Developing a Reflective Coaching Practice

Developing a reflective coaching practice is one of the best ways to stay grounded, keep growing, and deliver your best to your clients. Reflection isn't just about looking back on a session; it's about deepening your understanding of your own approach, learning from each interaction, and really listening to what’s going on inside you as a coach. Stepping back to reflect on your practice might seem like a luxury when your diary is busy, but it’s crucial for staying clear-headed, connected, and effective in your coaching.

I wanted to share these thoughts as a fellow coach, as well as a coach supervisor. I've found making time to think about my sessions and what's going on, to be on a really vital practice.

In this article, we’ll go through why it’s worth making time for reflection outside your client sessions, suggest some easy ways to work reflection into your routine, and talk a bit about how supervision can support your journey. Supervision, after all, isn’t just for new coaches; it’s a powerful resource for anyone who wants to reflect more deeply and get outside perspective on their work.

Why Reflecting on Your Coaching Sessions Is Important

Let’s start with why reflection matters. But you know, right? Every coach training programme we've been on is likely to have emphasised taking client notes, reflecting on the coaching we're doing, noticing things we might have missed. 

In principle, I think that we'd all agree this is a good thing to do. But sometimes time is against us. So much to do. So it can slip, and we don't spend the time we intended to. Are we being pragmatic, or leaving some valuable learning (for us and also potentially the client) on the table?

Here's my case for this being a worthwhile thing to do. Coaching is a very personal process, both for you and your clients. When you take the time to reflect, you’re giving yourself the chance to gain insights about what’s working, what’s not, and how you’re responding to the unique dynamics of each client relationship. This helps you build awareness and, importantly, avoid slipping into autopilot mode where each session starts to blend into the next.

Here’s how regular reflection can support you as a coach:

1. Builds Self-Awareness: Reflection lets you tune into what’s happening inside you—your reactions, your feelings, your assumptions. This awareness is a foundation of good coaching because the more you know yourself, the less likely you are to let your personal beliefs colour your approach or get in the way of what’s best for the client. One of my coach trainers, the lovely Lois Burton, said we can only help our clients go as deep as we are prepared to go ourselves. So we have to do the work on building our own self awareness.
2. Improves Your Coaching Skills: As you reflect, you can spot areas to improve. Maybe you realise you’re using the same types of questions in every session, or that certain client situations make you feel uncomfortable. Reflection gives you the chance to adjust and grow.
3. Helps Prevent Burnout: Coaching, especially if you’re working with a diary full of clients, can be demanding. Reflection can be like a mini-reset, a way to acknowledge any challenges or hard feelings that came up so you don’t carry them into your next session.

Simple Ways to Build Reflection into Your Coaching Practice

The great thing about reflection is that it doesn’t have to take loads of time. Just a few minutes after each session can work wonders. Here are some easy techniques to help you build a regular practice:

Journalling

After each session, take a few moments to jot down anything that stands out—insights, emotions, questions, or challenges. It doesn’t need to be a long entry. Start by asking yourself things like:

• What felt good about the session?
• Was there anything that seemed off or challenging?
• How did I feel, and did that impact my approach?
• Why did I make the interventions I did?

Regularly looking back over these entries will help you notice any recurring themes, which can give you valuable insight into your coaching style and areas where you might want to change things up.

Seeking Client Feedback

If it feels right, ask clients to share any thoughts about your sessions together. This feedback can be a goldmine for reflection, showing you how your style is being received and what clients find helpful (or not). Even casual feedback, if you take it on board thoughtfully, can help shape the way you coach.

Mindful Observation

Practising mindfulness—paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations—can sharpen your awareness of how you respond in real time. Over time, this self-observation can help you catch moments in a session when you’re too focused on a particular line of questioning or perhaps struggling to stay fully present.

Talking with Peers

Chatting with fellow coaches can be a refreshing way to gain perspective. They can offer new ways to think about client challenges or simply share how they manage similar situations. A regular coffee chat or an online check-in can be enough to create interesting opportunities for reflection and learning.

Coaching Supervision

Supervision is an incredible space for reflecting with a professional who is trained to support you in this way. Your supervisor acts as a sounding board, helping you explore difficult situations, process challenging emotions, and dig deeper into what’s going on in your coaching. Plus, they can help spot patterns or blind spots you might not catch on your own. It’s often in these sessions that coaches have some of their biggest “aha” moments about their practice.

Reflecting in depth with Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

A popular model that some coaches find helpful for reflection is Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. Developed by psychologist Graham Gibbs, it’s a step-by-step approach that makes it easy to think through an experience in a structured way. Coaches can find Gibbs’ model helpful because it guides you through each part of the reflection process, helping you dig a little deeper and come away with clear insights on what went well, what could improve, and what you’ll do differently next time. It's not something you may choose to use every time you want to reflect on a client session, but it can be helpful when there's something you want to go bit deeper on.

The cycle has six stages: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, and Action Plan. You start with the Description stage, where you just recall the facts of what happened without judgement. In the Feelings stage, you look at your emotional responses—what you felt, and how that might have shaped the session. As you move through Evaluation and Analysis, you consider what went well and what didn’t, and try to unpack why things happened the way they did. By the time you reach the Conclusion and Action Plan stages, you’re ready to pinpoint what you’d like to do differently and set some next steps.

What’s helpful about Gibbs’ model is how thorough it is. It doesn’t just stop at what happened; it helps you really explore your reactions, dig into the “why” behind them, and come up with a clear way forward. This makes it easier to spot patterns in your coaching, understand your responses, and fine-tune your approach. Using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle, you can turn each session into a learning opportunity, building confidence and skills that you can carry into future sessions. 

Bringing the Right Topics to Supervision

Supervision sessions are a chance to bring those stickier issues that are hard to work through on your own. Here are a few types of topics that many coaches find useful to bring up in supervision:

Difficult Client Dynamics: If you’re struggling to connect with a client or finding it tough to maintain clear boundaries, supervision is a safe place to explore those dynamics. You and your supervisor can talk through the situation, brainstorm strategies, and reflect on what might be going on beneath the surface.

Ethical Dilemmas: From confidentiality concerns to boundary issues, ethical questions sometimes pop up unexpectedly. A supervisor can help you work through these situations, ensuring that you’re staying true to both your values and professional standards.

Personal Biases or Triggers: Supervision offers a supportive space to explore biases or triggers that might be affecting your coaching. This isn’t about judgement; it’s about helping you see where you may have blind spots and finding ways to prevent them from impacting your work.

Self-Doubt or Imposter Syndrome: If you’re ever feeling like you’re not “good enough” or questioning your competence, supervision is a great place to unpack those feelings. A supervisor can remind you of your strengths, offer constructive feedback, and help you feel more grounded and confident.

Making Reflection a Regular Part of Your Practice

Incorporating reflection into your routine doesn’t need to be a big undertaking. Start with something manageable, like a five-minute journal entry after each session, or make a weekly habit of looking back over your notes. Consistency is what makes reflection valuable over time; it builds awareness and helps you adjust your approach as you grow.

And remember, reflection doesn’t have to be something you do all alone. While personal reflection has its place, sharing your reflections with others—especially in supervision—can take your insights to another level. Supervision allows you to deepen your reflective practice with the guidance of a trained professional, someone who can ask questions and offer observations that you might not come to on your own.