Tag Archive: A Balanced Life

Reflecting on the research and practice of coaching doctors

Academic Research seeks evidence by asking very specific questions that reduce the variables in a situation. In order to get at specific evidence, we can begin with a general enquiry like- Does coaching help doctors improve their performance? Does coaching reduce doctor burnout? And gradually we can think our way to something specific that we can […]

It’s the Combination of Trust and Tension that Creates Value in Coaching.

The process of coaching is a delicate balance between trust and tension. It is not the same as other conversations and it is not meant to be. Coaching relies on a trusting relationship so the Coachee can get to the core of the issue, get under the waterline. And the Coach has been given permission […]

The Doctor Cannot Fix Everything, believing they can limits, hurts, us all

The Doctor Cannot Fix Everything, believing they can limits, hurts, us all Mostly doctors are used to being the brightest star in the sky. I mean that with absolute admiration, there is no ‘tone’ when I say that. Since their inception most medical schools have selected doctors primarily for their academic smarts in STEM. When […]

To be a patient is to be rendered vulnerable.

To be To be a patient is to be rendered vulnerable.The trust required to give consent to anaesthesia, surgery, pharmacological treatment on someone’s, a stranger’s, advice might be an act of desperationBlind faith… To be a medical student is to live up to expectation.The persistent commitment to academic learning, to sacrificing a social life, to […]

Prevention is so much better than a cure

Prevention is so much better than a cure every day of the week. Proactive action can help you be well, no matter where you work or what you do. Including working in healthcare. Healthcare workers have so much opportunity to shift the focus to prevention, to generate more health and wellbeing in our communities.  When […]

Retreat fosters a tender heart and a stable mind.

What a tender act it is to be on retreat. To tend to one’s self gently…. What just happened when you read that first sentence, that word tender?  What belief did you automatically invoke without even trying, as truth? To tend to something means to pay attention to it and take action to care for […]

Why doctors and coaches need to retreat for balance

In retreat, in the quiet, we can listen for our true selves and reconnect to our own meaning. The world is incredibly noisy. There is so much junk to sift through. I find it tricky to work out what to attend to, what to read, listen to, watch. Is it just me? Doctors in the […]

I see you, tell me what you truly need

  Being seen is the foundation of wellbeing AND therefore the foundation of high performance. Before 2011 I said things like ‘as long as the surgeon is skilled and competent, we don’t care about the rest’. Let me be clear I was talking about his technical, surgical skills. I was wrong in two important ways. […]

The Well-Being Index Partner

What does make a difference to doctor wellbeing and performance? We are interested in how coaching can alter doctor wellbeing and performance. So we are constantly seeking ways to measure the impact of our work.We are really delighted to be partnering with Beamtree who offer the Well-Being Index (WBI) to healthcare workers in Australia and […]

Love in Medicine

Love has a place in medicine and the care is so much better July is perhaps the most sacred time of the year for me. A time to slow down, reflect, remember. To pause and honour, to walk and write. In the space of a quieter pace and the dark, I have found myself immersed […]

It’s the system you say…

Systemic and structural changes are required within healthcare.   It’s the system you say. I agree there are systemic and structural changes required within healthcare. Who is in charge of these systems? Who can orchestrate the changes? Who has the power and capacity to change them so that doctors’ lives can be enhanced by their […]

Coaching is often described as counter-cutural

It is designed to create new thinking, to widen the field of vision we are working in. The work I do in medicine coaching, facilitating workshops and speaking, is sometimes described as counter-cultural. I am curious about the doctor’s experience of our conversation or what they are hearing from me. I often ask medics to […]