Practitioner Diploma / “I found the approach combined rigour with warmth and compassion”

With a career rooted in drama therapy and over 25 years designing experiential learning for leading consultancies, Alison Seddon made the leap into executive coaching in 2018. Now running her own practice, she works with leaders in transition and those seeking purpose-driven roles, blending creativity, metaphor and deep listening to spark lasting change. In this interview, Alison reflects on her journey on the Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching, the evolution of her personal model, and why helping clients find what lies “between the lines” matters more than ever.

Prior to developing yourself as a coach, you worked as a drama therapist before moving into facilitation and drama-based learning. Who or what introduced you to coaching and led to you signing up for coach trainingwith the AoEC?

For the last 30 years I have used drama-based methods of learning in corporate leadership training and development, so I first came across coaching through role-playing being a coachee - and then role-playing how to coach! I was immediately drawn to the approach. I signed up with the AoEC because at the taster session I found the approach combined rigour with warmth and compassion. And I heard other alumni sing AoEC praises!

What were some of the positives and challenges you experienced while doing the diploma?

At first, I felt really daunted by the fact that everyone else in the room had so many years embedded in the corporate world, whereas I felt more like the court jester - the provocateur in motley who challenges the court and then vanishes back into her strange creative milieu!

The positives? So many! The course content. The caring, warm, thoughtful, clear facilitation and teaching. The freedom to create my own coaching model based on what I could bring. My fellow trainees!

What is your top advice to others considering coach training?

Do it! It’s an amazing and beautiful journey of discovery.

It wasn’t until the second training weekend that I truly saw that we all came to the training with self-doubt and vulnerability. Don’t wait for the second weekend for that revelation! Come with an open heart, bring compassion for yourself, your colleagues and the world we are in these days and get stuck in straight away!

Looking back at doing your diploma, what has been its lasting impact on you as a person and you as a coach?

The lasting impact for me as a person has been the way that creating my personal coaching model helped integrate everything I was bringing to the course - which came from so many sources - all the people who had influenced and taught me, my family, my acting and dramatherapy training, my Quaker faith, my experience as a mother, my sexuality - it was all welcome and all connected.

As a coach the touchstone is always that I coach to empower my client. And I love that my coaching practice is organic - it has and will continue to grow and send out new shoots!

Can you tell us more about your personal coaching model and how this has evolved since doing the diploma?

In my coaching model, the coachee and I are looking for what can be found ‘between the lines’ so we can deepen our understanding of what is happening and they can find new ways through their challenge. I use creativity, metaphor, Gestalt and Co-Active Coaching approaches (Whitworth et al) - for this exploration.

Since doing the diploma I've become viscerally and irrevocably aware of the climate and ecological catastrophe, so I’m currently developing my coaching and facilitation to work with groups and individuals who seek to respond to this terrible predicament.

I’m especially interested in Thrutopian responses. How can we work from our current reality to find a way through what we cannot avoid, without lapsing into dystopian or utopian perspectives? This means building cultures of resilience and all the inner work that goes with that. Given where we are now, we can anticipate an imperfect, difficult, even heartbreaking future - but if we can face it, it could also be full of love and meaning. I’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in this kind of exploration!

You now work as an executive coach and set up your own practice BGE in 2018; can you tell us about the type of clients you are working with?

I often work with clients who are in transition - from one role to another - especially climate concerned folks who want to transition into a role that aligns better with their purpose and commitment and provides meaning for them.

What are some of the issues and opportunities you coach people around?

When I work with individuals who are in or are seeking transition from one role to another, we often look at confidence and identity - ‘I don’t think I can do this’ or ‘I don’t know if I’m the ‘right’ type of person’. It’s really rewarding and beautiful to work with these themes!

I also work with individuals who want to develop their presence and impact when communicating, often in the context of public speaking. This too can touch on issues of confidence and identity. This is a more embodied practice, working with voice and rehearsing content, as guided by my coachee.

Both these strands are wonderful opportunities to embolden folk who might not otherwise offer their full talent to the world and who could be missing out on a more purposeful, meaningful and satisfying work life. And it’s a way for me to support those who are or who aspire to communicate the reality of our lives in this moment and inspire action.

How has becoming a qualified executive coach influenced the way you approach experiential learning and facilitation? In what ways do these disciplines complement each other in your work with leaders and groups?

Experiential learning is a challenging, embodied, here-and-now experience, and understanding the importance of psychological safety and having ways of being able to provide it has been a really vital influence on my work. The practice of deep listening across both coaching and facilitation is also hugely complementary and I love developing my skill in this! Understanding that groups need to find THEIR way through the learning, rather than me being the arbiter of what they SHOULD learn has also been a valuable discipline. Sometimes what a group desires to learn/explore can seem at odds with what the organisation thinks the group needs. Exploring this tension in my coaching training has been really helpful when I am designing and delivering learning experiences for organisations and this tension arises.

Can you share a success story or testimonial from one of your clients that highlights the impact of your coaching?

‘From the outset of my six-session coaching with Alison, we established the guidelines and agreements for our sessions, which were reiterated at the start of each session. This approach was invaluable to our safe, well-defined coaching partnership.

 She always kept me accountable and on track. She used an array of strategies to reveal realities about myself of which I had only been half-conscious. This was all done with kindness, sometimes playfulness, sometimes fierce honesty, but always with clear intention on the stated goals and desired outcomes that we’d agreed. She’s really compassionate and has the capacity to meet you wherever you’re at.

I reached a complete resolution following session five! That’s how good coaching with Alison can be; she is adept at coaxing, easing, playing, and keeping her clients to a high-degree of honesty and self-interrogation.’

Sara Laksimi, Director of Business Development at Calmer Parenting

‘Alison has been working with me to develop my presence and impact as a public speaker, preparing for interviews and rehearsing speeches, looking at both delivery and content.

She explores both the practical aspects of communication - breath, body language, and vocal production - as well as the purpose of my work. Her understanding of my mission and the urgency of the work needed at this time means that the exercises and interventions she offers accurately address both how I communicate as well as the purpose of my work.

Her somatic approach has helped me find greater physical ease and freedom when speaking. Since working with her I have begun to evoke a more emotional and engaged response in my audiences. A great case in point being my recent major public lecture at St Marks Church Peterborough on ‘Test of faith: on religious responses to climate breakdown’. This talk has gone down extremely well; I attribute its reception in no small part to the help I received from Alison in rehearsing for it.

Alison’s approach is practical and empathetic, and her insights and feedback are super helpful- and at times, revelatory! I have really enjoyed working with her on this new approach.’

Prof. Emeritus Rupert Read, author ‘Why Climate Breakdown Matters’ (Bloomsbury) and Co-Director of The Climate Majority Project

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a coach?

Lots of coaches talk about the ‘Aha!’ moment of coaching and I resonate with that too! But even more than that I love the moments where both the coachee and I are discovering something new together. This is really powerful in the context of working in a ‘collapse aware’ way. Sometimes the insights my coachee shares with me raises the hairs on my arms and I know I have been changed by what they have shared with me. What a privilege!

Our sincerest thanks to Alison for sharing her personal experience of coach training with the AoEC.