Coaching Outdoors

On today’s podcast we are joined, from Italy, by Diana Tedoldi, a nature coach who founded the Nature Coaching Academy. 

With a love for the outdoors since she was a young girl, Diana combined this with her coaching and leadership development practice over a decade ago. She has a huge wealth of experience and shares her insights into embodied practices within outdoor coaching, using movement and breathing to enhance the client’s experience, unblock creativity and enable new ways of thinking. Diana also shares some wonderful examples of the experiences she and her clients have had whilst coaching in nature, really bringing to life the benefits they experienced.

“When you’re in nature, your whole mind-body system is exposed to such a rich variety of sensory inputs”

She has refined both somatic and eco-somatic activation techniques, describing them during the podcast as well as generously sharing two detailed examples as additional audio files.

Diana has also shared two lists of resources on the scientific power of nature - on both nature-connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour and the health benefits of nature-connectedness, which you can find on the resources page.

Lizzi Larbalestier, Blue Health Coach at Going Coastal Blue, joins us for this podcast to share her wonderful story of marrying her love for all things nature with her work as a coach in the Coastal areas of Cornwall. Lizzi talks about the importance of understanding the systems which we are all part of, and seeing links between and within eco-systems. Drawing on Blue Health Science, Blue Mind and Ambiguity as the fundamental parts of Blue Health Coaching, her work is scientifically researched and the outdoors is her co-partner. It is an extension of herself as an ambassadors for a number of environmental organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage and Ghost Net Busters.

She tells delightful stories of some of the more interesting coaching sessions she’s had, such as coming across a nudist beach and a man in nothing but his sandals, finding a man with a broken leg on the coastal path whilst training new Blue Health Coaches, and rescuing an injured guillemot which then became a third “person” in the coaching conversation.

Lizzi is also a Marine Mammal Medic, rescuing and rehabilitating seals. She really does lead a hugely fascinating life and we are so excited to share this podcast with you.

Surfers Against Sewage - https://www.sas.org.uk
Ghost net busters - https://www.facebook.com/ghostnetbusters
Going Coastal Blue - https://goingcoastal.blue
Mbit training - http://www.mbraining.com/mbit-trainings

View podcasts and get in touch.
https://www.coaching-outdoors.com   
Anna-Marie https://www.rfmcoaching.com
Alex https://www.alexburnconsulting.com

Rachel Woods joins us to talk fungi, flora, coaching and the contents of her backpack. She accompanies her coaching clients into the outdoors or brings outdoor metaphors indoors when mother nature throws up barriers. 

During training on her Masters in Behavioural Change and Coaching programme at Henley Business School a demo facilitated by Alison Hardingham using the ‘Disney Method’ inspired her to take her practice outdoors. This started her journey after recently leaving the HR world to set up her business Coach in Nature. 

Discover the power of nature metaphors, the time travel ‘Merlin’ tool and the importance of contracting.

 And to find out more about what’s in Rachel’s bag read her blog “What’s in my Bag? 5 Things to take into Nature” 
https://www.coachinnature.co.uk/post/what-s-in-my-bag-5-things-to-take-into-nature.

View podcasts and get in touch. 
https://www.coaching-outdoors.com 
Anna-Marie https://www.rfmcoaching.com
Alex https://www.alexburnconsulting.com

Cat Treblico, from Reach The Peak, joins us from Edinburgh to share her wonderful journey from working in the banking industry in London, to re-training as a Coach and moving to Scotland to persue her passion for outdoor coaching.

Cat talks to us about how movement and walking side-by-side are two important aspects of coaching outdoors, that may not be so easily achieved indoors. She explains the benefits of movement, the freedom of forward momentum and how metaphorical it can be when a client is feeling stuck - enabling them to be cognitively mobile as well as physically mobile. 

The ability to think differently when outdoors is also discussed and how clients can really feel a connection to their values and who they really are, when in nature. 

View podcasts and get in touch. 
https://www.coaching-outdoors.com 
Anna-Marie https://www.rfmcoaching.com
Alex https://www.alexburnconsulting.com

#coachingoutdoors #outdoorcoaching #coaching #ecopsychology #ecocoaching #bluespace #greenspace #natureconnectedness #naturalenvironments #ecology #nature #environment #mentalhealth #wellbeing #coaches #coachees #movement #thinkingdifferently

On this Special Edition for Climate Coaching Action Day, we’re joined by the phenomenal David Clutterbuck. He describes himself as “one of the last men standing in coaching” having been involved in coaching and mentoring for over forty years. An avid scribbler, he’s written over seventy books and is a fountain of all knowledge around everything coaching.  

He shares memories of the outdoors from scaling a cliff on a beach visit aged four, his sixtieth birthday adventures climbing Mount Clutterbuck in the Canadian Rockies, trekking alone through Ireland and his regret that he hasn’t taken a party of executives and coaches to the Kalahari Desert to walk, talk, be alone and sit around a fire….yet!  

We touch on the influence of COVID on our use of the outdoors, the concept of personal reflective space and the aspect of walking side-by-side.  

As part of Climate Coaching Action Day we then focus on how our actions as human beings and coaches impact climate change. This includes:

·         Carbon off-set ‘fee’ for travel to coaching clients 

·         Climate benefits of virtual coaching and reducing international travel commitments

·         Client perceptions of coaching outdoors 

·         Possible impact of climate activists if they had more coaching skills 

 He also describes one of this current projects to create five million school aged coaches to encourage students to be more effective human beings. Keep an eye out for more details on this initiative which will be released later in 2021, which includes resources for students such as “How to mentor your parents!”

Nick Smith, founder of Square Pegs Coaching, joins us from Glasgow to share his sense of freedom from being outside and how his background in outdoor education and youth work shaped the development of his coaching business working with leaders from the corporate setting. 

Nick gets super practical on what you need to consider before taking a step outside with advice on route selection, location considerations, risk management from a physical and psychological safety perspective, safety equipment, possible hazards, note taking, weather forecasts and mud! 

The current lack of research and evidence explaining the benefits of coaching outdoors is discussed and how ‘some numbers’ could support the development of this niche and gain further traction with the business world. We then dive head on into the benefits of collaboration and competition between coaches based on sharing ideas, learning from each other and awakening ideas from within. 

The sun is shining as Karen Liebenguth, coach and mindfulness teacher joins us from her outdoor office in Victoria Park, East London.

Karen transports us back to the start of her coaching journey and gives an insight into breaking out of the confines of her office in a health centre to working outdoors. During a dawn-to-dusk ‘sit spot’ retreat on her ecotherapy training in Scotland in 2010 she experienced an ‘ah-ha’ revelation that she could take her coaching clients outdoors.   

She touches on how the weather and seasons can influence mood and behaviours of both the coach and the client. These observations are illustrated through real coaching scenarios where her client moves through ‘autumnal stuck-ness’ mirrored within their life and shifting resistance from self-criticism and unhappiness against the backdrop of a cold spring day. 

Karen describes how her work is heavily underpinned by her studies in ecotherapy and ecopsychology where she initially encountered the idea of eco-self from the works of Arne Naess,  John Seed, Joanna Macy and Aldo Leopold. She later discovered Edward Wilsons’ research on biophilia hypothesis and Rachel and Stephen Kaplans’ work on Attention Restoration Theory (ART). Collectively these have given confirmation to her earliest personal experiences. 

More recently Karen has been inspired by Iain McGilchrist who cites three great estrangements which we all suffer from; our disconnection or alienation from nature and how we all long to life more closely and in union/communion which nature.

Professor Jonathan Passmore reveals a genuine connection to nature based on spending hours playing in the fields behind his childhood home.

He draws connections between an increased interest in the outdoors with working from home practices under COVID, growing recognition around the importance of ecology and the environment, and more published research which indicates the benefits of nature on mental health. He dips into the importance of evidence-based research and touches on some of the current challenges which currently exists around heading outdoors.

Alex Burn & Anna-Marie Watson have a mutual shared passion for coaching and the outdoor environment.

Together they are on a mission to encourage coaches to take their practice outside. In this introductory episode Alex and Anna-Marie outline their future vision for their ‘Coaching Outdoors’ podcast series, touch on the benefits of nature and movement within coaching and share their individual backstories which led them to work within this coaching niche.