What happens in a mindfulness coaching session? When you reach out to me to inquire about mindfulness coaching, we begin with a free 15-minute video call. This allows us to discuss your goals and ask questions about my coaching approach. It also allows us both to see if we think we may work well together.
If we decide to work together, you may still wonder: What actually happens in a mindfulness coaching session?
Do we meditate together? Do you tell me what’s bothering you? Will I give you practices to do between sessions? What if you’ve never meditated before—or you’ve tried meditation and feel like you’re not very good at it?
There isn’t one formula for a mindfulness coaching session. Our work together is shaped by what brings you to coaching, what you’re noticing in your life, and what you hope to understand or change.
Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we practice. Sometimes we pause and notice what is happening right now.
What Is a Mindfulness Coaching Session Like?
A mindfulness coaching session is a conversation with a particular kind of attention.
I’ll guide you to set specific intentions for your home practice that fit with your goals and your life. We start small. When we meet again, we will discuss how things went and any insights or challenges that arose during your mindfulness practice.
The purpose isn’t to add one more thing to your already full life. It’s to explore how mindfulness might help you meet your life with greater awareness, choice, and intention.
We may talk about something that has been difficult for you during the past week. We might explore a pattern you’ve noticed—perhaps becoming reactive when you’re stressed, getting caught up in worry, being especially hard on yourself, or finding it difficult to slow down.
Rather than simply trying to solve the problem, we can become curious about what is happening.
What do you notice in your body? What thoughts arise? What emotions are present? What happens just before you react? What do you tend to do next?
Mindfulness gives us another way of relating to these experiences. Instead of immediately judging, avoiding, or trying to fix what we’re feeling, we practice paying attention.
That doesn’t mean becoming passive or accepting things that need to change. In fact, greater awareness can give us more freedom to make meaningful changes.
A session may therefore look different from week to week. Some days you may have something specific you want to explore. Other times, we may slow down and listen for what is asking for your attention.
What Happens in the First Mindfulness Coaching Session?
Our first full session gives us an opportunity to begin getting to know one another and to clarify what you would like from our work together.
You don’t need to arrive with a perfectly defined goal.
You may know exactly why you’re seeking coaching. Perhaps you’re going through a transition, feeling overwhelmed, struggling with stress or self-criticism, or wanting to develop a more consistent mindfulness practice.
Or perhaps you simply have a feeling that something needs to change, but you aren’t sure what. We can begin there.
I may ask about your current circumstances, your previous experience with mindfulness or meditation, and what has brought you to coaching now. We’ll talk about what you’re hoping for and what would make our work together meaningful to you.
We’ll also begin noticing where mindfulness might fit naturally into your life.
The goal isn’t to create an idealized version of your life that requires you to become calmer, more productive, or more disciplined. It’s to understand your life as it actually is.
Do We Meditate During a Mindfulness Coaching Session?
Sometimes.
Meditation can be part of mindfulness coaching, but you don’t need to be an experienced meditator to work with me. And you don’t have to know how to “clear your mind.”
If we practice together, it might be a brief meditation, a body-based practice, a grounding exercise, or another way of bringing attention to the present moment.
The practice itself can become something we explore together.
For example, you might notice that your mind wanders almost immediately. You might become impatient. You might notice discomfort in your body or discover how quickly you begin judging yourself.
Rather than seeing these experiences as evidence that you are failing at mindfulness, we can become curious about them.
What happens when your attention wanders? How do you respond to yourself when you notice? Can you begin again without criticizing yourself? These are mindfulness practices too.
And mindfulness doesn’t have to happen only while sitting on a meditation cushion. One of the things I love about mindfulness is its potential to become part of ordinary life.
We can explore how to bring greater awareness to walking, writing, being in nature, relationships, difficult conversations, transitions between activities, or simply the moments when you notice that you’ve become lost in thought.
What If I Can’t Stop My Mind from Racing?
This is one of the most common concerns people have about mindfulness.
They’ve tried meditation and thought: My mind is too busy. I can’t stop thinking. I’m terrible at meditation.
But having thoughts isn’t a sign that you’re doing mindfulness incorrectly. The mind thinks. That’s what minds do.
The practice is not necessarily to make your mind quiet. It’s to notice when you’ve become caught up in thought and, when you can, gently return your attention to the present.
That might happen many times during a short practice.
And each time you notice, you’ve actually practiced something important: awareness.
Over time, you may begin to recognize the patterns that tend to pull you away from the present moment. You may also begin to notice the space between what happens and how you respond. That space can be very small. But sometimes a small space is enough to create a different choice.
What Happens Between Sessions?
Our work doesn’t end when the video call ends. Home practice offers a rich opportunity for self-discovery and growing your awareness.
Depending on what we’re exploring, I may invite you to try a particular mindfulness practice or reflection between sessions. Sometimes this might involve meditation. Other times it may be something much simpler: noticing what happens in your body when you’re stressed, paying attention to a recurring thought, or observing how you respond to a particular situation.
I may also incorporate reflective writing into our work.
Writing can give us another way to slow down and listen to what we’re experiencing. It can help bring thoughts and feelings into awareness and sometimes reveal perspectives that aren’t immediately available when we’re moving quickly through the day.
The purpose of these practices isn’t to give you more homework.
It’s to help bring mindfulness off the page—or out of the coaching session—and into your actual life.
At our next session, we can explore what you noticed. What was helpful? What was difficult? What surprised you? What did you learn about yourself?
This ongoing process of practicing, noticing, reflecting, and adjusting is an important part of mindfulness coaching.
What Can We Work on in Mindfulness Coaching?
There are many reasons someone might seek out a mindfulness coach.
You might be:
- feeling stressed or overwhelmed
- navigating a significant life transition
- caught in cycles of worry or overthinking
- struggling with self-criticism or perfectionism
- reacting more quickly than you’d like
- having difficulty making space for yourself
- wanting to live more intentionally
- trying to establish a regular mindfulness practice
- wanting to deepen an existing meditation practice
- looking for ways to respond to life’s uncertainty with greater steadiness
Sometimes there is a particular problem you want to work on. Sometimes what brings you to coaching is harder to name. You may simply have a sense that you’re moving through your days on autopilot and want to become more present to your own life. Mindfulness coaching can offer a place to pause and explore that.
How Is Mindfulness Coaching Different from Therapy?
Because I have a background in counseling as well as mindfulness, I think it’s important to be clear about the distinction between mindfulness coaching and therapy.
Although mindfulness practices may be used in both, the purpose and scope of the work are different.
Mindfulness coaching generally focuses on developing awareness and skills, clarifying what matters to you, establishing or deepening a mindfulness practice, and exploring how you want to respond to the challenges and possibilities of your life.
Therapy is mental health care. It may involve assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health conditions and psychological concerns.
Mindfulness coaching isn’t a substitute for therapy when clinical treatment is needed.
There may also be times when coaching and therapy complement one another. If you’re already working with a therapist, mindfulness coaching can sometimes provide a different kind of support around developing mindfulness skills and bringing those skills into everyday life.
Knowing the difference helps ensure that you’re seeking the kind of support that is appropriate for you.
What Can You Expect from Me as Your Mindfulness Coach?
My approach to mindfulness coaching is grounded in many years of mindfulness practice and teaching, along with my background in counseling, neuroscience, and reflective writing.
I don’t approach mindfulness as another technique you need to master or another item to check off your list. I’m more interested in what happens when you begin paying attention to your life with greater curiosity. What do you notice? What patterns become visible? What matters to you? Where might you have more choice than you realized? And how might mindfulness help you respond to your life in a way that feels more intentional and aligned with your values?
Our sessions may include conversation, mindfulness practice, reflection, and writing. What we do depends on what you need.
There is no expectation that you come to coaching already knowing how to meditate or knowing exactly what you want to accomplish.
We begin where you are.
Is Mindfulness Coaching Right for You?
You don’t need to be in crisis to work with a mindfulness coach.
You might simply want support as you navigate a transition. You might want to develop a mindfulness practice but have trouble making it part of your life. You might be tired of feeling pulled around by worry, stress, or habitual reactions.
Or you might be doing relatively well and simply want to live with greater awareness and intention.
A useful place to begin is with the question: What would you like to be different?
You don’t necessarily need to know the answer before reaching out. Sometimes the process of slowing down and paying attention is what helps the answer become clearer.
Curious About Mindfulness Coaching?
If you’re wondering whether mindfulness coaching might be a good fit for you, we can begin with a conversation.
I offer a free 15-minute video call for people who are considering coaching. It’s an opportunity to talk about what you’re looking for, ask questions about my approach, and get a sense of what working together might be like.
It also gives us both a chance to see if we think we may work well together.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before you reach out. You can simply begin with a question, a concern, or a sense that you’re ready for something to be different. Sometimes that’s enough to begin.
Ready to Explore Mindfulness Coaching?
If you’re curious about what mindfulness coaching might look like for you, I offer a free 15-minute consultation. It’s a chance to ask questions, share what you’re navigating, and get a sense of whether we might be a good fit.
Jen Johnson is a mindfulness coach, counselor, and author with 40+ years of experience teaching mindfulness and meditation. She offers 1:1 mindfulness coaching worldwide via Zoom.
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