Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.
We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.
Today we are interviewing Jamie Greenwood. Jamie is a Coach, Speaker, and Women’s Leadership Facilitator based in Berkeley, California.
NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?
Jamie: The foundation of my coaching practice is teaching people how to care for themselves—mind, body, heart, and soul. In my 12 years of coaching, I’ve created what I call my “anatomy of care” curriculum. I take my clients through four pillars of care that allow them to reconnect and remember themselves in their lives, their work, and in their relationships, so they are caring for themselves while also caring for others and the community around them.
I sort my clients into three types:
There is the “Handler” which is a type of person who “handles” everything in his or her life. They’re the person that everyone goes to because they are smart, wise and seem to have things together. But in being everything to everyone, they have forgotten about themselves.
Then there is the “Wellness Warrior.” This is the type of person who is very focused on their health and body. Maybe they want to lose weight or are struggling with an illness and their body has become the enemy. What we do together is create practices to help them trust their body as a source of wisdom and information rather than only as a source of illness and pain.
The third type of person I work with is the “Controller”: the person who needs life to look a certain way to feel safe. But because they’re gripping life so tight, everything feels very small and suffocating. Together we work to open life up for them in a way that feels enriching and exciting and free.
NCA: When you first meet a client, do you recognize right away which category they fall into or does it take a little longer to tease that out?
Jamie: I would say that almost all of my clients could be put into 2 out of the 3 archetype categories. It’s really about listening closely to see which archetype they lead with and then what pieces in them are from another archetype. No one is ever only one thing, but what archetypes do is help us see hidden parts of ourselves and then realize, “Oh yes. That’s me!” It helps us as coaches as well because it enables our clients to self-identify, making for an easier connection point.
We don’t need to be living a perfectly put-together life, making a ton of money, have lived through tremendous hardship or have been in practice for decades to be a good coach. To be a good coach, especially in the beginning, our work is to humbly listen with an open heart and mind and to ask questions driven by genuine curiosity.
NCA: What aspect of coaching have you found to be the most challenging or the most unexpected?
Jamie: As a young coach starting out 12 years ago, I didn’t understand that coaching can be very emotional. I wasn’t ready. I was asking my clients big questions and soon realized that when those questions brought up big emotions, I didn’t know how to handle it because I had yet to really ask myself the same deep questions.
The biggest challenge of a coach is allowing themselves to continually learn and to be brave enough to go where you’re asking your clients to go. As a young coach starting out over a decade ago, I really wanted to be right and I wanted to have the answers for my clients. Now what I know is that my job is to not have answers for them. My job is to ask the right questions and let their wisdom and their answers gently unfold.
NCA: Have you had a mentor or a coach yourself who has been vital to your success?
Jamie: My journey has been a little untraditional. I’ve actually never had a coach outside of my training. I wanted to figure things out on my own because I was very concerned about someone else’s voice crowding out my own. I wanted to learn on my own and figure out what mattered to me before I put myself in front of someone who might tell me what they thought should matter.
Now that I know who I am, what I believe in, what I want to teach, and what I stand for, I’m bringing in mentorship and a coach to help move me forward in my vision. But it was a vision that I was really clear that I wanted to form on my own without initial guidance.
NCA: One of the most common challenges new coaches face is self-doubt. Some coaches call it Imposter Syndrome, where early on they feel somehow inadequate to take on the role of coach. What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is in the beginning stage of their coaching career and dealing with these doubts in their mind?
Jamie: My advice is to remember that we don’t need to be living a perfectly put-together life, making a ton of money, have lived through tremendous hardship or have been in practice for decades to be a good coach. To be a good coach, especially in the beginning, our work is to humbly listen with an open heart and mind and to ask questions driven by genuine curiosity. Our work is not to fix, change or save our clients but rather create a safe place of reflection and loving inquiry where our clients begin to transform on their own. Compassionate presence is what people need most and a coach at any stage has the ability to offer that.
