Susan Britton MCC breaks down ICF Marker 7.3: how coaches expand clients' thinking from victim mindset to empowered. She uses the blue zone/red zone metaphor to show optimal thinking versus stress-filled thinking, and offers questions like "What golden opportunity lies in this challenge?" to shift clients toward agency and choice.
Susan here, and I've got a tip on ICF PCC Marker 7.3. So ICF number 3— or excuse me, number 7— is evokes awareness. And evokes awareness has to do with expanding and deepening thinking about the client's self and situation. And in 7.3, that particular marker, there are going to be changes in the way that the client thinks about their situation. And so expanding or deepening their thought process, their feelings, around that would sound something like, how does this challenge that you're talking about create some opportunity for you to fill in the blank? You know, what's, what's the golden opportunity in the midst of this? I hear that this is difficult, and what are some different ways of looking at it that would put you into that place where you feel more like you're in the blue zone and not in the red zone? And so for clients that know the blue zone, red zone, I would use that language. If they weren't familiar with it, I wouldn't. But blue zone being that place where you're going to have the most cognitive capacity, the greatest relational skills, and all of your faculties working for you. So 7.3 is really going to change the way that the client thinks about their situation. Typically, they're going to move from a place where they feel like they're trapped, they don't have options, to a place where they feel like, I'm empowered, I've got some choices, I can be able to look at this situation differently in my, my world and my life.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
