Visual Feeling Dump
Don’t Google this technique - I made it up! Quite often in a coaching conversation, I’ll ask the coachee what’s going on in their head or heart right now. I then translate their thoughts and emotions onto a piece of paper using a mix of visuals and text.
Here’s how a visual coaching conversation could play out.
Coach: Can you describe what you’re feeling right now? Coachee: I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am out of options. I have nowhere to move.
Coach visualises the feeling:
Coach: What’s in that rock? Why is it so hard to move?
Coach: What caused you to land in this hard place?
Eventually, a full picture is created that helps the coachee find answers (or a plan) and a path forward, using questions like these:
- What haven’t we tried yet?
- How can you stop the same thing from happening again?
- What’s one thing you can do right now with little effort?
- What support do you need?
I once had a coachee tell me that just seeing their thoughts on paper helped them process them better. They started to make connections between their thoughts and began to see their own way forward.
Through recent volunteer work as an Action for Happiness facilitator, I met a professional coach, Cheryl. Cheryl would tell her clients that she truly believed they had the answers within them. I genuinely believe everyone does too. Sometimes they are just harder to find, so you need to give your coachee every chance of winning - by visualising their thoughts, comments, emotions, and feelings. The answers become so much clearer.
This is an excerpt from The Visual Coach Handbook. Grab your copy for more visual facilitation inspiration!