Trust, honesty and acceptance in coaching

Before clients can discover insight in coaching, they first need to trust their coach. In the words of one client, “You’ve got to trust your coach to get you there or to guide you there”.

 

Trust is initially built by coaches through their display of professionalism, credibility and assurances of confidentiality. This is something that clients frequently identify as a factor in their decision to engage a coach.

 

Trust is further developed through the processes of accepting and being honest. In fact, there is an independent relationship whereby coaches’ acceptance and non-judgement of clients results in greater client trust, and therefore client honesty. This is shown in the figure below:

 

 

It is through this iterative and interdependent cycle of trust and honesty, within a foundation of acceptance, that clients can be vulnerable enough to make discoveries about themselves and their situation.

 

Reference:

Griffiths, K. (2008). Discovering, applying and integrating self-knowledge: A grounded theory study of learning in life coaching (Ph.D). Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology