Strengths-Based

Coaching for Depression

by John Nolan
11th May 2025

This report has examined coaching for depression, drawing on principles and techniques found in various therapeutic modalities. Coaching-informed approaches differ from traditional therapy by focusing on solutions and positive emotions rather than problems, viewing the client as the expert rather than the therapist, and emphasising possibilities over impossibilities. Potential advantages include building confidence, fostering hope, and promoting action-oriented strategies. For clients, coaching can be preferable due to feeling more understood, empowered, and less blamed. Practitioners may benefit from a more collaborative role and the fulfillment of helping clients achieve lasting positive change. A critical element in coaching for depression is the constant monitoring of progress, often done through scaling questions, tracking goal achievement, and regular check-ins to identify what is better. Key techniques include using positive focus, finding exceptions, externalising problems, challenging negative thoughts, setting SMART goals, and promoting behavioral activation.

Depression coach: a rapid alternative to conventional therapy to overcome depression.

by John Nolan
24th March 2025

A Depression coach offers a solution-focused and action-oriented approach to help individuals regain their lives from depression. By focusing on strengths, setting goals, and encouraging positive changes, coaching empowers clients to move towards a preferred future. This approach can be advantageous over traditional methods by its emphasis on solutions and client-led progress, rather than extensive analysis of the past. A Depression coach might utilise Havening therapy to address underlying trauma, recognising that unresolved traumatic experiences can significantly contribute to depression. Havening aims to reduce the emotional impact of traumatic memories, thereby freeing up clients to focus on recovery and build a more fulfilling life.

An Exploration of Havening Techniques for Anxiety12th May 2025
Havening Techniques for anxiety are a psychosensory treatment using touch to generate delta waves in the brain, which is understood to depotentiate distress encoded in the amygdala. Practitioners guide clients through Havening Touch or Self-Havening, working with issues like panic attacks, phobias, stress, and trauma. A key benefit is the ability to work content-free, meaning clients do not need to verbally disclose details of distressing events. Havening acts as a valuable addition to existing therapeutic toolkits, potentially enhancing the effectiveness of other modalities. It is seen as surpassing traditional anxiety treatments in its described speed, efficacy, and gentleness, allowing clients to process difficult experiences without re-traumatisation. The real-time results and focus on underlying neurological processes are highlighted as particular strengths. While still gaining wider recognition, practitioners find it transforms their practise and provides a powerful self-care tool.
Coaching for Depression11th May 2025
This report has examined coaching for depression, drawing on principles and techniques found in various therapeutic modalities. Coaching-informed approaches differ from traditional therapy by focusing on solutions and positive emotions rather than problems, viewing the client as the expert rather than the therapist, and emphasising possibilities over impossibilities. Potential advantages include building confidence, fostering hope, and promoting action-oriented strategies. For clients, coaching can be preferable due to feeling more understood, empowered, and less blamed. Practitioners may benefit from a more collaborative role and the fulfillment of helping clients achieve lasting positive change. A critical element in coaching for depression is the constant monitoring of progress, often done through scaling questions, tracking goal achievement, and regular check-ins to identify what is better. Key techniques include using positive focus, finding exceptions, externalising problems, challenging negative thoughts, setting SMART goals, and promoting behavioral activation.
Comparing Havening Techniques and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Mental Wellbeing9th May 2025
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and its variants like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are established psychological approaches that address anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma by focusing on changing thoughts, behaviours, and responses to internal states. CBT often involves techniques like exposure therapy and thought records, aiming to modify reactions that interfere with life goals. While self-help resources exist for CBT, professional guidance is recommended for complex issues and challenging techniques.Havening Techniques are a newer psychosensory modality that targets the neurobiological encoding of distress, particularly in the amygdala. It involves gentle touch (self-applied or by a practitioner) and aims to depotentiate traumatic memories and reduce stress quickly and effectively. Havening can be used content-free and integrates well with other therapies. It is effective for anxiety, stress, and trauma, helping to provide a sense of safety and facilitating shifts in perception. Self-Havening is a valuable tool for self-care, stress reduction, and building resilience, but professionals are necessary for treating significant or complex trauma. Both approaches offer distinct pathways to support mental wellbeing, with professional guidance being crucial for more severe or complex challenges.
Navigating Panic Attack Help8th May 2025
Help for panic attacks involves understanding their nature as temporary, non-dangerous physical reactions. Professional guidance can be beneficial, especially after ruling out physical causes. Self-help strategies include facing feared situations or symptoms directly without avoidance, employing specific breathing techniques for calm (though not as a way to stop an attack), actively challenging unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, shifting focus away from internal sensations and catastrophic thinking, cultivating acceptance and self-compassion, adopting healthy lifestyle habits like avoiding stimulants and practising relaxation, and using tools like journaling or worksheets to track experiences and identify patterns. The core is often learning not to react with fear or avoidance to the sensations and thoughts associated with panic.
Coaching for Overwhelm7th May 2025
Coaching for overwhelm supports individuals experiencing distress due to excessive demands, information, or pressure. It shifts the focus from the problem's origins to building effective solutions and helps clients understand how their responses contribute to their overwhelmed state. Key strategies involve increasing self-awareness, embracing acceptance and mindfulness of internal experiences, using specific techniques to manage thoughts and emotions, taking intentional action aligned with values, setting boundaries, and learning to confront challenges and difficult emotions directly. The aim is to cultivate more flexible and effective responses, enabling individuals to live with less stress and greater fulfillment.