I work with people on filling the gap between everything they know and how to add that knowledge into their daily lives. Once we bridge that gap, clients feel like the person they always knew they could be but it also ripples out into who they show up as in the world, in their personal lives, at work, and in relationships.
This year I’m adding an offering to do that very work but in a group setting. I’ve always been inspired by runner’s theory; seeing someone else accomplish a goal transforms a seemingly impossible goal into a tangible possibility, breaking down mental barriers and fostering collective motivation.
Group coaching, done well, is a held container. A weekly structure with other people who are also in motion. You show up, you report back on what you said you’d do, you do the work in real time, and you commit to the next thing before you leave. The group becomes both witness and pressure in the way a deadline is pressure: useful, orienting, clarifying. The group allows your thinking to become visible both to you and the room.
I’ve noticed the witnessing matters more than people expect. When you have to say, out loud, to actual humans, what you accomplished this week and what you didn’t, something shifts within you. The private negotiations you make with yourself become a little harder to sustain, because articulating a thing changes your relationship to it. So.. let’s talk about who this genuinely serves.
Group coaching tends to work well for you if:
You know your goal but keep not starting, or keep starting and stopping at roughly the same place.
You do your best thinking in conversation, not in isolation. Ideas that feel vague on your own become clear when you’re in dialogue.
You are energized, not depleted, by other people’s processes. Hearing someone else work through something sharpens you.
You want accountability but not surveillance and someone to check in on you without micromanaging or monitoring you.
You are willing to be seen in an incomplete state. You don’t need to have it all figured out before you show up.
You have tried doing this alone and discovered that alone is exactly the problem.
That last one is worth sitting with. Not everyone stalls in the same way and that’s important to note. Some people stall because they don’t have a clear enough goal yet and for them, more solo reflection or a one-on-one coach is the right move. Some people stall because they have been too alone with the goal for too long and the goal has become another internal monologue that becomes too easy to postpone.
Now the harder, equally important question: when group coaching is probably not the right fit.
It may not be for you if:
You are still in a phase of figuring out what you actually want. Group coaching assumes you have a direction and need support moving in it.
You find other people’s energy distracting in working contexts. Some people do their best work in solitude and get scattered in groups.
You are looking primarily for emotional support around a painful situation. Group coaching can hold difficulty, but its orientation is forward toward action.
You are in acute crisis. The container I hold is a steady, structured one.
You would spend more energy performing for the group than actually working. If the thought of other people watching you makes you shrink rather than rise, that’s worth examining first.
The right room is one that creates movement for you and keeps your momentum alive. I say this as someone who has been in a lot of different rooms and held them as well. I have held grief circles and journal clubs and community gatherings and I have seen what happens when people are in a format that doesn’t fit them. When people are in the wrong containers they go through the motions and that matters to me more than enrollment numbers.
Here is what I think people underestimate about working in a group: the quality of the other people in the room changes what is possible for you. This is both a caution and a gift. The energy in the room is part of the offering.
When the group is well-held and well-composed, something happens that you cannot quite manufacture on your own or even in a one-on-one dynamic. You see someone else take a risk like name a real obstacle, make a commitment they’re not sure they can keep and something in you responds. That is the gift. The caution is that you have to be willing to receive it because the room can only give you what you’re willing to let in.
If you’ve read this far, you probably already know something about which direction you’re leaning toward. I find that people rarely need more information but they sometimes need permission to act on what they already know.
If group coaching feels like a fit, the next step is simple; join the lab. You’ll leave our first session with dynamic shifts already unfolding within you. You’ll experience the format firsthand, meet the people in the room, and get a feel for how momentum lives in the space.
If it doesn’t feel like a fit and you’d prefer a personal 1:1 format, I’ve opened my books. Ultimately, the goal is always that you end up in the right room, even if that room isn’t mine.
abrazos.