Know the client's fears

Fears are among the strongest emotions we must learn to deal with. Sometimes, reasonable fear drives us to refrain from making certain decisions that may be harmful to us or to take others that could help prevent us from a future evil. As an emotion in the end, fears are not the problem, the problem lies in the ability we have to interpret them, learn to control them and know how to use them to our benefit.

Our work as a coach focuses much of its impact on the client's emotions. When we are able to perceive the client's emotional state, we can develop strategies that are more accurate and consistent with the client's emotional profile. During the development of this guide, we will be addressing the theme of the client's fears and the importance of the coach's work in knowing them.

What do fears reflect in the client?

Fears are complex emotions, so knowing how to interpret them with certainty requires a certain skill in the understanding of human emotions. In general, fears arise to alert us to something, whether it is something we lack or uncertain events that could cause us harm. The fear as a result of the lacks is one of the most habitual, this arises before the necessity to confront a situation for which we are not prepared, therefore, our mind tries to alert us that the situation that we must confront surpasses us and could result in a bitter experience.

When we talk about fears of future events that may be harmful to us, we must understand that this is based on an interpretation of our own brain. As an interpretation in the end, it may contain numerous biases that induce us to perceive events in an oversized way, motivating us to assume irrational behaviors.

Deficiency fears

Once we understand that deficiency fears have their roots in the lack of preparation to face a situation that apparently surpasses us, the way to work on the control and management of these fears is simply to pay attention to the elements that we have neglected and that are causing us to feel unprepared. If we are able to make up for our shortcomings through our progressive preparation, it is most likely that these fears will disappear completely.

If you are able to detect these fears in your clients, you should orient your strategies and actions towards working on their personal, professional and spiritual formation. In such a way that you manage to fill the void that is causing these insecurities.

Fears of situations that could be harmful to you

As we have already mentioned previously, a second group of very common fears are those present before the appearance of future situations that can become harmful for us. This group of fears can be a little more difficult to combat, since in many occasions they are usually motivated by irrational elements, which do not represent the real magnitude of the events. To work on these fears in your clients, try to carry out an analysis, where they are involved in dealing with future events from a neutral point of view, demystifying the various biases present and generating actions to prepare us for the events that we must face.

Preparation is still the key to control and manage fears. If we are able to fully understand each of the elements that provoke fear in us, we can act to strengthen our weak points and prevent the greatest possible impact on our emotions. We must always keep in mind that fears are only emotions, it is not wrong to have them, but we cannot let them interfere in our normal development and personal progress.