Yannick’s Coaching Lab features guest coaches from a broad variety of approaches, who showcase how they work as part of a live 45min coaching session, followed by reflections and Q&A with the audience.
Curious to know what this session was like? Have a peek at the Lab Report below or consider VIP membership to access the full recording of this and many more exciting sessions.
Yannick’s Coaching Lab #71 — Avi Goren-Bar
Lab Report by Natalie Fraser
Pre-Session Summary
Avi and his client had only met for 5 minutes just before this session. Avi’s client began by sharing that her career path has taken her across many opportunities before training as a coach, and incorporating many trainings and certificates has been an important part of her career. However, she noticed that no matter how many certificates she acquires, she is struggling to have the career she wants. This led her to considering whether it was a problem of visibility, and invested a lot of time and money into learning marketing. She now considers marketing a strong skill of hers, and has found herself building brands for other companies yet finds it difficult to market herself.
Session Summary
Introductions. Avi started by asking his client and himself to mute audio for 30 seconds to breathe and connect with the self before beginning their session. Avi began by briefly introducing himself and his approach, before inviting his client to share what brings her to their coaching session. Avi’s client began sharing in detail her career path, leading to a reflection of her current struggles with visibility.
After a few minutes, Avi cut his client’s dialogue off, asking her to summarize clearly what she would like to focus on in this session and provide her definition of “visibility”.
The client’s dialogue revealed that she has three products which Avi described as “three masks” (Yoga teacher, PCC Coach, Chronic Healer). He asked his client to ‘put on’ each of the three masks, and feel in which mask she feels most comfortable: yoga teacher.
Avi asked his client how this session would feel extremely successful. When she was hesitant and uncertain, Avi appealed to her trust in him and the session by stating that he was a “magician” that could help her, revealing that the client would like to understand the block from feeling okay within her careers and becoming visible.
Archetype Card Game. Avi used his screen to share 24 “female leadership cards” asking his client to approach this exercise as a playful game. He asked his client to see which face she was drawn to (rather than the title or text of card) as being someone who would be her internal leader who would lead her to becoming visible. The 24 cards were comprised of 12 archetypes (Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester, and Sage) with a white (representing ego) and black (representing shadow).
Three Shadow cards were chosen initially, which the client reflected were not ideal leaders, and which Avi reflected symbolized that Avi was possessed by her shadow side, and that her unconscious first is confronting her with her vulnerability and inferiority.
Avi then ‘re-contracted’ the session stating that it was unrealistic to expect him to be the magician that can help her (as he had described himself and asked her to trust that he was at the start of the session) but that the only person who can let her become visible is herself being led by the right inner leader.
Archetype Card Game Replay. Avi directed the client to replay the card game, removing the shadow side cards which he stated were not good leaders for her purpose, and asking his client to select cards with white titles (ego cards). From her selection of five options, they proceeded to select one card by process of eliminating the four whose descriptions were not suitable for the objective. However, Avi notes that ego and shadow cards can both have negative “castrating” impacts.
Chair Exercise. Avi asked his client to get rid of the notepad that she was using, stating that the following part of the session would be emotional and experiential. Avi then asked his client to play two roles, switching her position physically when inhabiting each role. Role one was herself, role two was the chosen persona archetype (Magician). Avi joined the exercise by communicating to the archetype and his client, such as intervening when the archetype was calling his client “silly” and asking it to play a more self-supporting role.
Homework. Avi asked his client to give herself homework with a measurable and practical outcome so that she would remember the session with him. Avi gave guidance on how to increase the power of her homework.
Another session. Avi stated that they need another session, explaining how this session would expand on their first session.
Final acknowledgments. Avi closed the session by listing several complimentary qualities that he’d noticed in their session.
Key Insights
The client really enjoyed the session, commenting on her appreciation for the symbolism, wisdom, and exercises.
As a soon-to-be MCC coach, currently PCC coach and clinical psychologist – Avi finds it challenging to move away from diagnosis after a long science-based career, and in his coaching stays close to the ICF competencies whilst also prioritizing other valuable components such as humor and empathy.
Avi kept the pace of the session extremely fast, wanting to showcase his approach, with the client at one point even stating “let me know if I’m wasting time”. The client experienced the authority and guidance positively because she had trust in him and appreciates coaches/therapists that can catch her and call her out when she is ‘hiding’ or ‘playing games’.