ABSTRACT
The first goal is creating a working alliance between the coach and client, based on a relationship between two people who have mutually agreed to a basic notion of trust and sympathy. The opening hour(s) of the coaching relationship facilitate the development of a first impression of the client’s major concerns and issues. The attention to detail in observing the client, countertransference and transference will contribute to a first draft or a first hypothesis of what is really going on in the client’s inner-world, and also in the organisation’s inner-world. Structure can help the client to tune in to a new coaching situation. A highly structured approach may commence by looking at organisational feedback the client brings to the coaching session. A very different, insightful approach is to let the client express the problem, the question, the situation in the organisation or the life stage by painting or drawing it.
