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 8am -9am	Program choice 2 times 12pm -1pm	Program choice 3 times 9am - 10am
Tuesday 1 February 2022 Tuesday 15 February 2022 Tuesday 1 March 2022 Tuesday 15 March 2022 Tuesday 29 March 2022 Tuesday 12 April 2022 Tuesday 26 April 2022	Tuesday 5 April 2022 Tuesday 26 April 2022 Tuesday 10 May 2022 Tuesday 24 May 2022 Tuesday 7 June 2022 Tuesday 21 June 2022 Tuesday 5 July 2022	Thursday 9 June 2022 Thursday 16 June 2022 Thursday 23 June 2022 Thursday 30 June 2022 Thursday 7 July 2022 Thursday 14 July 2022 Thursday 21 July 2022

Program choice 4 times 8am -9am	Program choice 5 times 10.30am -11.30am
Wednesday 27 July 2022 Wednesday 3 Aug 2022 Wednesday 10 Aug 2022 Wednesday 17 Aug 2022 Wednesday 24 Aug 2022 Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 Wednesday 7 Sept 2022	Wednesday 19 Oct 2022 Wednesday 26 Oct 2022 Wednesday 2 Nov 2022 Wednesday 9 Nov 2022 Wednesday 16 Nov 2022 Wednesday 23 Nov 2022 Wednesday 30 Nov 2022

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.