Coaching Beyond Words

Book excerpt: In Coaching Beyond Words: Using Art to Deepen and Enrich Our Conversations, Anna Sheather presents a practical guide for those seeking to incorporate art in their own coaching practice. Complete with case studies and art created by clients, Anna explores how coaching with art connects clients to a deeper level of personal awareness and understanding, which in turn leads to meaningful shifts in personal growth, development and fulfilment. Anna offers the coach an exciting and transformative way to work with their clients by bridging the gap between art and coaching. She covers how to introduce creative approaches, how to support creativity and how to work with the art produced, opening enriching coaching conversations with clients. Anna combines her personal experiences with research that underpins her practice, exploring the benefits of the interdisciplinary nature of art therapy and neuroscience by looking at the field of hemispherical lateralisation to help understand why coaching with art works so effectively. The book also provides a comprehensive guide of how to prepare an art-based coaching session, including contracting, an overview of types of exercises, key principles and approaches to facilitating the image making process, overcoming barriers with coachees and guidance on managing oneself in the process, including managing boundaries. Coaching Beyond Words is the first book to provide an in-depth look at the importance and practicality in interweaving coaching and art, and it forms a complete guide to context, theory and practice. Coaching Beyond Words will appeal to coaches in practice as well as any art therapist seeking to expand their practice into coaching. Additionally, it would be of interest to creative professionals looking to incorporate coaching theory.