Bringing Nature in To Your Coaching Conversations
“I’m often asked “How can I bring nature to our coaching conversations when we are working over Teams / Zoom?”
It’s a great question. We all know that taking a walk outdoors brings huge benefits to our wellbeing and offers perspective. That movement brings a physical and mental change that supports clarity and creativity. We are also beginning to understand that nature can play an inspirational role in coaching. So, how do we get some of those benefits in the coaching experience when we are sitting at a screen? Well, here are some ideas, not all my own, many collated from other great coaches I have had the privilege to work with on the programs I run.
Creating a Natural Environment
What can you do to bring a bit of nature indoors to support both you and your client? Can you open the window to hear birdsong?, have a plant or two visible, a bunch of flowers or foliage from the garden, have a picture of nature in the background, place a few natural objects on a shelf behind you or your desk? Not all of these will suit you and not all will be possible. Have a play and see what works for you.
Priming/Before the session
With a little bit of planning ahead the coachee can enjoy the benefits and insights that nature offers before and between sessions. In the few days before a coaching session I often suggest to clients that they take a walk outside and consider what will make our coaching session a valuable use of their time. Or invite them to walk and see what arises for them as a topic they’d like to spend time discussing. I’m also a big fan of using a natural video reel in the Zoom waiting room, so that if they arrive before time, they are seeing natural images and sounds instead of a blank screen with a text message.
Other Ideas
Send your coachee a nature poem/quote to read before your call. Something that you feel is relevant for them or their issue.
Share a nature video clip to use as a bit of pre-work.
Record a short video clip of you outside in a natural setting and send them a relevant message.
Ask them to send you an image of their favourite place in nature or the view from their window.
Ask them to take a walk and find something in nature they are drawn to and either bring it with them to the session or take a picture of it and bring the picture to the session, you can then unpack this in the session.
During Your Virtual Session
You can also use nature as a stimulus during your virtual sessions. Again, it takes a little bit of planning ahead, but it is well worth it. Having used a nature visualisation at the start of a coaching session has allowed one of my clients to mentally shift from her office environment to one where she is less connected to the ‘corporate system’ and becomes more herself. I also love working over the phone. Once of my clients walks outside if it’s nice weather or sits in her house with a view of her garden if it’s raining. We start on Facetime and share our views then move to audio only. My client will often remark on something she is seeing in nature and how it relates to her situation. In this way nature does some of the coaching too. I find these sessions the most relaxing of any ‘virtual sessions’ I have and I know I’m a better coach when I’m not staring at someone face to face on a screen.
Other Ideas
At the start of the call asking the coachee to take a look out the window and share what they are seeing. It’s a great way to change their mental state from the meeting they’ve had just before your session.
Share an image with them; a meadow, a woodland, a beach, describe it sensually, and invite them to metaphorically meet you there for the coaching session. Leave it on the screen.
Using the thing that the client has brought from their pre-session walk (the picture, leaf, pebble, acorn, flower etc). In the session you can enquire;
What was it that drew you to it?
How is that relevant for you right now?
Asking them to have a collection of things they’ve found in nature to hand (pinecone, shell, pebble, driftwood, chestnut, quartz etc) then using those with them to do a desk top constellation exercise.
Connecting with any metaphors they use (most metaphors are drawn from the natural world) and unpacking them.
Connecting with the seasons in terms of times of change/bounty/rest/growth etc.
Post Session / Follow Up
Many of the ideas from the pre session suggestions can be tailored to afterwards. I know this is an area where I could up my game so I share the suggestions below for me as much as for you.
Ideas
For the coach to take a walk after the session an allow nature to do a bit of supervising as you reflect on the session while you walk/sit and enjoy a view.
Sharing some further questions or prompts in a video format over WhatsApp from an outside location.
Send the coachee an image of something that came up in metaphor eg. Leaves falling for letting go.
If you’d like some top tips on working over the phone outdoors there’s a great podcast here.
Collaborating with nature in your virtual coaching can unlock so much depth, support wellbeing and create anchors for commitments, insights or experiences. This article contains lots of ideas for you to play with. Perhaps just pick one, give it a go, and see what emerges.
- Lesley