You’ve built your coaching practice on a foundation of experience, training, and deep listening. You’ve taken the masterclasses, read the books, refined your techniques, and worked with clients who have transformed in ways that affirm your path. And then, one day, you hit the bump.

What supervision really is—how it supports coaches, why it’s often misunderstood, and what happens when you have a place to bring the complexities of your work. 

Who Holds Space for the Coach? 

As a coach, you hold space for others. You sit with their uncertainty, their struggles, their breakthroughs. You listen deeply. You guide. You witness. But where do you go when you need the same?

Many coaches think growth comes from experience, another certification, or just pushing through. But the coaches who sustain their impact—the ones who find balance, depth, and longevity in their work—don’t go it alone. They have a place to reflect, be seen, and explore the deeper layers of their work and presence.

That place is coaching supervision.

Supervision isn’t about fixing or evaluating. It’s about having a trusted space to see yourself more clearly—to notice what’s showing up in your work, in your body, in your relationships with clients. It’s about having someone who can gently challenge you, help you stay connected to your integrity, and remind you that you don’t have to carry it all by yourself.

Coaches Need Coaching Too: Growing Yourself & Growing as a Coach

How do you take care of yourself as a coach? What stops you from doing so?

Coaching is a calling. How we answer that call affects how we show up for our clients. Beyond the skills of coaching, the emotional and professional development we invest in for ourselves can be pivotal. What steps do you have in place for your growth? If not, what stops you from doing so?

Often, coaches in solo practice can feel isolated. Feelings are a rich part of the work. It’s hard to find a group of professional peers to continue learning and growing from so that you are bolstered as a practitioner in your work in the world. The pressure to earn an income, create a brand, and run a business has similar traps as entrepreneurs: merging their identity with their work and their company. And, most coaches forget that they need a supervisor (and a therapist), too, so that they have a safe emotional outlet and a way to learn from and process all that comes up in their client work.

Shadow Tracking for Coaches: Post-Session Reflections for Coach Growth 

The coaching presence is one in which we as coaches try to be as empty of personality as possible so that we can be fully in the here and now for our client work and what may be showing up and emergent in a session. Yet as a coach, often the stuff that happens in a client session stirs up parts of your inner world. Being able to identify that you’re rattled, what’s been rattled, and what did the rattling can help you track what’s coming up for you and may also give insight to aspects of the client’s state or situation. 

Often, what can be rattled in us as coaches may lead to our own shadow at play. As part of an ethical practice to further one’s growth and development as a coach, tracking what surfaces in you and applying radical self inquiry can help you suss out what is showing up so that you can show up more fully for your client work. 

Below is a set of inquiries to add to your coaching practice toolkit and use as a review at the end of each session. This line of inquiry can help in developing your ‘inner supervisor’ and gather questions, experiences and data to unpack with your coaching supervisor. 

Preparing to Bring a Case for Coaching Supervision:
A Journey of Reflection and Discovery.

The first time I prepared to bring a case to supervision, I wasn’t sure where to begin. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a client in mind—there was one who had been on my mind for weeks. But something in me hesitated. What would my supervisor think? Would they see something I had missed? Would I feel exposed? Would I feel inadequate?