There’s a quiet moment after a client session ends. The Zoom room closes, the notes are tucked away, and yet the chatter continues—not from the client, but from within.
“Did I help enough?”
“Why didn’t I ask that differently?”
“What if they didn’t find any value in that at all?”
Most coaches know this voice. Sometimes it manifests as self-doubt, sometimes as the relentless drive to be perfect, or the subtle fear of being exposed as an impostor. It’s subtle at first, but left unattended, it can erode the confidence and clarity that drew us to coaching in the first place.
Supervision plays a crucial role in addressing these inner doubts, often referred to as ‘inner gremlins’. It’s not a sign of failure, but rather a testament to our commitment to our clients. Without a platform to explore them, these doubts can subtly influence our practice.
Supervision is not just a luxury or a requirement—it’s a lifeline. A comforting refuge in the storm of self-doubt, offering relief and support.
Supervision as a Place to Be Held
Health Coaches spend their days holding space for others. Supervision offers a rare chance for the coaches themselves to be held with curiosity, care, and deep listening.
Rather than being just another training course or performance review, good supervision creates a reflective and restorative space. It’s a place to:
– Name what’s going on – not just with your clients, but in your inner world.
– Notice patterns – where do these doubts come from? How and where do they show up in your body, your tone, and coaching choices?
– Reframe inner criticism – what is this voice trying to protect you from? What is the invitation here?
Far from erasing the gremlins, supervision helps us grow in self-awareness and thereby shift our relationship with ourselves. We move from judging and being fearful of our inner world and its gremlins to simply being curious and compassionate with our internal narrative and ourselves. That awareness translates into our work, where we begin to recognise the old story when it surfaces. In the dance of the moment, those stories can influence how we respond—whether we hesitate to challenge, over-deliver to seek approval, or steer away from discomfort. But when we’re at ease with ourselves and our stories, we stop reacting to them. And in that grounded space, there’s room for the client—not our narrative—to take the lead.
Beyond Competency: The Whole Coach Matters
In my work with coaches, I see how often these inner doubts are tied to identity:
– “Am I really a health coach if I’m not working in a clinical setting?”
– “I don’t have a nutrition degree—should I even be doing this?”
– “I should be more productive… I should be more qualified… I should be more something.”
The shoulds are endless—and exhausting.
Supervision welcomes your whole self to the table. Not just the practitioner with goals and action steps, but the person with lived experience, values, questions, and growing edges.
You might bring reflections from a tough session, your health journey, a moment of stuckness, or even joy that feels hard to share in a world that expects constant hustle.
Supervision is not just a professional development opportunity; it’s a chance for personal restoration, making health coaches feel rejuvenated and cared for.
It’s More Than Knowing the Theory
During training, most coaches encounter the idea of the inner critic—or the saboteur. We learned to recognise it in our clients and to challenge it compassionately. We may have even done some personal reflection around it at the time.
But supervision invites us to go further.
True mastery of the craft of Health Coaching isn’t just about knowing the concept intellectually. It’s not even about using it skillfully as a tool with clients. It’s about daring to ask how our inner narratives—formed through our autobiography—might be subtly influencing our everyday practice.
Because they do. Even when we don’t see it. Especially when we don’t see it.
Here is the distinction between content and process:
– Content asks: What happened in the session? What did I say or not say?
– Process asks: What was happening in me as that unfolded? What did I carry in, or react to, or avoid? Where is my pattern in this?
Peer support often focuses on content—what you could have done differently, what tools you could try next time. It can be practical and encouraging. However, it rarely penetrates the deeper layers. Ethically and functionally, this is appropriate because peer spaces offer support, but are not designed to carry the same depth or professional responsibility as supervision.
A trained supervisor, on the other hand, is equipped to hold space for your process—to gently illuminate the patterns you can’t yet see, to help you track what shows up in the relational space, and to notice how your own story is weaving into your work.
Supervision isn’t therapy. It is professional development and rooted in self-awareness, self-leadership, and ethical maturity.
As a result, the clarity fostered by supervision enables us to coach with greater self-awareness, courage, and ethical maturity. In turn, we bring our integrated selves into the room.
I’ve recently had the privilege of completing my annual CPD in supervision, including training with Robin Shohet and Joan Wilmot, co-authors of *Supervision in the Helping Professions*. Being in a room with some of the most respected supervisors in Australasia, and witnessing them still allowing themselves to be shaped, surprised, and transformed, was profoundly humbling. It reminded me that supervision isn’t about mastery in the traditional sense. It’s about staying porous enough to be changed. The real learning often occurs in the inner world, in that quiet, emergent space where insight arises, not because we chased it, but because we slowed down long enough to receive it.
Why This Matters for Health Coaching
When we leave our gremlins unexamined, they don’t stay silent. They influence:
– What we dare to ask
– How much challenge we offer
– Where we hold back or overreach
– The kind of clients we attract—or avoid
In short, they shape the quality of our coaching.
Supervision helps restore us to ourselves. It reconnects us with the “why” beneath the work, strengthens our ability to discern rather than doubt, and reminds us that we are enough, not because we know it all, but because we care enough to keep learning.
Try It for Yourself
If you’re a Health Coach and you’ve never experienced supervision, it might feel unfamiliar or even unnecessary. But I invite you to try it—not as a fix, but as a gift to yourself and your practice.
Here’s what supervision might offer you:
– A space to be vulnerable without being judged
– A mirror that reflects your strengths and blind spots with kindness
– A rhythm of reflective practice that sustains, not drains you.
Coaching is meaningful, emotional, and sometimes lonely work. Supervision is where we pause, breathe, and remember: we’re not in this alone.
We’re part of something larger—a community of health coaches and helping professionals who face the same inner challenges, ask the same brave questions, and remain committed to growing, together.
Because when we care for the coach, we care for the coaching. And when we care for the coaching, we care for every client who walks through our door.
If you’re curious to learn more about what supervision involves or how to get started, we’ve created a helpful overview for Health Coaches. You can explore the HCANZA Supervision Guidelines here to continue your learning and discover what supportive supervision could look like for you. (To access this article, you need to be logged in as an HCANZA member)
By Sharon Tomkins
HCANZA Board Member | Accredited AAOS Supervisor | Executive Wellness Coach
