254: Essential Skills for Supporting Mental Health in Coaching Supervision

In this insightful episode, host Helen O’Grady and guest Jo Birch, an award-winning supervisor and executive coach, explore the complexities of mental health in coaching and supervision. They discuss the importance of clear contracts, boundaries, and competence when addressing mental health issues, the challenges of confidentiality, and the need for self-awareness and reflection on personal beliefs about mental health. The conversation highlights the value of supervision as a safe and reflective space, the misunderstandings around mental health, and the necessity for coaches and supervisors to develop confidence and fluency in these sensitive conversations.

Jo shares the challenges of maintaining confidentiality and navigating sensitive disclosures, as well as the interplay between coaching and therapy, and provides strategies for developing skills in noticing and responding to mental health concerns. This conversation offers easily applied actions you can take, as well as encouraging further enquiry, ongoing learning and open dialogue to better support clients and yourself.

You will learn:

· How to hold the contract for the work, while being human and compassionate

· How to develop competence – skills and knowledge

· How to grow in confidence

You can find further resources on mental health here.

‘Fluency in being able to talk about mental health issues is it's a skill for life, not just in our professional work.’

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For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:

https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-supervision-uncovered-mental-health-essential-skills