Coaching is a highly effective approach that empowers people to discover their best way forward. It is not therapy but having an unbiased non judgemental qualified person who supports and guides you through life decisions and stages. 

This information is designed to answer some frequently asked questions and provide a better understanding of our coaching process and our Coaching Program.  We hope that it helps you determine whether our Coaching Program might be right for you and whether you wish to proceed to the next step. 

Aspergers Victoria (AV) has codesigned this Program with our autistics and their supporters through a pilot to empower our community without using a deficit based approach, especially through such periods of career uncertainty, job disruption, stress and transition triggered by COVID and to manage life post diagnosis. 

In line with our values, our coaches have lived experience of neurodiversity and have some training to support you. To contribute additional support with COVID-19 impacts, our AV coach team want to offer several coaching sessions to our Aspergers autistic adult (20years+) AV members. To be involved we will need your honest feedback at several stages about how you think we should  improve our Program.

OVERVIEW

What is Coaching?  

Coaching is essentially a collaborative relationship with your coach to help you move forward towards your life vision. It can empower you forward so you change and improve your life. Coaching focuses on helping you as coachee to identify your own vision and goals, reveal your strengths and areas for development and identify your own solutions for moving yourself forwards

In AV’s Coaching, our Coaching Program goals are primarily focused on: 

• providing you a non-judgemental time where we listen and help you explore, reflect and make decisions;
• exploring your vision and work pathways, finding what it is you want “to do”;
  
• getting you “work ready” – from preparing a CV to practicing your interview skills, undertaking strengths and other assessment testss or personality  tests;
  
• improving your work performance in a job you have or working to achieve that promotion;
  
• Some clients also set secondary goals which may not be directly focused on obtaining or maintaining employment but are broadly supportive of these goals. We find that success in these other areas can often support clients in the (pursuit of) their working life too.     
• We encourage you to read the https://www.icfcoachingworks.com as a way of more fully understanding what coaching is about and how to get the most out of it.

Why do Coaching?

Coaching is a valuable self-development tool that has been proven to achieve  terrific results, especially for Aspergers! Coaches can help you clarify your goals and identify obstacles and strengths in order to create your action plan towards your desired future.

Some reasons to consider seeking coaching include:

• Become more self reliant;

• Help to identify your solutions;

• Coaching allows you to achieve more than on your own;

• Coaching helps carve out time to focus on your goals;

• It builds your self awareness and understanding;

• It improves your decision making, planning and problem solving;

• Reduce your isolation: your coach is your independent supporter to listen and understand;

AV’s coaching is centred on respecting each individual with a strengths based approach. As mentioned above, our coaches also have lived experience of neurodiversity and have been involved in our AV community. 

How is Coaching different to seeing a psychologist?

It is very important to understand that coaching is not psychological treatment or therapy  and does not substitute for them. It does not prevent, cure, or treat any illness or disability, mental or otherwise. Our coaches are not qualified in mental health therapies.

Coaching is simply a facilitated process where a Coach is a facilitator supporting you to discover more about your life and together you plan your goals. Importantly, we are not there to advise you or tell you what to do. It is “forward facing” and does not delve into “your past” or try to treat your “issues” in any way. Here is a more detailed outline of the differences. 

If you’re ready and sufficiently mentally healthy, a coach can help you with your strategy, guiding you to find your best path.If you proceed to undertake coaching and identify that you have mental health issues that you need support with at any stage, you must advise us, and ideally seek support from your treating Medical Practitioner. You need a baseline level of good health before you can make the climb to your goals successfully. Your Coach will discuss with you, and if you approve, your chosen professional, whether to pause or defer your coaching program.

What are my responsibilities as Coachee?

We ask our Coachees to communicate honestly, be open to feedback and assistance, and create the time and energy to fully participate in your Coaching program. It is to build your success. In the Coaching relationship, the Coach is your facilitator of change, and success depends on building trust between you - however it is your responsibility to turn up on time, take actions and bring about your change. For coaching success it is best to contribute your true self in sessions - our sessions are confidential (see our Coaching Agreement). Coaching is a classic case of ‘what you put in is what you get out’. 

How would we work together?

If you would like to apply to join our Coaching Program, please follow the steps below:

1. complete our Job Coaching Program - Participant Application as soon as possible. 
2. following completion of our Application Form, we will check our availability for you to participate in a Discovery Session for you to meet one of our coaches and for you both to assess if coaching could suit you. 
3. if we have a session slot available for you, we will contact you to organise a Discovery Session with one of our coaches. 
4. during the Discovery Session, you will have 30 minutes with an allocated coach to chat about your coaching needs and discuss any questions you may have about our coaching or our Coaching Agreement, a copy of which is available from our team. You can also see if you like your Coach’s style.
5. after the session, you then let us know if you wish to proceed and we confirm if coaching will be suitable for you, and whether we have a Coaching place available (over the Program’s 2 month period). If we agree to go ahead then you provide a signed copy of our Coaching Agreement and you Celebrate that you have taken this positive action in your development!
6. after that, in your first session, our Coach will support you to set a primary goal for your coaching and consider supportive, secondary goals. Then session by session, we work on a series of actions and exercises for you to take, that will chart a course towards your goal(s).You can purchase 3 sessions packages to be used within the 3 month period. This process is all driven by you and each step is up to you. Each session will last around 45 minutes.  There will be 3 sessions in total, following your Discovery Session. 
7. each session you will develop and leave with a list of actions to complete and report back to the coach on your progress at the start of the following session or, if agreed, prior to the next session.

Our sessions are usually held fortnightly, usually by Zoom at a time agreed  with your allocated AV Coach.  A calendar invitation will be sent to you in advance of each session, which will include a link to click on to join a Zoom teleconference.  We can use Skype if that suits better or phone.  Should you need to cancel a session you will need to notify your Coach by email, at least 48 hours in advance of the scheduled session.  Unfortunately, we are unable to offer a “make up” session. If you cancel more than twice you will lose your Program placement. 

If you already have any Career assessments, Values or Strengths or personality assessments, please either email them in or bring them with you. It may be that we decide with you that you could do some further assessments so you get a clearer picture of your best career approach. 

Please note that by applying you agree to provide feedback throughout the Program to help us improve our approach. At the end of our coaching program with you, or along the way, we will ask you to complete a few questions with our coaches about your feedback on our program, as well as an anonymous online feedback survey.  Our measurement of outcomes of our Coaching outcomes is essential for us to build an evidence-based coaching approach. 

Other Support

Our coaches are available to you by email, however their response emails are limited to a single email between the sessions.

Fees

We are asking for a contribution of $450 with all the details outlined on the application form. 

Coaching Agreement

To formalize your coaching services and relationship between you and AV, our AV Coaching Agreement must be signed before you are accepted onto this Program.  This document contains our standard terms and conditions of service which include the terms in this welcome letter (so that together they form part of our agreement). There is an opportunity to review this agreement on our website and in our Discovery Session.  

Who would my Coach be?  What if I don’t like them? What if I don’t want to discuss/do something?

AV will match a coach to you, based on information that you provide to us as part of the Application process.  During the Discovery Session with your Coach, you can both assess if you are a good “fit” for each other.   It is very important that you feel comfortable with your Coach, and it is understood that not everyone will be a suitable match to their allocated initial Coach.  If you do not feel that the Coach matched to you at first instance is “right” for you, please email our Employment Projects Manager.  Likewise, if at any stage in the coaching process, you are unhappy or uncomfortable with the coaching, please notify us at the above email address, and we will work to resolve your concerns.

Also, if at any point in a coaching session you decide you do not wish to discuss any matter, please say this by simply stating that you would rather not discuss this issue.  Our coaches will respect this boundary and will not attempt to forward the conversation further along those lines.   You will not be asked to commit to actions or exercises that you don’t wish to do – you are in charge of your coaching journey and you will ultimately decide what actions and exercises you wish to take in pursuit of your goals. 

Will our sessions be kept private?

While you may feel free to discuss your matters raised by our coaching with anyone you deem appropriate, please know that our Coaches will not disclose anything regarding your coaching with anyone else, except in limited and tightly prescribed legal circumstances, as set forth in the AV Privacy Policy and further described in you Coaching Agreement..

You should know that AV is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information (including health information and other sensitive information) that it collects and uses.  AV’s Privacy Policy sets out how a Client’s personal information is collected, used and protected. By providing your personal information to AV for the purposes of our Coaching, you consent to AV’s collection, use and disclosure of that information in accordance with AV’s Privacy Policy, as updated from time to time, and available on its website.  Please ensure that you regularly update your membership information in the AV website. 

It is important to know that an AV coach may disclose the broad details of your sessions, and how best to support you, with the other coaches at AV.  In fact, our regular meetings are held for this purpose, to ensure that our coaches deliver the best possible coaching services to our coachees. Full details on the exceptional circumstances when confidentiality does not apply, are described in your Coaching Agreement, discussed further below.  You should also know that your Coach is otherwise bound to maintain confidentiality (except in the limited circumstances referred to above) and that each agrees to be bound by the Code of Ethics and standards of behaviour. Some of our coaches need to report their coaching hours to maintain their ICF registration and may need your written confirmation to the International Coaching Federation (ICF) of these hours, not any session content. 

Finally, you should know that your personal and sensitive information is otherwise collected, stored, used and disclosed by Aspergers Victoria, in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be found on our website (link below).

What are the next steps if I would like to access Job Coaching?

If you think that you would like to proceed with AV coaching, please complete the Coaching Program - Participant Application or email our Employment Projects Manager.

We hope this outline has clarified your key queries about our coaching program. We will only have limited places available for this offer, so completion of this form does not assure you of a place in our program but notifies us of your interest. 

We look forward to supporting you if not in coaching, through your AV Membership.