[.ca] Coaching with Spirit: Allowing Success to Emerge (ISBN 0787960489)

Resonance and Wow!:
With each page, I felt an inner connection. an inner knowing and yet an Aha!- a sense of discovery- embracing paradox, so characteristic of encounter with spirit. Just reading the book enabled me to feel the presence of spirit on numerous occasions. A wonderful creation out of partnership with God. Deeply practical and delightfully lofty.

Practical and Profound:
Teri-E Belf has written a book both practical and profound - filled with proven principles and real-life experiences, shared by experienced coaches and people whose lives have been touched and transformed by coaching. Belf goes beyond coaching techniques (although these abound as well) to the heart of the matter - how insights and transformation can occur in big and small ways when Spirit is allowed to lead. I have rarely read a book with so much excellent practical advice that is so unabashedly focused on what really matters - helping people find personal purpose, meaning and connection in their lives. I highly recommend this to coaches and to all managers and professionals who are interested in helping people achieve their fullest potential.

Coaching Bliss:
This book is pure coaching bliss. I am a new spiritual coach and I found this book to be the perfect step to my next level as a coach. The wonderful passages about being quiet and allowing spirit in were very important for me. The many examples of real coaching experiences allowed me to understand how to invite spirit in. This book can't help but shift the way we coach, I reached a new level of joy just reading it and I know my coaching has shifted as a result. Open your heart to this extraordinary book.

Coaching 101 from a script:
While other reviewers claim to find new and exciting ideas here, I don't see anything new about connecting to oneself, taking responsibility and being present with the client. If you hang around enough coaching and coach-the-coach websites, you'll hear these ideas...over and over again. I did find a few ideas, such as listening to your body as you coach.A feeling of heaviness might mean that the client is not right for you. I also believe that coaches can pick up signals from the client and take risks to preserve honesty. Three points seemed to be of concern. First, the theme of the book is "coaching with spirit," yet "spirit" is not critical to most of her points. Second, the author needs to understand the psychological foundations of her recommendations. "Accepting clients unconditionally" so they'll blossom sounds remarkably like transference in psychoanalysis (I just reviewed Psychology of the Sopranos!) and should be administered with care. I once worked with a coach who kept saying, "You're doing great! You're wonderful!" As I found myself heading for disaster, I finally realized she was offering not feedback, but meaningless "encouragement." I finally asked, "If I said I were going to rob a bank, you'd say, 'That's great,' wouldn't you?" She agreed and I terminated "coaching" right away. While the author, like so many coaches, compares her services to those of an athletic coach, let's remember that athletic coaches do not accept their clients "unconditionally." They're forever making corrections and challenging them to move forward (except, of course, for those who follow Gallowey's The Inner Game of Tennis -- but even there they issue directions). Third, there's nothing unique about "marketing with spirit." The author's examples show she's a great salesperson, spirit or no spirit. She calls someone to identify herself as a "success coach." When the potential client says, "No thanks, I'm successful," Bell asks about success in balancing her life. That, folks, is great sales technique. Ultimately, Bell's book reflects the dilemma of coaching: is coaching more like therapy than therapy? Bell writes about a successful client who wants to change careers. They spend hours reviewing his life, values and goals. Great for the therapist and perhaps the rare client who wants to do this. However, I find many clients want to move fast and most of them really know what they want if you probe a little. A detailed life analysis is great for the coach's bank account but not necessarily for the client. True, the book offers some thoughts on spirituality. However, I don't think it's that easy. If you want to be "spiritual" in your life and practice, do what Carolyn Myss has done: study intensely from the sources. The spiritual path is not an easy one and it's not a road to material success. If you want to introduce spirituality into coaching, get the real thing!

A different perspective:
The review from Cathy misinterprets the phrase, 'accepting clients unconditionally.' I am the strongest advocate for avoiding bogus feedback, having published an article to this very point. www.successunlimitednet.com/articles. I train coaches to provide acKNOWledgement that offers clients a chance to KNOW themselves better, not feel good, or bad. Feeling is not relevant to acknowledgement. Furthermore the reviewer mispells my name twice and that is consistant with her review. Apparently she skipped large sections and details that would have clarified my perspective. I value different opinions, not inaccurate representations.