
Relational Presence: Embodiment Tools for Coaching at a Deeper Level

7th October 2025 - 9th December 2025 Online
Introductory Workshop/Event
Summary
You got as far as you can in your coaching practice, and you are a great coach.. But you want to be able to work with clients at a deeper level – to help the client get to the root cause of their challenges.
You already have many great tools but they somehow miss the mark with those deepest issues. You are now looking for new ways to support the client. You also want to bring more of your AUTHENTIC SELF to the coaching conversation – but, you just don’t know how to do that in a way that will really support the client .
If these are the questions you’re struggling with, then you’re in the right place.
This training was made for YOU.
In this training, you will learn to access your own body’s wisdom, to help you have more impact with your client. You will also find ways to share more of your own authentic self, and in a way that gives your client better support.
As a result, you will:
- Increase your presence, self-awareness, and inner knowing. This will help you become more resourced and support your client to work at greater depth.
- Learn to use information from your own body and share impact with the client so that they are able to go deeper inside themselves.
- Gain new tools to work with those ‘difficult’ clients. This approach will help you feel more resourced so that you can better meet the challenges that these clients present you with.
- Learn how to develop the relational field with the client so that it better supports you and improves your work with the client.
This 10-week programme is intended for coaches, therapists, and other helping professionals. All sessions are experiential and interactive, with theory and frameworks included as needed. Peer practice between taught sessions is an integral part of your learning and is required for certification.
More info in this video.
Description
Do you want to…
- Support your clients to work at a deeper level?
- Be able to work with a wider range of clients including those whom you find difficult?
- Share impact with your client to support their growth and learning?
- Learn to trust your gut, and your own inner knowing – even more than you do already?
- Feel more resourced and present, not only in your work; also in your life ?
If so, this training series is for you!
Research shows that the decisive factor for success in coaching and therapy is not the tools that you bring. It’s the human factor. In other words: how present you are with your client impacts your work more than anything else. Of course, you know this already and you have already developed a strong coaching presence.
Yet sometimes things can get in the way.
Maybe you can get too caught up in the client’s content. Or maybe, you have things going on in your own life and you find it hard to really be there for the client. Or maybe you didn’t sleep well last night.
Whatever it is, you may feel that you have to put yourself ‘aside’ to be there for the client. The truth is – you don’t! In fact, there is a way to show up exactly as you are, however you are that day, that can really help you and the work you do with the client. This is one of the skills you will gain in the training. You will feel more resourced and your client will get better results.
In this experiential course, you will develop:
- Access to your very own Felt Sense
- Skills from Relational Embodied Focusing
- Deeper Relational skills using Circling Practices
- An increased understanding of developmental trauma drawing on principles from NARM™ – the Neuro Affective Relational Model
You will learn to deepen your capacity for embodied presence and to use the relational field so that your work with clients has a deeper impact.
What is the Felt Sense and Why It Matters
Real change doesn’t happen through talking and analysis alone. Real change happens when you listen to your body, in real time.
Helping professionals such as coaches and therapists can often get caught up in wanting to offer the ‘right’ tool or to ask the ‘right’ question. Meanwhile, when you’re really present, the questions or tools appear to present themselves on their own.
Maybe you’ve had that experience sometimes but you would like to be able to do that in a more systematic and predictable way. This presence comes from accessing the intelligence of the body. Being able to connect with this will improve your presence in a consistent way, as well as increase the impact for your client.
This presence can be accessed through what is known as the “Felt Sense” – a term coined by Eugene Gendlin back in the 1970s. It refers to that often fuzzy feeling that can be hard to describe and which everyone has their own unique way of experiencing! Usually, the Felt Sense is a combination of emotions, physical sensations, images, thoughts – and leads to new awarenesses about a situation. Often, it holds information or wants to communicate something of importance. Having access to your own felt sense as a coach is invaluable – both for yourself and for the work with your client.
The Felt Sense can help you gain more insight so that you can help your client deepen their exploration of a wide range of issues.
For example:
- Making better use of time and energy
- Bringing needed distance in challenging relationships
- Career related explorations by deeper listening
- Better work-life balance and more clarity around priorities.
- Many other situations that (you and) your clients may need support with.
You will also sharpen your skills at picking up incongruences between what your client says – and how they say it.
What You’ll Learn
On a practical level, this training will help you further develop your coaching skills such as:
- Working with clients at a deeper level
- Feeling more confident working with ‘difficult’ clients
- Understanding the impact of trauma in many people’s lives and how to help them overcome its impact on their life today
- Regulating your own and your client’s nervous systems
- Getting more comfortable sharing the impact the client is having on you in real time, and learning how you can use this information to better support your client
- Feeling more resourced and alive in your work with clients.
Core Modalities You’ll Explore:
- Relational Embodied Focusing: Learn how to listen to and follow your very own Felt Sense, based on the work of Eugene Gendlin and others.
- Circling Practices: Explore relational presence and deepen connections through this structured approach.
- Understanding trauma-informed adaptation patterns like ‘people-pleasing’ and ‘perfectionism’ using models such as NARM™ (NeuroAffective Relational Model)
Each approach builds on and complements the others. Altogether, they open you to a deeper level of insight that goes beyond traditional coaching or talk therapy.
Who Is It For?
This course is ideal for:
- Experienced coaches and therapists who want to deepen their craft
- Student coaches and therapists who already have at least one client
- Any one-on-one helping professional who wants to work at a deeper, more embodied level
- Group facilitators who want to work at greater depth with their teams or groups.
No prior experience with any of the modalities is required. Suitable for complete beginners and those with some knowledge of the Felt Sense, Focusing, and Circling Practices.
If you’re still unsure if this is for you, I offer a free 15-minutes intake call to help you find out.
Course Format
- 10 live Zoom sessions (2 hours each)
- Tuesdays, 10:30 AM–12:30 PM (UK Time)
- From 7th October – 9th December 2025
- Partner practice between sessions to embed learning
- Recordings available, but 90% live attendance is required for certification.
Included 1:1 Coaching Support
As part of the programme, you’ll also receive:
✅ Optional 15-minute intake call
✅ One 60-minute Focusing session
✅ One 30-minute embodied coaching session
✅ 15-minute closing reflection session
✅ Discounted 1:1 coaching at 50% off throughout the course
✅ Reflective Practitioner Journal to support your development
Certification
Upon successful completion, you will receive:
- Focusing Level 2 Certificate
- 30 Hours CPD Certificate (accredited by the Association for Coaching)
You must attend at least 90% of sessions live to gain certification.
Course overview
Session 1: Introduction and Context Setting
In this opening session, you will discover a theoretical framework drawing on the work of Heinz Kohut and Iain McGilchrist. This framework will support the tools we will explore throughout the training and you will get a taste of the embodied and relational skills that we will be learning during the course.
Session 2 Arrival Practices
We begin to work with the brain-body and learn a method to help you arrive more fully in your body. This is a starting point for the kind of embodied work we are learning. You will be able to use this practice for yourself, as well as to support clients to become more present, and with a calmer nervous system.
Session 3: An Introduction to the Felt Sense
In this session you can get into contact with your very own Felt Sense. You will learn to listen to what it has to tell you. This structured approach provides a foundation for the rest of the programme.
Session 4: What is Focusing? Focusing Partner Exercises
Focusing is the process that Eugene Gendlin created to help anyone access their Felt Sense. In this module, you begin to learn to follow your own Felt Sense and to discover some of the gifts it holds.
Session 5: Deepening Listening Skills, Using the Relational Field to Support Your Client Work
As a coach, you are probably already a good listener! Yet a big part of this work is what happens because of your good listening presence. In this module, you will hone your listening skills. You will learn how to access the relational field to support your clients even better.
Session 6: Being with ‘What is’ and with ‘Not Knowing’ drawing on Focusing
As the journey into the Felt Sense deepens, you will learn finer points to allow more to come into your awareness. You will discover the gifts of ‘being with’ and ‘not knowing’. You will learn this for yourself – and later extend this awareness to better support your client.
Session 7: Transformational Connections Using Circling Practices
This module explores the relational field between self and other. You will discover the power of Circling Practices and Transformational Connections. You will explore sharing your inner experience of being with another person, and the impact they have on you. You will also have the opportunity to receive this special kind of attention from another person. This quality of connection is rare in daily life.
Session 8: Working with ‘Parts’
We all have many different parts of us. Although we are whole as a person, different ‘parts’ may show up in different contexts. We will draw on the Felt Sense to discover a unique way to access your own ‘parts’ and to find a way to be with even challenging parts. This can later inform how you work with clients.
Session 9: Adaptation Strategies and the Role of Shame
Many clients come to us to deal with shame-based adaptation strategies, such as ‘people pleasing’ and ‘perfectionism’. These strategies may have been useful once but are usually no longer helpful. In this module, you will discover the Lead Being You Adaptation Styles (which draw on NARM™, the Neuro Affective Relational Model) and learn better ways to deal with unhelpful habits. This knowledge can also inform your client work.
Session 10 : Using the Felt Sense: Further Support working with Clients
This module helps you integrate your own embodiment with your client work. You will learn how to hold space for a client so that they can have their own Felt Sense experience whilst they work on an issue or topic. This final module also helps integrate the whole programme and to deepen these skills going forward.
What Past Participants Say
“This program provides essential tools for anyone looking to enhance their presence and relational abilities in a structured and supportive environment.”
—Wolfgang Broetz, Coach
“With these tools I’ll be able to create much deeper connections with my clients—and use them for my own wellbeing.”
“Being fully present and grounded opens new possibilities. I LOVE IT!”
“Being more present in myself and listening to my gut… this will make me a better coach.”
“Any coach worth their salt would want to learn and practice how they can be more present.”
—Helen Isacke, Founder, Trusted Coach Network
Video testimonials can be found here and here.
About the Facilitator

My name is Ruth Friedman and I have been recognised by the Forbetter Institute as one of Edinburgh’s Top 10 Coaches. I’m the creator and owner of Lead Being You coaching and training company. I created Lead Being You to help people overcome doubts, manage stress, and build confidence.
I use a unique blend of coaching and embodiment tools, which I learned first for my own development and in which I am now trained and credentialed.
I am credentialed through the ICF as a Professional Certified Coach and with Association for Coaching as a Master Executive Coach.
I have been working with Focusing and Circling practices for over a decade and am now trained and credentialed as a Focusing Teacher and Circling Practice Leader. I’m passionate about sharing these practices because of the profound impact they have had on my own life and in my work as a coach.
My style is warm, inclusive, and experiential. I offer clear demonstrations, hold safe space, and support deep personal and professional transformation.
Questions? Ready to Join?
I’d love to hear from you.
Email:
Tel: +4477358328567
Registration Course Fee
- Early Bird (before August 1st): £430 (incl. VAT)
- Regular Fee: £630 (incl. VAT)
- Limited to 12 participants to ensure a rich, intimate experience.
Financial difficulty? A few reduced-fee sponsorship spots may be available—please get in touch if you need that.
Not paying in Pound Sterling? Please get in touch if you want to pay in USD or Euro
Contact details:
Ruth Friedman
Tel: +44 7735832857