Coach Margaret Chin-Wolf talks about completing her Diploma with Full Circle

What were you doing before you signed up to the Diploma in Professional Coaching Practice with Full Circle?

I had a full, often intense, life of different phases and dimensions. I had my own personal experience of the lives of generations of women who try, often struggle, to combine and to juggle the demands of family and raising children with full-time careers and professions, a process which leaves little space for the inner self. I had, just before the Diploma in Professional Coaching Practice, completed the FT Non-Executive Director Diploma Programme. I did this as a self-evaluation on myself, seven years after I accepted the invitation to become the governor of a school.

What made you want to become a coach?

My decision to become a coach emerged from my deep, fundamental belief in the unlimited potential of every living human person. I had concluded that I needed, wanted, to be trained – to the highest possible levels - to know how to be of service to this belief that every person is capable of choosing to transform into more of himself/herself, that inner growth manifests in the external circumstances of our lives.

Why did you choose Full Circle Global?

I researched the internet. I was clear on what I did not want. ‘Why’ I choose Full Circle was a combination of what I read on the FCG website, my conversation with Jane, and an intuitive feeling. I know this is going to sound crazy to some people but it was the photographs which ultimately made me decide to train with Full Circle. It was what I saw in Gillian’s eyes in these photographs and later in the eyes of members of her team who trained/are training me. Eyes are windows to our inner worlds.

What did you enjoy most about the programme?

I find it easier to explain complex things or experiences visually. The training programme is like going on a physical adventure into high mountains and deep valleys which takes you far out of your usual comfort zone – with one difference. Training to be a coach is not a physical journey or adventure. It is an internal journey deeper into oneself. A personal journey.

Did you experience any challenges along the way?

No, not challenges, but many humbling and emotional insights and discoveries at even deeper levels of myself which are only possible experientially because they are beyond the strictures of the mind. My decision to train as a coach was a commitment to discovering deeper levels of consciousness and self-knowledge.

Please tell me what life looks like now that you have trained to be a coach?

I have always needed, loved and enjoyed solitude. I appreciate it even more now. The key strengths in my previous professions have become simultaneously clearer, deeper on the one hand, and calmer, surer, on the other. I am becoming simpler, clearer, returning more to the moment. One key realisation was just how far my previous lives had taken me from being in the moment, how disconnected I was to my present moment.

How does the Advanced programme differ from the Certificate in Professional Coaching Practice programme and how has it helped you with your coaching?

If the Certificate in Professional Coaching Practice teaches you to swim, Certificate in Advanced Coaching Practice introduces you to the beginnings of deep-sea diving.

Finally, what would you say to anyone thinking about becoming a coach trainee?

There is a voice deep within each of us – often lost in the busi-ness and noise of everyday activities – a voice which frightens many of us ever deeper into the sticky mire of complications and dramas. If the thought of becoming a coach trainee has already entered your mind, then stop, be still, and listen to this thought, this voice. Hear it. It is a gift beyond imagination.