Even if you’ve been for coaching before, each coach tends to work slightly differently, so here’s how it works when you come to see me:

1. We’ll set up a free, 30-minute discovery call where you can ask questions about how I work, what to expect – anything, really. This is when you’ll decide whether or not you want to work with me – it’s important that we connect so that you get the most out of the process. If you’re happy to continue, you’ll tell me whether you want to book one session at a time, or buy a package, and we’ll sort out all of those arrangements, and set up your first session.

2. I will invoice you, and payment must be received before the start of each session.

3. You will show up! It sounds obvious, but it’s normal to feel nervous enough to want to cancel before we’ve even begun, especially if you’ve never gone through coaching before. I’d rather you show up and tell me you don’t feel like you’re in the right mindset, or that you aren’t sure whatever’s bothering you is something to bring to coaching. Usually we’ll start right there. So just show up.

4. If you can, identify what you want to discuss. Remember, this is your time, and you set the agenda. Some helpful questions to ask yourself are:

• Where in my life do I feel stuck?
• What challenge do I think about often that needs to be solved?
• What do I need to do?
• What are my major concerns?
• What patterns would I like to change?
• What are the goals I need help reaching?

5. Bring along your vulnerabilities and insecurities! This is a safe space, and I will not be judging you. Again, this is your time, your space – my job is simply to help you to find the answers you need to whatever is bugging you, and help you unblock yourself. But it requires that you come as you are, that you say what you mean, and that you are willing to explore – even just momentarily — what might happen if you remove some of the barriers you have put up for yourself. So be completely honest.

6. Commit to doing the tasks we set together – and then at least attempt what you’ve promised you will do before the next session. Change is not just an internal job – it requires you to do things differently to, and we’ll be experimenting with some of those actions in small, doable ways so you can try them out.

7. Give feedback – say if something doesn’t work for you and we’ll adjust it together. Say if a session wasn’t valuable for you, and why, so that I can try different strategies that will work better for you.

My coaching methodology

I have been trained according to Martha Beck’s Wayfinder Life Coach Training, but I season it with a hefty dose of life experience and practicality – I believe firmly that one has to translate decisions into action if you want to see change.

Having said that, I don’t believe you have to make massive changes. I love Martha’s “turtle steps” approach – which you can expect to hear from me often – which is where you take teeny-tiny practical steps that will give you the confidence you need, over time, to take the bigger steps. Turtle steps are a simple tool, but they reap magical results, so I always try to ensure that any actions you decide to take are small enough so that they feel easy. Change is hard enough!

You can also expect me to ask a lot of questions – the bad news is that I won’t be the one solving your problems. That’s up to you. My role is to ask you questions that will help you to identify thinking patterns that are holding you back, and help you to figure out how you can dismantle them. So they’re not questions born out of curiosity, they are designed to make you consider your thoughts, your assumptions and your habits, and figure out which ones are serving you (keep those) and which ones are holding you back (we’ll dump those).

Don’t expect a very structured approach, however. I tend to rely on my intuition to ask the questions, and your answers determine where we go from there. Sometimes we end up in surprising places, but they are usually the right ones!

Towards the end of the session we’ll check in with what you want to achieve before our next session, you will commit to those actions, and we’ll set up your next appointment.

“You don’t have an exercise problem, you have a ‘listen to your damn alarm’ problem.”

Through open-form conversation (the sessions feel structured, yet open-ended) Mandy Collins equips you with a new lens through which to view your behaviour and thought patterns, and then arms you with practical advice you need to start forming (and maintaining) better habits.

I had six sessions with Mandy over two months, and with her help I was able to:

• Resume my pilot training, after procrastinating for over a year, through restructuring my day to free up time for practice.
• Prioritise my day-to-day work tasks by asking myself whether to “bag it, barter it or better it”.
• Pick up yoga semi-regularly, by using habit triggers. (“Just put the mat next to your bed, so it’s the first thing you see when you wake up. Sometimes you just need an obvious reminder.”)
• Learn how to handle conflict using the “child-parent-adult” framework.
• Rethink the way I communicate with my business partners and colleagues, and turn meetings from endless “mind dumps” to productive, concise sessions that just get things done. 

The sessions are essential for anyone trying to get through a rut or to unlock their potential – not in the wishy-washy, “manifesting good vibes” way, but in the practical, hard-hitting, “this is what you need to do to get it done” way that only a stern, no-nonsense journalist with your best interests at heart can deliver.

– Njabulo Mthombeni