Oooo. A new place to play!

OK. When those of you that coach start with a new client, what are your first questions to get things started? Do they vary depending on what you are presented with? What have you found most powerful?

Cheers
Carl

milk and sugar?

no tea or coffee then? cheap skate!

Here's one I like...

Who are you? (waits for response) ...and, who are you really? You know, the real you. The one deep down inside...

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Being the true professional that I am I like to start with the immortal lyrics

''Tell me what you want what you really, really want''

''What was it you haven't yet thought, before you decided to just stop, and think about... what was your problem... in a completely new, unique and empowering way?''

''Thank you, $500 please. Off you go.''

''What the fuck do you want?''

(John LaValle is a great teacher!)

What can *WE* *DO* for *YOU* *TODAY*?

1. ''Tell me about yourself?''

2. ''And now what do you want?''

3. ''What's stopping you?''

4. ''And if that wasn't stopping you what would?

Paul

How would you help me ''zigazig ha'' ?

And what does ''zigazig ha'' mean?

(Subject: Re: First questions Ref: 1221653
From: Mark Sheppard: Mindcraft Therapy (marksheppard) on Tue 02/05/06 14:32

Being the true professional that I am I like to start with the immortal lyrics

''Tell me what you want what you really, really want''

The Spice girls....now that's ''real music'' , hmmmm !)i

Subject: Re: First questions Ref: 1221677
From: Jonathan Altfeld (jonathanaltfeld) on Tue 02/05/06 14:40

(''What was it you haven't yet thought, before you decided to just stop, and think about... what was your problem... in a completely new, unique and empowering way?''

''Thank you, $500 please. Off you go.'')i

Jonathan...I like your way....subtle as a sausage !

Name ....Telephone number ...and Mobile Telephone number....Address....optimal times and days for appointments....

Now what is your problem...and would you like one session...or make a huge discount , on booking and paying for a course in advance ?

Mmm well … I work as a coach primarily in the corporate world, before I meet with a new client I send them a pre coaching questionnaire, when I then meet them in person my first questions are based on this questionnaire, in essence my firs few questions are something like;

What brings me to see you today?

What is missing in your life at the moment?

What do you want more of?

Tell me more about that .. ?

Etc …

Hope this helps

Tony n

What do you want from life ?

What is importantto you ?

Do you have , what you deserve right now ?

How much more...can you achieve ?

Compliments of...''Coaching with NLP'' , by Joseph O'Connor & Andrea Lages

''Now what is your problem...and would you like one session...or make a huge discount , on booking and paying for a course in advance ?''

Interesting. I know several people have asked you why you do 4 sessions in the past. But here, it seems the number of sessions is purely dependent on your clients' finances. Is this right?

That's not the impression I got.

I got more that this therapist presupposes a course of sessions will be required, but if the client wants a single session, taster, convincer, whatever rather than committing to the course at the outset, they can, but they pay more per session.

The client's ideal outcome might be a single session and that's it, but from the question it seems that's out of the question.

I wouldn't use that myself, but I don't think it implies that Peter's method is based on their finances, just that he currently ''needs'' four sessions, and creates an incentive for them to book all four in advance.

If they cost the same either way, people could book one, have half a change, not come back and then they'd have made his intervention fail (potentially). So it makes sense to obligate them to finish the course of treatment (until Peter can do it by the change, or in a single session anyway).

Was my, very brief(!) reading of it.

Cheers,

Martin.

Hi Mark,

I think it can be useful to keep in mind that Peter is from a different discipline. From what I can see, he uses the standard scheduling and billing structure for hypnotherapists. It's a little different than what is the norm in NLP or, for that matter, in coaching.

If I'm mistaken in this, I'm sure Peter can and will clarify.

Your comments also put me in mind of another recent thread about rates and charges and of a third thread about the usefulness and relative merits of offering reduced rates or free services to those who are unable to pay.

To my mind, it is not always an appropriate choice for a coach, practitioner or change worker to take on clients who can't afford to pay either the full price or at all or cannot book according to your establlished scheduling structure.

We certainly can choose that path as a way of fulfilling our perceived responsibilities to our clients and to our communities. This is my feeling and this is why that is my practice whenever it is possible.

And for many of us, an even greater responsibility might be to ourselves and our families. It can be difficult to give to others when one's personal or financial situation is lacking. I think that most of us, as coaches, would express concern if our clients put their own financial situations at risk to do charity. Therefore, it might be useful to have the same sort of concern for oneself.

At times, I have been able to take on clients at reduced rates or without charge. At other times, booking schedules and financial obligations have created situations where such appointments might have been considered financially irresponsible for me.

So, in my opinion, these sorts of choices should not be engraved in tablets of stone. Rather, it may be more appropriate to decide if 'charity begins at home' is fulfilled before we decide in just what ways we can dispense charity abroad at any given time.

That's my perspective, at any (pay?) rate.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Things might be a little different for me as I work primarily with teenagers... and what I do first is give them a client code of conduct and a coach promise form...go through them a little make sure they are happy with both sides of the partnership and then ask them 'What do YOU want me to help you do?'

(''Now what is your problem...and would you like one session...or make a huge discount , on booking and paying for a course in advance ?''

Interesting. I know several people have asked you why you do 4 sessions in the past. But here, it seems the number of sessions is purely dependent on your clients' finances. Is this right?)i

Not at all. My clients get £140 pounds worth of treatment , for £100 , if they opt for the course of treatment.

I work on the basis , that if a 4 session course , can successfully , deal with the most addicive chemical/drug known to mankind...Nicotine...it should be enough to deal , with most (but not all) problems.

I used to say to my clients...

''Most people are nervous and curious , about Hypnosis , when they first come to see me...don't worry too much , about having a successful session today...as you may find that you try to stay awake or want to listen to what I say to you....that's fine...''

But then , when I checked the actual figures, (smoking cessation) , I found that 70%of the problem , was gone after the first session, despite the nervousness and curiousity !

I got to know the client better....the client was getting good value for money...and the success rate for all treatments climbed high !

That is why I like to use the 4 session method.

But if a client , wants to fix something in one session....I will put my heart and soul , into fixing them in that one session.

I am not and never have been ''money-oriented'' , but I AM success oriented ...and it gives me a ''big buzz'' , every time I succeed for the client !

By offering 4 sessions , for what most people charge for 1 session , I believe I have effectively got 40 years experience , in 10 years i.e. 4x10 years = 40 years!

brynbach wrote:

Oooo. A new place to play!

OK. When those of you that coach start with a new client, what are your first questions to get things started? Do they vary depending on what you are presented with? What have you found most powerful?

Cheers
Carl

Always, as a real coach, I ask the client the following (taken from the book by John Whitmore, "Coaching for Performance"):

What exactly do you want to achieve as a result of this coaching process?

And, when I don´t start the general process with that question, I start some sessions with the question:
What exactly do you want to have at the end of this session?

But I´ve started a lot of sessions with silence. Greeting the client at the door of my office, the both of us take our seats and then silence from my part. They talk a lot.
I never act "motivated".
Ramón