Do you want a new beginning? Do you feel like something has to change but you’re not sure exactly what? Maybe you know what needs to change but can’t figure out how to get started. 

In weekly small-group sessions, your coach will draw on Wholebeing Institute’s CHANGE model, which pulls together positive psychology research into a powerful coaching framework. From day one, we’ll apply evidence-based tools to help group members clarify and make progress towards what they want to accomplish.

Please note: This is not a training course for coaches who wish to run a group, but rather an experience in being coached. Participants will be receiving coaching. If you’re interested in training as a Positive Psychology Coach with WBI, find out more here.

The live coaching group sessions are held weekly from Tuesday, October 12, 2021, through Tuesday, November 16. This group session is limited to eight people. Live attendance is required.

During this six-week coaching engagement, group members work together, with the guidance of WBI faculty member and certified Positive Psychology Coach Jennifer Hanawald, to create positive change in their lives.

Our group setting will give you access to the strengths-based approach of Positive Psychology Coaching, allow you to learn by observing others take on challenges in their parallel experiences, and provide a powerful opportunity to be witnessed and encouraged by a supportive community.

This positive psychology–based group coaching process will help you:

✦ Gain clarity about what you want and connect it to your personal values. Commit to meaningful change in your life

✦ Create a plan to make that change and get started

✦ Gain a greater understanding of your personal strengths and resources

✦ Be witnessed and supported by your peers and offer the same to others on similar journeys

✦ Inspire creative action, positivity and a growth mindset, helping you reach important milestones, aspirations, dreams or goals.

✦ Understand that you are not alone with your challenges

✦ Experience and inspire creative action, positivity, and a growth mindset, enabling you to reach important milestones, aspirations, dreams, or goals.

Our design enables you to choose a goal that reflects where you are and what you need now. It might be tackling something that’s been on your mind for years, or something that would be helpful to you right now, like forming a new habit or self-care routine. Our work will focus on clarifying and achieving your personal goals, dreams, and desired habits in service of helping you to live your best life.

The group process is built on being consistently present for each other. We ask members to commit to being on time to each session and partnering with other members to build and sustain our supportive group structure.

As with one-on-one coaching, much of the clients’ work happens between sessions. The group design enables us to lay the groundwork each week for the work we will do between sessions. Each week during our time together, we’ll engage in activities, discussion, and exploration designed to set us up for further forward motion outside our time together.

As this is a group process, your authentic, compassionate presence and willingness to follow the group structure is needed.

Please note that our sessions are not recorded. We ask that you commit to being present at all live sessions.

Week 1: Clarifying and Connecting
In our opening session, we have two main objectives: to clarify our hopes for this group coaching journey and to connect with our new community. Positive psychology research shows that working towards challenging, intrinsically motivated goals and cultivating nurturing relationships are two of the most important actions we can take to improve our well-being. We will do both! With this in mind, we will name what is bringing us to this coaching experience, and, drawing on WBI’s SPIRE model for wholebeing, we will explore our personal definition of a life well lived. We will also take time to mindfully build our group and design how we will work together. This includes naming our structure and establishing norms, including active listening, confidentiality and a beginner’s mindset.

Week 2: Exploring Our Strengths and Resources
In our second meeting, we will expand on the details of where we are headed and take stock of where we are now. A premise of coaching for change is that, similar to the way we navigate with a map, we must fully understand our destination (what we want to accomplish), and also be clear on our starting point. No matter how great a challenge the desired change or goal, we will find concrete evidence that we have what it takes to make progress toward it. We will use the positive psychology tools of strengths and appreciative inquiry to ignite the motivation, hope, and confidence that we need to progress. [Next week: With this scaffolding, we will assess the areas where we need to gain more knowledge and resources to be successful.]

Week 3: Mapping Our Paths
Bring a poster, pens, and some stickies, and get ready to roll up your sleeves. This week we will get messy! We will brainstorm and begin to plot our individual maps. We’ll consider the major steps we need to tackle to accomplish what we’re working towards, the timing required, and the areas where we need to develop more skills, knowledge, or resources in order to be successful.

Week 4: Action, Assessment, and Planning
This week, we will share elements of our goal maps. As a group we will work through how to make these into powerful personal templates we can reference to help us move forward, regardless of the way the wind blows. We will take a close look at the next big steps, breaking them down into manageable steps, and priming ourselves for action. We will also check in on the action step we committed to last week, and practice celebrating successes and effort, and learning from setbacks.

Week 5: Recalibrating & Sustaining Progress
Today we will finish sharing our goal maps, explore what we’ve learned about our goals and our planning, and make adjustments as needed. We will create accountability. Then we will look at how to support ourselves in difficult times using the tool of self-compassion, based on the work of Kristen Neff.

Week 6: Consolidation, Celebrating, Community, Continuing
In our closing session, we will take stock of what we’ve learned about ourselves in this process, elaborate on how we will keep moving towards our goal, and name any new goals or dreams that may have emerged. We’ll celebrate each other’s progress, recognizing where we are in this journey and embracing the unknown.