WELLBE

Spots are limited, and fee is covered by the Erasmus + Programme of EU, apply now.

“Whether we coach, advise, counsel, facilitate, or mentor, the effectiveness of what we do depends in large measure on our beliefs about human potential. To get the best out of people, we have to believe the best is in there – but how do we know it is, how much is there, and how do we get it out?”

Sir John Whitmore

Are you an adult educator, trainer or facilitator, working with groups and individuals to help them develop a talent or acquire a skill? 

Are you curious how principles from coaching can enrich your work and performance as adult educator? 

Is exploring coaching part of your wish list? 

If you said YES to these 3 questions, “The WellBe Program: coaching for trainers” is what you need.  In a 4-month period, you will enrich your professional journey of an adult educator by adding the flavour of coaching to it.

For whom? 

• Adult educators, working with learners above 18 y.o., based in one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Serbia; 
• Facilitators, Trainers, Educators, Leaders of Training, Learning and Development Departees of organizations, who provide any kind of training or learning in various subjects; 
• Professionals from the learning field who educate or facilitate learning for groups, teams, and individuals; 
• Professionals from the adult education field who are not certified or trained in coaching skills; 

What can you expect by attending our WellBE Training?

• A great learning experience: Intense training program: in two weekends in May 2023: 6 & 7 and 13 &14, online; 
• A valuable peer support and development of your coaching skillset: upon your availability between May and July 2023; 
• Participation in a tailor-made mentoring program to support you in using coaching in your practice as an adult educator:  3 group online meetings between June and September 2023, with a pause in August;
• Training and learning materials: the handbook “Coaching for Trainers”; 
• Additional recourses, tips, and tricks, generously provided by the experienced team of professional trainers. 

What are your benefits if you decide to join us?

• Certificate for attendance of the WellBe training programme and the knowledge and confidence when applying coaching in your training activities in blended learning environments;
• A genuine space for personal development and growth through the guidance of a team of professionals coaches and trainers and the power of the group learning;
• Exchange practice and knowledge with the other attendees in an international environment and create new skills; 
• Becoming part of a vital and talented international community of professional educators, trainers, facilitators, and coaches  
• Full coverage of your participation fee, thanks to the Erasmus + program, which co-funds the WellBe Project. 

Sneak peek into the Handbook, accompanying this learning journey

Preliminary contents the WellBe Training Handbook

Part 1: WELD: Trainer of 21^st Century     

Part 2: EXPLORE: Coaching principles in training

Part 3: LABEL & LINK: Coaching skills for trainers

Part 4: LEVERAGE: Coaching in training

Part 5: BEHOLD & ENABLE: Coaching evaluation

We invite you to register now, deadline for applications: April 10, 2023. 

To register, follow THIS LINK: https://forms.gle/nTFucPMeTb8eJC997

By registering for the training program you commit to a 4-months learning and exploration journey and  we expect you to take it seriously as we do. 

Who is providing this awesome opportunity? 

New Mindset Coaching &Training, Belgium

Svetoslava Stoyanova is representing New Mindset Coaching & Training (NMCT). NMCT is Belgium based organization, with the vision and purpose to accompany for-profit and for-impact organizations as well as individuals in the development of conscious leadership models and mindset.

Our mission is to cultivate mindset of learning, growth, and contribution.

Svetoslava Stoyanova is certified Solutions Focused team coach and ICF (International Coaching Federation) accredited individual coach. She is seasoned professional with 20+ years of experience, entrepreneur and trainer with a robust knowledge and expertise in adult and youth education, fundraising, capacity building, organizational culture and health, burnout prevention, leadership practices and impactful communication. 

Koučing centar, Serbia

Adrijana Milosavljević and Milena Nikolić are representing Koučing centar. Koučing centar is a boutique consultancy that is partnering with organizations to design evidence and science-based, interactive, and customized learning experiences that create mindsets for a thriving workplace. Koučing centar has a mission in the democratization of coaching and spreading the coaching culture in Europe and the world. 

Adrijana Milosavljević is ICF PCC, L&D Expert – she enjoys supporting trainers, coaches, and mentors in developing their skills, and creating a wider impact with their work and societies. 

Milena Nikolić is a psychologist, ICF PCC, and L&D consultant – for the last decade she is training, mentoring, and evaluating future coaches and delivering individual, group, and team coaching. 

Your Ideas Matter, Bulgaria 

Lachezar Afrikanov represents Your Ideas Matter. The organization provides service in training, project design and management, individual and group coaching, and psychological counselling. 

As an academic in the field of education management and pedagogy, Lachezar Afrikanov contributes to development of education programmes and tools, conducting research and evaluation. He is design thinking practitioner, coach, and trainer, dedicated to topics such as leadership and finding personal, professional and organisational meaning.

What first comes to your mind when you hear the words well-being and coaching? Maybe just another buzzword? Reflecting on both of these words could have an important impact on our lives, so – let’s try to demystify them together. 🙂

When you google well-being – you will run into many different explanations, and definitions, but the essence is in the very word – being well, feeling good about ourselves. So when do we feel well? We can say we are in that state when we feel comfortable, energized, socially connected, fulfilled, and what is most important healthy – in a physical and mental way.

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. in Psychology Today emphasizes the importance of building overall well-being by considering 5 major types:

• Emotional Well-Being which implies our ability to manage stress and build resilience, practice relaxation techniques and nurture self-love
• Physical Well-Being considers the ways we take care of our body, by nurturing healthy habits and exercising
• Social Well-Being is our ability to communicate,  develop, and nurture meaningful relationships 
• Workplace Well-Being implies our ability to develop professionally in line with our interests and values
• Societal Well-Being is the ability to actively participate in a thriving community, culture, and environment.

So when we think of all these types we ask ourselves a question – which is the most important to us and how to work on growth in that field?

Although we can see that well-being is a universal challenge nowadays, there is no universal recipe for all of us. We all experience different situations in a variety of ways and have diverse perspectives and not the same activities and techniques make us feel well. So, based on our unique contexts, some of us are going to enjoy meditation, or mindfulness techniques on our own, and for others it is essential to surround ourselves with people who have similar interests, creating a kind of accountability group.   

Also, another question that arises is: how to measure progress and achievement in the field of our well-being? How would we know we improved?

Here is where the word “coaching” from the beginning of our story enters the scene. 

International Coaching Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. If we try to simplify this we can say that coaching could be an opportunity to pause, look inside ourselves, reflect, and become aware of some of our potential and ways to overcome challenges. To understand ourselves better so we can boost our self-confidence. What could be also important, coaching helps us to think of desired outcomes and set goals which are important to us.

Results of BetteruUp research from June 2021.  showed how coaching could be effective in building well-being and mental fitness.  BetterUp Labs followed 391 Members with access to unlimited BetterUp coaching with certified, best-in-class BetterUp coaches over a period of 8 months. 

This research suggests that improvement in well-being is going through three phases:

1) understand our emotions, define goals, and become aware of our capacity
2) improving stress management skills, improve relationships, and resilience
3) refining our sense of purpose and making changes that elevate life satisfaction

Coaching truly helps people move through these phases of well-being improvement by building the skills to adapt, recover, and grow from challenging situations, as well as predict an improvement in life satisfaction, feeling more prosperity and sense of purpose. We can say that increasing our well-being is simple; we somehow know what we should do. But it is not easy because we should create some sustainable habits to achieve it. And in order to do that we should think of:

What is most important to us and how do the changes we want to invite will impact our life?

In the process of coaching, you think about yourself as a person, your values, and beliefs, and decide about the activities you want to practice. It can be mindfulness, breathing technique, building self-compassion, or practicing gratitude through journaling, but what is most important is that it is aligned with your desires and makes sense to you.

Because of all those reasons and important insights, we gathered, our project WellBE is committed to making a difference in the training modules, equipping a group of trainers from different countries with coaching skills, and spreading coaching culture by bringing well-being feelings to trainers but also participants. 

About the author: Adrijana is representing the Serbian partner in the project, Koucing Centar
Connect with her via LinkedIn: 
Adrijana Milosavljević, ICF PCC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrijanamilosavljevic/

We are excited to share the start of the Interview Series under the WellBE project.

We are excited to share with you the start of the Interview Series under the WellBE project and the release of episode 1. As a complimentary resource for our learners, we will meet people from the practice of coaching and training and will invite them to share their tips and tricks of the profession. 

Here we go: launching Episode 1 of the video series, where our colleague Svetoslava Stoyanova is conversing with Joanna Kurylonska MSc, ACC ICF. 

Joanna is an ICF-accredited life coach passionate about combining coaching and photography. She also promotes photography as a tool for personal development and well-being, available for all. 

In the interview our guest shares how coaches and trainers can implement photography in their facilitation work. 

Follow the link to watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/AY2YfdSgAmA

Mind full vs. mindful. We all have been there, right? 

‘Mindful’ is a state of mind we can foster intentionally.

Methods vary to people’s needs, especially when we are under pressure and striving to achieve goals. Recently, a client shared her surprise at how companies still keep within job announcements the well-known “ability to perform well under pressure” line. As Adam Grant nailed it in his book “Think again”, a proper answer to the question of how one deals with pressure and stress, is “an even mix of angry outbursts and shutting down completely”.

WHAT OTHER OPTIONS DO WE HAVE?

No one likes to be under pressure and yet we all are. Whether we’re part of or leading a team, or acting as a solopreneur or startup commanders, the initial response to negative emotions is to suppress them. This a bad idea, which will throw us at the “bottling or brooding” spiral, coined by the psychologist and author of the book “Emotional Agility”, Susan David.

Here’s a brief yet intense exercise, inspired by exploring and understanding more about the scientific process behind different mindfulness practices and especially the popular technique RAIN – a process developed by Michelle McDonald as part of the mindfulness movement, which is characterized by the cultivation of moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment and attention to our feelings without accompanying it with judgment. In other words, to reconnect to ourselves.

TRY BRIDGE

The technique BRIDGE serves very well to people who are more kind of Do-ers than Be-ers and who need to rationalize the role emotional intelligence (EQ) plays for their mental well-being.

Emotional intelligence, otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.

In light of the above said, the BRIDGE technique can help a busy person to observe their thoughts, emotions, and sensations consciously without trying to hide or solve them. 

BRIDGE – MINDFULNESS TECHNIQUE TO CALM THE MIND

You need 6 to 8 minutes for this exercise in an uninterrupted environment. Here is BRIDGE step by step:

B stands for BE. Meet yourself wherever you are, whoever you are, you don’t need to BE anything but you. Here and now. Just the way you are at that moment. Your thoughts, the way you feel about given circumstances, you, authentically.

R is for RECOGNIZE. Recognize your mood now. Maybe you are experiencing an emotion. Allow yourself to do so. Maybe you are a little bored. Or you are anxious about a deadline and feel guilty for investing time in this exercise… Or perhaps you are calm and still. Recognize the emotion as it is even if you aren’t able to give it a name. It is fine.

I is for INQUIRY. Move your attention from how you feel to where in your body it reflects. Do you feel physical sensations in a particular part of the body? How does it feel? Sense and observe with curiosity.

D is for DEVELOP. Develop your awareness of the situation, your feelings, and your sensations. Through the mindful technique of labeling, you can learn what you are dealing with. Sadness, worry, joy, happiness, or even hunger… they can all be named. You may experience a few emotions at once. Start by separating them and giving each a label. Stay with this labeling for a while. Let it sink in.

G in bridge stands for GAIN. I invite you now to gain further clarity. What is the message for you from your body and mind here? What is behind this sensation? Pause for a while and give it time to say what it has to say to you.

And finally, E is for EMBRACE. Whatever the reason is for you to feel that way, embrace it, and show yourself kindness. It is a part of you for a reason and is here to support you, to accompany you in your humanly fragile and flawless way forward. 

This is BRIDGE, an easy exercise to bring you to a mindful state for a few minutes. The most important part of mindfulness is to recognize that it is a training of the mind, and like any exercise – in the gym or outdoors, prepare yourself to run a marathon, it will take some time before you see the benefits.