Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can you do private life coaching sessions in London?

Yes. I have my own coaching venue in a peaceful pilates and yoga studio in West London. Bodyline Studios is at a walkable distance from Ealing Broadway tube station, and within a comfortable distance from Acton, Shepherd’s Bush, Hammersmith and Chiswick. In addition I meet clients at various locations across London.

2. What life/personal coach training and accreditations do you have?

Coach Training:

• Life Coaching Diploma (LCH Dip) from Achievement Specialists;
• NLP Core Skills Practitioner from ABL World (Neuro Linguistic Programming);
• Leadership and Influence Training (NLP) from Voice of Influence;
• Personal Coaching Certificate from The Coaching Academy;

I am a Counseling and Psychotherapy Trainee with an accredited member of the BACP and UKCP (CCPE in London). It’s a five year MA psychotherapy course.

I’ve successfully completed several business courses in Leadership, Absence Management, Working with Resistance, Presentation and Negotiation Techniques. I’ve done courses in dream work, creative imagination, alchemy, Clear Language, drug and alcohol addictions and am interested in Gestalt, Transactional Analysis and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).

Coaching Accreditations:

• Member of the Association for Coaching (MAC);
• Practitioner Coach at the European Coaching Institute (PECI).

3. What is your professional background?

• MA in Business from the VU University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
• Human Resources from Université la Sorbonne in Paris, France;
• International corporate career at Heineken and the soft drink industry (Pepsi, 7UP, Schweppes, LiptonIce etc). Background in management positions within sales (fe Sales Consultant/Account Manager) and marketing (fe Head of Trade Marketing);
• Several coaching trainings, see question 2.

In 2006 I discovered that my vocation lies within coaching.

4. Do you have NLP experience and accreditations?

Yes. NLP Core Skills Practitioner from ABL World and Leadership and Influence training from Voice of Influence. I enjoy the three dimensional aspect of certain NLP exercises. They add fresh insight to the coaching process.

5. How many years of experience do you have as a Life Coach?

I started coaching on the workplace in 2006 in The Netherlands (my country of birth) and decided to develop my career as a coach in 2007. I started my own business in the UK in the beginning of 2008.

6. What techniques/technology do you use for coaching?

I’d love to know what you stand for in life, what your deepest values, beliefs and your sense of identity are. What it is you are doing it all for. I want to know who you are and who you wish to become. What is currently holding you back and how we can change your life towards the better.

I use coaching and NLP techniques, dialogues with inner voices that block us from progressing in life, constellations, Clear Language and visualisations. By tapping into your vast unconscious world we’ll create valuable insights and improve your self-awareness. You start to recognise and overcome unbeneficial habitual patterns within yourself and how to adjust your behaviour in such a way that it contributes to reaching far beyond your goals.

Our coaching sessions will bring you understanding, insight, balance, clarity, confidence, inner calm and success.

7. Please define your coaching approach and style.

My clients describe me as clarifying, warm, safe, challenging, engaged, surprising and empowering. I don’t believe in one right way. There is a unique path for each individual and I’ll invite you to become authentic; to find out what is true to you.

I think this is best to be experienced yourself. What works for one might not work for you and the other way around. I’d invite you to select a coach by experiencing them and their way of working in person.

8. What is your fees structure?

To find out more about the investment, please click here.

9. What benefits would you gain from coaching me?

I like this question. I love the ‘a-ha’ moment! Whenever you get an insight or understanding about yourself or the way you relate to others, you make my day. Besides seeing you becoming more and more successful, I’d like to see you happy. My professional benefit of coaching is to see you happy in all aspects of your life and work.

As I am not only a pure altruistic person, the personal benefit of coaching you is the financial income of my work, which allows me to be happy in my private life. Imagine that you will be paying for investments in my company, as well as in opera tickets with my friends and husband, travels, an occasional bottle of wine and yes, the city council tax as well.

10. How would you hold me accountable to complete tasks and reach my goals?

That depends on you. I’ve got to learn to know you to find out what your reasons are for not completing certain tasks. Or for completing them in a way or speed that is below your potential. Everybody needs a different approach, depending on the story behind our behaviour.

Some of us like to disobey, others have an issue with authority, want to be in control and hate being told what to do, and others have inner saboteurs disguised as low self esteem or fear of their own brilliance, etc. And there are also people who benefit from learning NOT to complete tasks, because they are too much of a perfectionist or find it hard to express their own opinion. Each human being is unique and needs a different approach. Most important is that we built a foundation of trust and respect so I can challenge you where I seem appropriate. And expect me to use humour as well.

11. Do you have any Business Coaching experience?

Yes. I’ve coached business owners regarding stress reduction, time management, operational effectiveness, business performance, motivation, work-life balance, financial well-being and visionary and authentic leadership.

12. In what way are you contributing to your local community?

In 2008 and 2009 I worked for a London based charity named Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) and gave intensive support to prisoners and their family members. After sitting with them and their challenges, every possible issue a coaching client might have doesn’t influence my confidence and trust in the power of the coaching process. In 2009 and 2010 I worked at The Citizens Trust in Ealing, a charity that helps people with a disability or health condition to find work. In 2010 I started working for FreshStart Psychotherapy and Ealing Abbey Counselling Service, both offer low-cost counselling and psychotherapy services.

13. Your life coaching success stories – please give 2 examples.

Two testimonials, so you can get an impression of how my clients experience their coaching sessions:

Christian, an International Asset Manager in a Top Tier Asset Management Company says: "The bank that I worked for was taken over and integrated during 2008. The consequence was that people, processes and the job content totally changed. In this chaos I lost all perspective. By being supportive and quite confronting at times, I know Karin has been key in regaining a positive direction in my career."

Tim, a self employed Managing Director of a successful Law Firm says: "I have found Karin to be thoughtful, and insightful. She has provided me we numerous subtle but powerful ideas for challenging negative habits, in both my personal and professional life. Karin has helped me to achieve beyond my goals and our weekly coaching sessions have helped me find the right work-life balance and to get more confidence to achieve my biggest dreams in life. I would strongly recommend her."

14. Would you be able to provide a sample coaching session?

I would recommened anyone who is looking for a coach to make use of the free taster offers. I enjoy giving free taster sessions by telephone, for about 20 minutes in length. This gives you a good idea about my coaching style and you can feel if I am the right person to support you. Many people first book a one hour face to face session, before committing to a coaching package. This enables you to get a good sense of who I am and how being coached by me will benefit you.

15. What is the frequency of coaching required?

This depends on the goals of each unique client, their current situation and the size of the gap between those two. It’s common that clients have one coaching session a week initially to kick-start their development and then fewer and fewer as they reach their goals. A once a month coaching session to keep on the right track and stay highly motivated is often used to achieve sustainable change.

16. Can you do remote coaching?

Yes. Via Skype; with or without webcam. Via telephone. I provide email support in between sessions, but I do not believe in coaching that only goes via email. In my opinion, too much vital information as tone of voice, body language, eyes, posture, transference and counter-transference is lacking in this form of contact.

17. How about our coaching process when I am on holidays / away from UK?

When away on business trips it is possible to coach via telephone or Skype, or face to face at Heathrow Airport. And please feel free to pay my travel expenses when you visit sunny islands! During your holidays it might be useful to skip the coaching sessions, as completely free time is very healthy. And if you want, we can arrange exercises for you to do while away. It is very insightful to contemplate on certain aspects of your life, while being at a physical distance of your normal life. This allows us to observe things in a different matter which can have profound consequences.

18. What is your session cancellation policy and notice required?

Cancellation with less than 24 hours notice - the full fee for that session is due. Regarding cancellations with more than 24 hours notice Vitalis Coaching will offer an alternative appointment that week when possible. You can terminate this service at any time, as there is no circumscribed length of programme. Our partnership continues until you say that you have achieved all you want to achieve.

19. I am a practitioner myself; can I hire your treatment/therapy room on an hourly basis?

Yes the office/treatment room is for hire, for more information please visit: Treatment/Therapy room for hire.

20. Why are you called "Vitalis Coaching"?

There are several reasons for this, if you'd like to find out more: please read the Definitions of Vitalis Coaching.