My partner is a counsellor, and today she shared with me the concept of “holding hope” for clients.
Holding hope is to truly believe that things can get better for someone. Sometimes you need to hold hope for your client because they cant hold it for themselves. The hope being that they will be able to hold it for themselves in the future.
I found this a truly beautiful concept and way to look at a supportive relationship.
This idea instantly took me back to coaching relationships I have had with individuals and teams where they have been stuck or lost, and began asking questions like “how?”, or “what?”. Rather than provide what I thought the answers were, I effectively “held hope” and believed in their innate ability to solve problems for themselves, and asked a few clean questions to support them. The results were deeper personal discoveries and actions that they had full agency over, that never would have been possible if I had pontificated my opinions.
Seeing the change in people as the hope and self belief come rushing back to them once they solve a problem for themselves is one of the most rewarding things I have experienced as a coach.
Rather than telling people where to go, we need to hold hope for them so they can discover their own route for themselves.
