FAQs

ICF defines coaching as a partnership between you and  your coach in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires you to maximize your personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.
We all have goals we want to reach, challenges we’re striving to overcome and times when we feel stuck. Partnering with a coach can change your life, setting you on a path to greater personal and professional fulfillment.

ICF defines coaching as the partnering of you with your coach in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires you to maximize your personal and professional potential. Coaching focuses on visioning, success, the present and moving toward the future.

Therapy emphasizes psychopathology, emotions and the past to understand the present, and it works more with developing skills for managing emotions or past issues than does coaching.  

As a coach, my focus is on helping you to achieve your future goals.  I am not qualified to address issues involving trauma, mental health disorders, or abuse.  If this comes up, I will refer you to a practitioner is better qualified to serve your needs.

Coaching, mentoring, consulting, and teaching are related but distinct roles with different goals and methods. Here are some key differences:

• Coaching: A coach is primarily focused on helping you achieve your goals by guiding you through a process of self-discovery and self-improvement. The coach does not provide solutions or advice but rather helps you to identify your own solutions and supports you in taking action towards your goals.    
• Educating: A instructor is responsible for imparting knowledge and skills to students in a structured setting, such as a class, webinar, and workshop.  
• Mentoring: A mentor is someone with more experience in a particular field who provides guidance and advice to someone with less experience. Mentors share their own experiences and knowledge to help mentees grow and develop in their careers or personal lives. 
• Consulting: A consultant is typically hired to provide expert advice and recommendations to a client in a specific area. Consultants bring their specialized knowledge and skills to help clients solve problems, make decisions, or improve performance.  

In summary, coaching is primarily focused on helping you achieve your goals through self-discovery and action, while mentoring, consulting, and teaching are focused on providing guidance, advice, and knowledge in a specific area. 

I provide a full range of  professional development services that includes all of the above.  I am a leadership coach, educator, mentor coach, facilitator and a consultant.   This versatility results in development programs are distinct and holistic in their approach.   And as an ICF Certified Coach, I strictly abide by the ICF standard in sessions with my coaching clients.  – Felicia

The coaching consultation is often called a discovery call.  These calls are done on Zoom or sometimes by phone and typically last about 20 to 30 minutes.  The purpose of this call is to allow us to assess a fit for a coaching relationship.  It allows us to get to know each other, answer any questions you or I may have, and discover whether there seems to be a fit.

I offer coaching services online via video conferencing.  For clients under a coaching contact with me in Upstate SC area, I also offer in-person coaching.

My coaching approach is flexible and depends on the needs of the person.  There are some commonalities that provide a perspective on what you can expect.  

1. Goal oriented accountability – My focus as a coach is to help to support you in achieving your growth objectives in a streamlined, timely manner.  I will partner with you to help you to determine the right path for you and your situation.  I will closely track your progress and make you aware of your progress and when you thoughts and actions do not appear to be aligned with your stated goals.
2. Neutral, frank and honest – As your coach, I will act as your mirror.  I will transparently reflect what I hear, see, and also what I don’t hear – gaps and disconnects in your thoughts, actions, and plans.  This approach will help you to ‘course correct’, see your blind-spots, and become more self aware.
3. Reflection – I am a strong advocate of internalizing lessons learned.  When you step out of your comfort zone and take a chance,  you will either succeed or learn something new.  Both are essential in making sustainable progress.  So, you can expect that I will frequently ask you to complete “reflection prompts” to develop and capture your key takeaways.
4. Supportive – One of my main motivators for entering into coaching professionally is because I feel that people benefit from having support.  As your coach, I will act as your cheerleader and help you to light the way when you feel like you are out of options by asking probing questions that help enable you to dig deeper and to find the answers within yourself and for your situation.  
5. Strategic and tactical – I help clients to operate on a strategic level by developing clarity of goals, vision, priorities, objectives as well as potential pitfalls and how to prevent, overcome, and workaround them.  From a tactical perspective, I help clients to work through the steps from goal to achievement. 
6. Visual mapping and other thinking tools – Your problems are complex.  And sorting out competing priorities can be overwhelming.  In my practice, I utilize a range to tools to help enable you to find clarity – including mind-mapping.
7. Note-taking – I am an avid note-taker.   During our sessions, I will take my notes to help me to collect my thoughts.  I may facilitate your capture of thoughts or/and share with you a recap of notes that I captured as well.  Beyond this, information as strictly confidential as per our coaching agreement.   
8. Professionalism – I operate at a high level of professionalism and integrity expect this of others as well.     I abide by a code of ethics and aim to always give my best effort to each client.

As a professional coach, I adhere to strict ethical guidelines. At the beginning of our coaching engagement, we will establish a formal written agreement that outlines the boundaries and expectations regarding the privacy of our discussions and any sensitive information shared during coaching sessions.  In addition, coaching sessions are conducted in a secure and private setting, whether in person or through secure virtual platforms, to ensure that our conversations remain confidential.

As a baseline, a 30 to 45 minute session every two weeks allows for sufficient frequency and time for progress.  This varies. In the case of a business critical or complex issue, meetings may need to scale up to 75 minutes weekly.   Some executives prefer to commit to 30 minutes monthly with a biweekly check-in.   Annual enrollment participants may be eligible for monthly 45-minute sessions with weekly email check-ins – depending on the terms of the program.

If more time is needed, the coaching program can be extended in monthly increments at the coach’s discretion and depending on her availability.  

The ultimate goal of training is that you become able to self-coach.  This involves being self-aware in real time and taking the ‘right’ action based on the situation.