We spoke to our fantastic coach Eli Anderson about his rich experience in coaching young people in prison with Spark Inside, one year after he first delivered our Hero’s Journey programme!
Tell me a little bit about your coaching background
I’ve been a coach for almost thirty years; I do narrative coaching, which is about enabling people to find a space which is safe and secure that they can talk about their story and talk about everything that means something to them. And it is from that story that they will extrapolate what they want to do, their skills, where they want to go.
Coaching is a two-way process. The coach should be aware that actually in the coaching relationship, they too may find answers. It’s a guide and a traveller. It can be a beautiful process.
What do you think makes someone a good coach?
One of the top qualities in a good coach is that they are able to listen well. Able to listen with your eyes, being able to listen with your heart, being able to hear and see that that person is trying to say something, but maybe not quite willing to say it.
The other thing that is critical for a coach is to be able to be silent. Silence is important. Sometimes it’s quite hard to be silent.
You also need to remember that you are talking to another human being. Just because you may be called a coach in that relationship, you are just simply another human being talking to another human being. And you’re not more special than the person you having a conversation with. You’re trying to travel this road together.
How did you first hear about Spark Inside and our search for new coaches?
What I remember is how I felt about the advert. I thought: “okay, that’s an interesting way of coaching within a space. And a difficult space to work in. I like the adventure.”
Can you tell us about your experience delivering our Hero’s Journey life coaching programme?
When it came to delivering Hero’s Journey for the first time, I was very lucky to be working with a very seasoned Spark Inside coach, Tony Phillips. He was there to show me the ropes and made the whole experience very positive.
The highlight for me is seeing people begin to believe that they themselves can be a hero.
They rarely see that as a possibility, and when the penny drops, that’s when the magic happens. It may happen in the first session, it may happen in the in the very last session. Then the one-to-ones are there for them to practise that and to acknowledge that they are a hero and can do something quite incredible with their lives. That’s special.
Do you notice any differences in coaching young people in prison with Spark Inside, versus your work with other clients?
In prisons, the environment is oppressive and people in prison have described our time together as an oasis that happens for an hour. It’s like sunshine coming through curtains. But at the end of that session, they open the door. The office is there, and people are there in the uniforms are there and their cell is there. Whereas the people I work with outside of prison, when our session is finished, they’re in a space where they can walk out in the street and they have a level of freedom, and they have the facilities to extend that oasis.
How do you reflect after coaching young people in prison?
I use a journal to reflect after coaching sessions. I think about what I learnt about the person, what I learnt about myself, and ask myself: how was I the energy that that person needed?
We are incredibly proud to work with a team of committed coaches like Eli! To find out more about our Coaching Quality Standards, click here.
