1 to 1 COaching, mentoring and supervision
I’m interested in creativity and the human condition. Creativity being our desire to move towards the novel, creative and different. The human condition being our in-built instinct to avoid the unfamiliar. These two things cause a tension in many of us and the organisations/institutions/societies we find ourselves part of. All too often it is the human condition that wins out resulting in us sacrificing our innate creative spirit, and our sense of playfulness and adventure.
I do a variety of 1:1 work with people who want to explore how they might strike a better balance in their lives and their work in order to more fully bring forth their naturally wonky, creative self.
Coaching/Creative Adventures
I work with individuals using a combination of gestalt psychology, zen philosophy and creative practices which are a little different to traditional coaching. Whilst we may work towards a specific goal, I take a gestalt approach and focus more on deepening our awareness of how things are right now. (The present moment is the only domain we can experience after all!) We will work with conversation and questions as well as other methods such as doodling, rich picture/metaphor, mindfulness, embodied practices, movement, clay/plasticine, quantum flirting and other things we may come up with in the moment. Occasionally I may set up specific Creative Adventure scenarios to support our work – immersive experiments to liberate your creative spirit and sense of creative freedom.
The gestalt co-founder Fritz Perls once said that every patient needs their own form of therapy. I like to take this mantra into my coaching work and we will work out between us what uniquely is the best way for us to work together. I work both face to face and virtually but due to the current COVID restrictions it is my preference to do this work in the virtual space. I have developed specific practices to ensure that this is still a vivid and insightful experience.
Supervision and mentoring
Although these are essentially two different forms of 1:1 work I’ve put them under one heading as quite often the work I do ends up being a mix of each. Whilst the feel of this work is similar to coaching it is more focussed on a specific task, project or assignment. I have recently worked with individuals who are wanting to inject more of their creative selves into a corporate project and students who are writing assignments or dissertations on presence, creativity, not knowing, spontaneity and the human condition. Over the last couple of years I have found myself working with more and more and individuals who are thinking about leaving the corporate world and setting up on their own.
Pricing and structure
I spent many years resisting fixed pricing, preferring to work on a pay-what-you-can-afford basis but the overwhelming feedback was that people would prefer me to name a price. So, below is a pricing structure based on what people have typically paid that still allows flexibility but also specificity that hopefully makes this work both accessible without underpricing its value.
Individually funded: Pay what you can afford in price range of £125-£195 per session + VAT
Company/corporate funded: £250 per session + VAT
You can have as many or as few sessions as you like and can decide this as we progress. Alternatively you can chose up front to schedule a series of sessions.
Sessions may last anywhere between 60-120 minutes depending on what we are working on and we will negotiate this between us. For some sessions there may be an extra costs (Between £5-£10) for materials we might work with. I will let you know this in advance as you may already have the materials or wish to purchase them yourself.
It is important to me that this work is accessible for all so if you are unable to afford the prices above due to your personal financial situation then please get in touch and we can discuss alternative options.
If you’d like to explore any of the above then e mail at sc@canscorpionssmoke.com and we can set up a free exploratory conversation.
I have developed my own process for working 1:1 with individuals over the last 25 years combining traditional coaching methods along with ideas and practices from gestalt psychology, improvisation, embodied practices, movement, mask work and art therapy (BAAT). I hold a certifice and diploma in coaching from Newcastle University, have completed various trainings in gestalt psychology (London Gestalt Centre, Metanoia Institute, Ashridge Business School), completed an Art Therapy Foundation programme (BAAT) and a Masters in Organisational Change and Consulting (Ashridge). I have been working 1:1 with individuals and groups for over 25 years.