Interview to Eva Aksahn, Life Coach & Psychologist in United Arab Emirates.
What does a coach do?
We usually examine the goals that a person has, we analyse the personality intimately and, in a number of sessions, we move him or her towards the desired ambitions.
What is the part of a person that you coach?
I’m involved more in life coaching then in business coaching, and we can say that who wants a private coach usually is scared to be or to do something and, at the same time, is already convinced that he or she wants to go “higher”. I look at their ‘high dreams’ and after I can coach the person to stop what obstruct the interior opportunity and let him or her to go beyond.
Does life coaching usually work?
The result depends on the client’s commitment. I work to untangle the obstacles but what we can reach is a consequence from that person. Very important results will arrive if the person will modify himself in a long path during the following years, in a 5-10 years perspective, not only in the present. It’s a transformation.
How do you build a trust in a person?
When you build trust with a person there is a first part when you listen to the client, you feel the client’s problem, often through digital connections, and reason with him about the issue. The second part is when you go inside coaching through several sessions, where you meet the client’s feelings and there you create a solid trust.
Could you indicate the biggest change you have generated in a person in your coaching experiences?
I had a client that was overwhelmed by many struggles like financially problems and in relationships too. We started to focus to understand about what was really important in her life, so she rebuilt herself as a leader in her job and, as following, she created a strategy to fix the financial problems.
What is the point when she started to change?
Basically, what she understood is that sometimes less is more. She realized that she had to focus on a few very important things to think and do, selecting the ones she was more confident. Sometimes the choice is the key.
It’s possible to coach people in online communication?
This is an important topic for coaching today. I think that what we have to evaluate is how we pay attention. In online communications we are focused on voice, and all the other non verbal signals of face-to-face communications are off. Most of my coaching sessions are made on Skype as voice-to-voice calls, and I have noticed that, in this condition, a person can open himself more easily.
Could you please indicate a special project that you are working now?
It’s something I’m using in helping women with infertility and pre-natal difficulties. I prepare them using a guided visualization that help them to tackle the anxiety and the medical challenges that they have to face. The problem is bigger for a woman that has already made an attempt, failing. This is because in our society when you lose the opportunity to have a baby it’s not normal to cry or simply to be sad, you only see the empty space to try again. We must refill that space with a new opportunity.
