# How to Coach the Topics Clients Bring

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-coaching-crowd-podcast-with-jo-wheatley-zoe-hawkins-4482084/how-to-coach-the-topics-clients-bring
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-coaching-crowd-podcast-with-jo-wheatley-zoe-hawkins-4482084/how-to-coach-the-topics-clients-bring.md
Podcast: [The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-coaching-crowd-podcast-with-jo-wheatley-zoe-hawkins-4482084)
Published: 2026-01-26T06:45:00+00:00
Episode link: https://coachingcrowd2021.libsyn.com/how-to-coach-the-topics-clients-bring
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/coachingcrowd2021/How_to_Coach_the_Topics_Clients_Bring.mp3?dest-id=3129767
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-coaching-crowd-podcast-with-jo-wheatley-zoe-hawkins-4482084/episodes/how-to-coach-the-topics-clients-bring
Duration seconds: 1000

## Resource

What happens when a client walks into a session with an issue you did not prepare for, and you have to trust your presence rather than your plan? In this episode of the Podcast, we to explore one of the most real and sometimes unsettling parts of being a coach: not knowing what a client is going to bring, yet being fully responsible for creating a space that can hold it. We reflected on how often coaches ask questions like, how do I coach confidence, fear, conflict, burnout, overwhelm, or decision making. Beneath those questions is usually something deeper. A desire to feel competent. A wish to feel resourced. A fear of being caught out when a client arrives with something emotionally charged, complex, or unfamiliar. What struck us during the conversation is how much of coaching is about unlearning the need for control. In most areas of life, we walk into conversations with a sense of the agenda. Coaching is different. The agenda emerges. The topic may be named, but the real work often sits underneath in emotion, belief, identity, or uncertainty. We talked about how coach training gives us core skills that apply to any topic, yet many coaches still crave practical anchors. Questions, frames, observations, and ways of working that help them feel steady when a client says, I feel overwhelmed, I am stuck in fear, I cannot decide, or I have lost confidence. That is where topic based learning and community become powerful, not as scripts to follow, but as ways to deepen awareness and broaden choice. We shared how, as coaches, we can sometimes narrow in too quickly on the words a client uses, or unconsciously overlay our own relationship with that topic. When a client brings fear, uncertainty, or burnout, it can trigger our own stories and associations. Building familiarity…

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## Transcript

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