Life Coaching has many overlaps with Occupational Therapy theory, placing the client at the centre and looking holistically at their aspirations and barriers to goals. Life Coaching has its own models that are useful to base therapy conversations around, and which can be useful tools for Occupational Therapists to add to our toolboxes too. This is an introduction to two of these.
The GROW model
The GROW acronym stands for:
Goal
Reality
Options/Obstacles
Will/Way Forward
Originally developed for use in business performance, it’s ethos is applicable in many settings. As OTs we are already familiar with setting targeted SMART goals, but this model offers another way of approaching goal setting.
The Reality part is about having a realistic appraisal between client and therapist/coach to consider where the client is at in regards to the goal, to help create realistic goals and timelines.
Obstacles/Options considers potential barriers to the goal, and different ways that the goal could be approached.
Will is the creation of an action plan, of setting out how the goal will be achieved, including target dates and steps to take.
The Wheel of Life
This is similar to the Star diagrams, which have different elements of a persons life at each point, used to map levels of contentment within each element. The Wheel of Life is drawn as a circle with a different element in each segment. Concentric circles allow the client to mark their contentment in each element. There are typically has eight categories, although these can be varied:
Career
Finance
Self-Development
Health
Relationships
Romance
Fun and Recreation
Physical Environment
This concept helps to raise self awareness and insight about the importance of balancing these areas within our lives, and can be used as a visual tool to measure and demonstrate improvement. It is a useful starting point for discussion, upon which goals and action plans can be based. It can also be used alongside motivational interviewing techniques to gauge levels of motivation and priority and encourage clients to come up with their own solutions.
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