Coaching 1:1 FAQs

*What is a 'coaching psychologist' anyway?

The nutshell is, a coaching psychologist is like a highly credentialed and flexibly skilled coach who brings expertise from the domain of psychology, alongside the usual tools and strategies from coaching, and applies them to help people positively grow beyond baseline. As a values-based coaching psychologist, I ground my practice in a values-first approach. Values are not 'moral principles'; rather, they reflect your drivers that impact on how things are likely to land and motivate you. 

A coaching psychologist is someone who is a registered psychologist with all of the skills and training that entails, and who applies their credentials within the field of coaching. In psychology, my areas of expertise are anxiety and performance (which overlap considerably!), and I have found these areas, along with techniques from coaching and positive psychology, neatly come together for executive coaching with high performers be they in the tech industry, the arts, medicine, or beyond.

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What's your background?

My background is in clinical, coaching, and positive psychology; my qualifications include a Master of Psychology (Clinical), as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Melbourne Business School and I'm a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I've walked the journey as a director, founder, investor, executive, and performing artist.

I have worked in private and public clinical psychology and coaching psychology settings. I know what performing under pressure feels like from the 'other side'. I've received additional training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Schema Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Metacognitive Therapy. I have undertaken workshops via Michelle Garnett and Tony Attwood around Women on the Autism Spectrum.

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In an earlier life I was a no.1 classical recording artist at Sony Music then Universal Music (2 albums each), I helped bring the employee engagement platform Culture Amp into being and have dipped in and out over the years, I've worked as a Vice President in HR Tech. I'm a director at several not for profits. I've pitched and helped launch a free wellbeing platform for performing arts workers (Australia wide and now used internationally), as well as creating the Music for Wellbeing channel at the ABC. I'm driven by a sense of service and a desire to bring values work to as many people as possible, as it's transformative for wellbeing and performance. I've delivered more values workshops than I can remember, and for the last decade plus, I have been obsessing over the need to activate human values more in the world for their vast potential. So much so that for a while I dedicated three days a week to the decision neuroscience lab at the University of Melbourne, to further research what's really going on around human values and the brain, before building digital values identification and decision-making tools.

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*Talk to me about confidentiality. 

Sure! I treat coaching and clinical clients the same, which is to say (as I explain in the first session), I treat client confidentiality with the utmost seriousness. Unless there is a safety risk, I do not divulge any client or session details to third parties, and notes are kept securely using encrypted software. Discretion is extremely important to my clients, and my modus operandi is to assume the highest level of confidentiality and discretion for all. In the first session we discuss what happens if I see you when out and about (my default is to not acknowledge, but if you tell me it's fine to say hi then I will be delighted. Entirely your call).

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Where do sessions happen?

1:1 Sessions can be in-person where appropriate (my HQ is Melbourne, Australia - though I do travel regularly for workshops and speaking), virtual from anywhere, or a hybrid mix of the two. Most clients these days tend to opt for virtual or hybrid.

(In some circumstances I can travel nationally or internationally, by arrangement).

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*How do you tend to work?

In coaching, to begin I suggest a ~2 month plan followed by a candid 'fork in the road' moment. This moment enables us both the opportunity to check in on chemistry and fit. If all's going well then a longer term, super flexible roadmap with some key milestones can be factored in.

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I really believe it's important to be open-minded about the coach/ee relationship not working, and to see that as an opportunity for the coachee to get one step closer to finding the support they do need to level up in their life and career. I've not (yet) experienced the pang of a coach-coachee breakup but I'm betting it happens sooner or later, and that's A-OK with me! It's SO important you find the right person to help you navigate this one amazing life of yours.

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In terms of the length or cadence of sessions, this varies. Some folks want regular 50 minute sessions. Others want shorter ad hoc check-ins. Some have a mix of both.
Also, depending on the work you're wanting to undertake and how you wish to spend your time, I may suggest I interview a small selection of those around you for further insight into your drivers, strengths, areas for growth, your values-in-action, and your mindset. It's a structured choose-your-own-adventure partnership. 

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*So... values, you say?

I believe values are underestimated in coaching (and clinical) work. Don't get me wrong, they typically come up at the start and can reoccur a number of times, and many psychologists and coaches use values very well in their practice. My research into values has me still believing values can offer even more, however, and that at present there is not enough knowledge about values for coaches and psychologists. To know your values landscape is to get a bunch closer to knowing yourself.

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I'll add, we're not talking 'morals' or 'principles' here, though your threat-free, core values are absolutely linked to virtues or personal 'principles'.

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Values offer something akin to a looking glass through to your drivers. You can think of them like schemas that impact on how you interpret and evaluate the world around you, based on your beliefs (from past experiences), motivations (based on current needs), and goals (based on future aspirations and desires).

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Getting into values work is so much more than "what are your top 5 or top 3 most important values?". Embarking on values work is like stepping into the depths of who you are, who you aspire to be, who you feel you 'should' be (or 'shouldn't' be) [and letting that stuff go].. how you show up when you're under stress versus when you're not under stress.. there's so much to values exploration. And from there, you can become far more intentional about how you respond to and show up in a given situation.

I've dedicated a bunch of my life to work as a values researcher, practitioner, and coach, it's a pleasure to bring it into people's lives through coaching, as well as through thecompass.ai​ .

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Why the interest in professional women with ASD?

First, I believe that values work for ASD adults can help with consolidating identity formation, interpersonal insight, and can assist around further stepping into one's own space in a world that can feel skewed toward the 'neurotypical'. As a psychologist, I've found that professional women on the autism spectrum are not (yet) well enough catered for in the executive coaching arena. It is a privilege to undertake values-based coaching work with members of this broad and diverse cohort.​

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*Do you use typical inventories you might expect in coaching?

Yes, absolutely: as needed and with a clear rationale. I would preface this by saying, however, that I have seen some coaches use the same inventories with *every* coaching client, as thought inventories are a necessary part of every coaching journey, and as though the same inventories are applicable to everyone. This is not the case, and such a blanket approach can be problematic.

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Having said that, humans tend to have an innate drive to see what boxes they fit, where they belong, and how they compare to other people. This is normal and natural, and inventories can at times help with this. I am pragmatic, and enjoy an inventory as much as the next person (my PhD research was in individual differences, looking at the structure of personality inventories and cognitive ability tests). So, I'm up for it - but only where there's rationale, because they're expensive and sometimes not as useful as at other times.

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*Why might people want to use inventories in coaching?

Sometimes, clients want to use a specific assessment because it's a workplace request or because they seek comparisons with others who have utilised the same tool.

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At other times, a client may assume they need a certain tool for a certain outcome, when in fact there might be other ways to achieve better insight around what they're after.

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It is important to be clear about what you seek to understand, why, and over what period of time. But this clarity comes over time, I don't expect you to arrive with it. So, 

A rigorous, elegant, and insightful approach to surveys and measures that is fit-for-purpose is best.

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Just as a little more insight here..

At best, tools like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) enable comparison between people (hence the field 'individual differences' - they compare you to the rest of the population for a given personality dimension). However the MBTI has for decades endured criticism from credible researchers from fields of psychology and individual differences about its rather lacklustre predictive powers, yet coaches continue to use it without flagging this level of credible scrutiny, or the 'why' behind the scrutiny. For some people though, as flawed as it might be, it is genuinely helpful. For the record, I'm INTJ  ;)

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More broadly, inventories such as those used to categorise personality, quite literally measure differences between people along certain dimensions like 'extraversion'. At worst, these measures can offer very little meaningful difference at all, and can lead people to assume certain are renowned for having out of date norms, which, in addition, are skewed towards certain groups of people, thereby providing a warped and counterproductive perspective of an individual. So they're best approached with a grain of salt, and used as-needed.

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