Frequently Asked Questions

Coaching
ACT
Booking
Habits

What is coaching?

A series of experiential conversations which will lead to an increased understanding of your behavioural patterns. This increased awareness makes you more equipped to evaluate these patterns and adjust your day-to-day decision making to more consciously move towards living a life that is more meaningful to you.

Is a life coach worth it?

Inherently this is a cost vs benefits question. How much are you stuck and how much are you willing to get unstuck? To get a better understanding whether the life coach is offering value for money look at their reviews.

Difference between a coach and a therapist?

Look beyond the typical life coach vs therapist paradigm and take into consideration what experience, training, and qualifications the professional has to offer and base your decision on that.

Can a life coach help with anxiety?

This depends on the skillset of the specific life coach you have in mind. For instance, someone who is also trained in Acceptance and Commitment Training would be competent in addressing anxiety issues.

What is Acceptance and Commitment Training?

ACT is a behavioural intervention, it's about doing. It’s not just talking about your problems and feelings. It gets its name from one of its core messages: accept and make room for what is out of your personal control and commit to action that improves and builds vitality in your life.

Is ACT evidence-based?

ACT is an evidence-based form of CBT which is backed up by science and is getting more and more momentum within the NHS. Since the beginning of 2023, there have been over 1000 randomised controlled trials on ACT or its components, evidencing it’s effectiveness in various settings.

Why use ACT as a coach and for habits?

The emphasis of Acceptance and Commitment Training lies very much on living in the present but this is very much connected to building the future. The ability to live in the present is important because it very much affects your ability to make plans for the future and commit to actions today that build that very same future. For instance, changing your habits starts off with becoming more self-aware of the cues – triggers – that put the habit in motion. Once you become more self-aware you can more mindfully interrupt the cue. Bringing the unhelpful subconscious behaviours more to the surface, so you’re conscious of them and can find alternative responses to them.

Any free material on ACT?

Have a look at my blog post on ACT here to read more about it. 

What is your availability?

My availability can be seen up to one month in advance. Have a look at the 1-to-1 coaching page and scroll all the way down to look at my availability for online sessions.

How much do you charge?

I currently charge £70 per session. A session lasts a full hour. These prices do come down if you book coaching packages of 3 or 6. More details can be found under here.

How many sessions should I book?

Typically, I would advise my clients to initially book for one session so you can see for yourself if you're getting the value you are looking for. You can decide after the first session if you want to continue and book one more session or book a coaching package instead.

What payment methods do you accept?

Online sessions can be safely and securely booked via the booking section below, either using debit/credit card or PayPal. If you're interested in face-to-face sessions please contact me directly.

How long does it take to form a habit?

For a behaviour to become automatic varies from person to person and is dependent on the complexity of that behaviour. This paper looked into this and found that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days.

I like to stick to habits but I can't keep motivated.

Motivation is a feeling, inherently fleeting and uncontrollable in nature. This implies it comes and it goes. That’s why it’s better to focus on committing to a behaviour and the underlying values rather than relying on your feelings. Because feelings, they come and go.

How do we create habits?

If you want to create a new habit, find something you genuinely care about and start making tiny little steps towards it. Set yourself a realistic commitment for the next 3 days. After this period, review and evaluate. What worked? What stopped me from doing it? There are many aspects that are important but the most important one is a raised awareness. Awareness of antecendents, triggers, and reinforcing consequences (e.g. the habit loop).

How can I drop a bad habit?

Being aware of your bad habit, is the easy part. The difficult part is to replace this unhelpful behaviour with an alternative that is more value-congruent for you in the long-run. So you might not completely eradicate the urges and needs when you're put under pressure, but you can learn to respond differently to what difficult situations arise you for. If you're interested in this, please do get in touch.