What is SOLUTION-FOCUSED LIFE COACHING? If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them. Henry David Thoreau Simply put, life coaching is the process of helping someone determine and achieve their own personal goals, supporting them as they build the foundations for their own castles! It is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their potential.  A professional life coach is a trained mentor whose job is to help clients discover their deepest values and strengths, facilitate goal-setting, and provide motivation and encouragement. Coaches are trained to listen to and observe their clients carefully, and to customize their approach to individual client needs. Coaches ask a lot of questions, challenge people to do their best, and help others to bring forth their own strategies and solutions to life's challenges. In this manner, the coaching arena remains an “advice-free” zone.  An effective life coach therefore does just what a good sports coach does: a coach challenges his or her client and takes the time to find out what winning in life means to them. In the words of Shunryu Suzuki, “The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing”! Many people however are trapped by habitual negative beliefs and thought systems which hold them hostage.  Through coaching they are invited to consider new ways to clarify and reframe their beliefs in order to focus on creative solutions to implement concrete action steps. Coaching is both an art and a science, and as such it is based upon discoveries in neuroscience as to how the brain functions. Solution-focused technologies harness the power of the neo-cortex, enabling people to rapidly bypass old obstacles with new ways of thinking expansively.      Solution-focused coaching is based upon the fundamental principles:    - that people are OK, and not in need of healing   - that people already have the resources within themselves to be a success     - that people always make the best choices available to them   - that every action has a positive intention     - that change is not only possible, it is inevitable! The coach’s role is therefore to encourage, inspire and motivate the client towards the ownership of new skill-sets, thus enabling them to increase their own creativity, productiveness, and effectiveness.  Coaching accelerates the client's progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice; coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. The coach holds the client accountable for producing the desired results that are within his or her own control. Solution focused coaching technologies advance people towards the clear apprehension of their own path; they encourage ownership of new skill-sets and empower clients to successfully implement transformation in their own lives. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.     Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.     Brenda Ueland