Coaching in therapy

Is this course suitable for you? 

This course is available 

• for allied health clinicians (Cerebral Palsy Alliance employees only)

Why choose this course? 

A coaching framework is increasingly being applied within our service delivery at Cerebral Palsy Alliance. Coaching involves relationship directed, and client/family centred intervention. It includes actions during which the allied health practitioner supports a client or a family in the process of decision-making on functional activity and participation in daily life, with the aim of client / parent empowerment and optimising child development. Implementing a coaching framework is an essential feature of many interventions we provide in our service delivery. 

Coaching is now considered essential to reach beneficial outcomes for the clients that we work with.

What content does the program cover? 

This coaching training is designed to help clinicians understand, use and reflect on their use of coaching strategies in therapy sessions and other interactions with clients and their families. There are a range of learning activities including videos, readings and opportunities for reflection on the use of coaching strategies in your own practice. Even more so than many other approaches used in therapy, using coaching requires practice and reflection over a long time to develop, refine and maintain this skill. 
Learning activities include:

• introduction to coaching
• joint planning
• observation
• action / practice
• reflection
• feedback
• becoming a more effective coach

A coaching workbook is used throughout this training to record learning activities and reflections during the learning process. Returning to the activities in this workbook and engaging in ongoing reflection of your coaching skills in clinical supervision will help you as you incorporate a coaching style into your interactions with clients.

Trainers

Several members of the Clinical Governance team facilitate the coaching training sessions.

What is the cost?

No cost for CPA staff

How long is the course?

The coaching training is offered as a blended learning experience. This includes:

• 7 × 1 hour sessions scheduled over a four month period (Teams meetings – virtual learning)
• completing learning activities between sessions using the coaching in therapy workbook (independent learning)
• practising coaching within therapy sessions (independent learning)

The coaching sessions will be in groups of a minimum of 4 and maximum of 7 participants.
The total estimated time over a four-month period is approximately 14 hours. This would need to be scheduled in your Calendar as one hour a week over this four month time period. 
Full attendance at every session is the expectation to allow successful implementation of the coaching model in practice.

To register you must choose from one of the three coaching program schedules shown below.

Program choice 1 times 9am -10am	Program choice 2 times 9am -10am	Program choice 3 times 8.45am - 9.45am
Wednesday 27 Jan 2021   Wednesday 3 Feb 2021 Wednesday 17 Feb 2021 Wednesday 3 March 2021 Wednesday 17 March 2021 Wednesday 31 March 2021 Wednesday 14 April 2021	Thursday 4 March 2021 Thursday 18 March 2021 Thursday 1 April 2021 Thursday 15 April 2021 Thursday 29 April 2021 Thursday 13 May 2021 Thursday 27 May 2021	Monday 19 April 2021 Monday 3 May 2021 Monday 17 May 2021 Monday 31 May 2021 Monday 28 June 2021 Monday 12 July 2021 Monday 26 July 2021

 What are the pre-requisites for this course?

• 6 – 12 months of clinical experience working with a range of clients and their families 
• Experience with joint goal setting
• Completion of advanced communication training (online)
• Capacity to commit to 14 hours of training over a 4 month period (1 hour per week) 
• Willingness to actively engage in all group activities and reflect on own practice to make some necessary changes 

There are a set of attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary for successful implementation of coaching in therapy. Some of these are listed in the table below:

Attitudes /beliefs	Knowledge	Skills
Respect families values, routines, and cultural background Acknowledge a client/family’s knowledge, strengths, resources, and needs Belief in families capacity Acknowledge the client/family leading role in the intervention Focus on meaningful goals Be open and willing to change your own behaviours, habits, and attitudes	Client and family centred practice Theory of adult learning Definition of coaching and coaching strategies Joint goal setting Relationship directed collaboration Enabling and engaging strategies	To apply client and family centred practice To apply adult learning strategies To communicate openly To observe and share observations with client and family members To listen actively To provide suggestions (not instructions) To ask open-ended and reflective questions To provide reflective feedback To reflect on own behaviour, attitudes, beliefs and habits

 

Where can I get more information?

It is recommended that you speak with your clinical advisor before commencing the coaching in therapy training. Understanding the prerequisites of the course is essential to get the most out of this training.