Interview with Joan van den Brink

Life Coach Report checks in on one of our coaches this week. A word from our fellow travelers is inspiring, helping us stay current with the ever forward leaning field of Coaching. It's always a good time when we connect to share our stories giving us a great opportunity to grow our energy and camaraderie.

This week we are privileged to visit with Joan van den Brink!

Hi Joan,

What brought you to coaching?

I have enjoyed an eclectic career that has taken many wonderful turns and brought me rich experiences. I graduated with a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Cambridge, UK and knew as I was completing it that I would not traverse the traditional career of a scientist.

I completed a diploma in marketing and started my work life as a Marketing Manager. From there I moved into operations and finally to management consulting. I quickly got into leadership consulting and coaching was a natural evolution of the development work I was doing.

Throughout my life, starting as a university undergraduate, people have turned to me for support and advice, and coaching was a way to formalize this.

Where do you see yourself impacting others in coaching?

I like to work at a deep, psychological level to help individuals discover more about who they are and why they do what they do.

As a leadership development consultant I have been trained in a range of psychological and psychometric tools, including social motives, emotional intelligence, competencies, etc. and get a thrill when the use of these lead to individuals gaining new insights about themselves; those ‘aha’ moments.

In my work I draw from a smorgasbord of approaches to work with clients in their inquiry process. These include highlighting gestures, sounds and body language the client makes, using metaphors and art, utilising the physical space that we are in, asking powerful questions and using silence to allow the client to make sense and meaning of what is going on.

I stay present and focused on the client so that I can attend to what is happening within me, how the client seems, what I notice occurring between us and offer that to the client as a way to explore what it might signify e.g. if I have a visceral response to them, I will share that and ask if it means anything to them.

This inquiry process leads to powerful learning for both the client and myself.

What niche(s) do you thrive in?

I thrive in working with individuals who are either going through a transition, for example they are at a phase in their life where they are not sure which path to take or they have changed some aspect of their life, new job, new country, switch in career etc. or people who want to develop themselves i.e. want to change and grow.

Continue with the rest of our interview >>>