellness in their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. We are living in a world where we are bombarded by too much information that can lead to paralysis in a movement toward our goals. Life can become more and more complex without the tools to be able to make changes and stretch our potential.

My ideal clients are eager to make changes and create a more balanced life where they are courageous participants. Teenagers, males, and females are all considered ideal clients. My tools attempt to improve communication both inwardly and outwardly to quiet the incessant chatter in our heads that can lead to roadblocks. Clients will hopefully move from a place of thinking to doing. Common questions they ask themselves are: “When will I have time for me?”

“How do I make time for my wellness?” “What changes can I make?”  My coaching will attempt to improve self-talk and set goals that are achievable for that person. Moving people away from picking up these negative thoughts about themselves, takes a commitment to achieve one’s dreams.

The FLOW Coaching Model

The F.L.O.W. coaching model is demonstrated by the following:

Focused:

The client has chosen to coach because they want a change. Seeking help from a coach gives them a reason to try and move from complacency to movement. As a coach, I will provide a safe space for my client to be heard. Our time together is one of the few times in their day that they are heard objectively. It is often when we hear what’s in our heads that we reflect on our thoughts in a different way. Coaches can mirror back to the client their words to help them process their thoughts. The client chooses how they want to show up and asks themselves exactly how they want to take the path toward their goals. What face are they putting forward in both their personal and professional lives?

Learning Tools:

My job as a coach is to take my client to an action-oriented space. I aim to provide clarity and calm to discover tools that are helpful in regulating people’s nervous systems and overall health. Leveraging personal strengths and evoking awareness to set reasonable goals, will attempt to move a person in the right direction. For example, a client I had in the past wanted to quiet her voice of self-doubt. We discussed what this meant for her and how it was showing up. What was the alternative perspective for her? She realized she was working too hard and putting herself last on a long list of to-dos.

The tools we discussed were mindfulness, yoga, journaling, and spending time in nature.  What was useful for her? Would she be open to exploring some of these options for improved wellness? We agreed that one of her goals for our session was to create one small step each day toward her goal of making time for her overall wellness. She worked to create an environment for herself of support and the allowance to make a time commitment. Eventually, the goal is to empower my clients to discover the tools that work for them to shift their mindsets to one of self-acceptance and renewed confidence. Clients attempt to take some of their setbacks and mental limitations and convert them into future successes.

I can meet my clients where they are. My communication strategies and my ability to see what’s behind a person’s struggle enable me to help my clients find their strengths. What can a client stop doing, start doing, and do more of? Living in a coastal town will allow me the unique opportunity to offer “walking coaching on the beach.” Spending a coaching session in nature creates an environment that can immediately lower a person’s cortisol. This option can be offered initially or after a discovery session. My extensive mindfulness training is also a strength to bring to my coaching practice. I am both a wife, mother, and a person who has endured a child and a family member with disease and illness that has forced me to adopt my own personal wellness strategies out of necessity to lead a balanced whole life.

Maximize Wellness:

Nature offers therapeutic benefits that can quiet the noise in our heads. Exercises such as listening to 5-7 sounds in nature can be a powerful tool and a form of meditation that clients can use without realizing the benefits. This tool can be offered as a suggestion or a journal prompt if the client likes to journal. There are many gratitude exercises that can be discussed as well.

Wellness can be achieved for anyone who sees that their current systems and mindset are failing them. What can be done to lead a more fulfilling life that supports the ideal me? F.L.O.W coaching encourages people to look at their roadblocks and burdens of feeling stuck, quiet internal chatter, confront self-doubt, and recognize failing systems towards a more ideal self. A FLOW of energy toward a more idealized self is attempted.  The client works toward the movement for a renewed purpose for each day toward their goals and greater fulfillment in all aspects of their lives. They are willing to bump up against their limitations and roadblocks to see a path where they are walking toward a better future.