Meridian
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Questions

Answered at the length they actually deserve.

Everything below comes up on nearly every discovery call. If yours is not here, ring the office and ask Marianne — she has heard it.

Before the questions: what coaching is for

Coaching is useful when you already know more about your situation than anybody you could hire, and what you are missing is the discipline of thinking about it out loud with someone who has no stake in the answer. It is not useful when what you need is information, permission, or treatment. We are strict about that line because the alternative is taking money from people we cannot help: roughly one discovery call in six ends with us saying that a therapist, an employment solicitor or an honest conversation with your own manager would do more than we would, and we will give you the names. If you are unsure which side of the line you are on, the discovery call is free and thirty minutes long and exists precisely to find out. The other honest answer worth giving up front is about timing. Coaching works badly in the fortnight after a bereavement, in the middle of a disciplinary process, or while you are waiting on a decision somebody else has to make. None of those is a refusal — it is a reason to book for six weeks’ time rather than for Tuesday, and we would rather say so than take the money now.

The questions people actually ask

Click any question to open it. You can have several open at once.

Ninety minutes, either in the Park Square rooms or on video. You bring the thing that is loudest that week; we spend the first twenty minutes making sure it is the real thing rather than the presentable version of it. The rest is worked through out loud — options, consequences, what you would need to be true. Every session ends with one commitment you have chosen yourself, and a written summary reaches your inbox the next morning so nothing depends on your memory of the room.

Therapy generally works backwards from where you are; coaching works forwards from it. We are not qualified to treat depression, anxiety or trauma and we do not pretend otherwise — if what you describe belongs with a therapist, we will say so in the discovery call and give you two names to ring. Plenty of clients do both at once, and we are happy to work alongside a therapist when you want us to.

Yes, without exception. When an employer funds the coaching we will confirm to them that sessions happened and that the programme is on track — dates and attendance, nothing else. What you say never leaves the room, we do not write reports about you, and your file is a set of your own action notes rather than an assessment. The only limits are the ordinary legal ones, which we set out in writing before the first session.

We build a review into the halfway point of every programme, and it is a real one: we put the goals we agreed at the start next to where you actually are and say plainly whether the gap is closing. If it is not, you can stop there and we refund the sessions you have not used. Thirteen clients have taken that review and decided to stop; we would rather that than an unhappy client running out the clock.

Both, and you can mix them. The Park Square rooms are two minutes from Leeds station; Ruth also works from Montpellier Parade in Harrogate on Wednesdays. Everything else is on video, which is how most clients outside West Yorkshire work with us. Sessions are the same length and the same price either way — we have never charged a premium for a room.

Roughly half of our work is funded that way. We invoice the company directly, with a purchase-order reference if procurement needs one, and Marianne handles the paperwork so you do not have to chase it. What the invoice shows is the programme and the dates. If your employer asks for anything more than that, we will tell them no, and we will tell you that we did.

Discovery calls are usually available inside a week; the first full session is normally within ten working days of that. September and January are the two months that fill first, so if you are aiming at either, book the discovery call four to six weeks ahead. If something is genuinely urgent, say so when you write and we will look at the cancellations list.

Ruth Halden is an ICF Professional Certified Coach with more than 1,400 logged coaching hours and fourteen years as an operations director before she trained. Daniel Okonjo is an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a former NHS service manager. Priya Raval is an EMCC Senior Practitioner and a chartered occupational psychologist. All three are supervised quarterly, insured to £2m, and members of the ICF UK chapter.

What it is not

Coaching, next to the three things people mistake it for

All three of these are useful. None of them is what you are buying here, and the difference matters enough to spell out.

Not therapy

Backwards, not forwards
Therapy generally works backwards from where you are; coaching works forwards from it. We are not qualified to treat anxiety, depression or trauma, we will say so plainly, and plenty of clients do both at once with our blessing.
When to see a therapist

Not mentoring

Questions, not answers
A mentor has done your job and tells you how they did it. We have not done your job, which is the point — you get questions rather than someone else’s answers, and the plan that results is one you will actually follow.
How a session runs

Not consulting

No recommendations
A consultant is paid to produce a recommendation. If we ever hand you one, sack us. Our job is to make your own thinking sharper and faster, and then to get out of the way.
See the programmes

Confidentiality, records, and what your employer is told

What you say in a session stays in the room. We keep no assessment of you and write no reports about you; the only file is the set of action notes you receive yourself after each session, held encrypted and deleted twelve months after the programme ends unless you ask us to keep them longer. Where an employer funds the coaching, they are told three things: that the sessions happened, on which dates, and whether the programme is on track. Nothing else, ever, and we put that in writing to both of you before the first session so there is no ambiguity later. The only limits are the ordinary legal ones — a serious risk of harm, or a court order — and we will tell you if either is ever in play rather than acting quietly. If a prospective employer or an HR department asks us for anything beyond attendance, the answer is no, and we will tell you that they asked.
The first step

Half an hour, no charge, and no pitch at the end.

Tell us what is on your mind and we will tell you plainly whether coaching helps with it. If it does not, we will say what does — that conversation is worth having either way.
Book a discovery call0113 496 0184
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