From Presence to Practice: Centering and Grounding in Transformational Coaching

Transformational Coaching Begins Within: Centering and Grounding for Coaches

At Awaken, I’ve learned that transformational coaching always begins with the coach’s own inner work. Before you can guide others into presence, empowerment, or spiritual growth, you must first cultivate practices that root you in your own wholeness.

Two of the simplest, most powerful practices I return to again and again are centering and grounding. These aren’t just techniques for coaches, they are foundations for living with depth and showing up with love.

In the coaching world, we know how important it is to be "centered" and "grounded" before, during, and after sessions. In fact, many of us say that we find coaching itself to be centering and grounding. That deep level of listening to another does us a world of good, too, doesn't it?

But sometimes those words sound a little jargony and we don't remember exactly what our best ways of doing them are, both for coaching and for everyday life with ourselves and those we love. And what's the difference between the two words?

What It Means to Center

Centering is more like coming home to a space inside ourselves. It’s the pause that lets me remember: I’m still here, even when things are not going so well and I'm not feeling myself.

It's about slowing down and feeling into what's going on inside. Even when it's turbulent, just recognizing, naming, and bringing some kindness goes a long way toward returning to calm connection with all the parts of myself.  Even my restlessness, my doubts, my inner critics - they all belong. 

In transformational coaching, this inner spaciousness is essential. When I center, I don’t come to my clients with agendas or fixes. I come with presence.

For coaches on the path toward mastery, this presence is what sets depth coaching apart from performance coaching. It’s why, at Awaken, we train with the MCC (Master Certified Coach) level in mind from the very first day.

What It Means to Ground

Grounding is how I bring that presence into the world around me.  It can feel like finding a sense of balance and solidity in connection with the outside world.

Grounding is more about noticing what's going on around, and making wise decisions as we move through the world. It's like having both feet solidly on the ground, taking a look around, and seeing what's real. 

Together, centering and grounding help me embody the very essence of empowerment coaching, depth coaching, and spiritual life coach training: the courage to be fully present with another human being, without needing them, or myself, to be any different.

From Presence to Practice

Centering and grounding remind me a bit of walking the labyrinth, which as you probably know if you've been around Awaken for a while, is my favorite form of prayer.

First, I walk slowly on the loops of the labyrinth's inner journey, leading toward the center (or more commonly, I use one of the finger labyrinths on my desk). 

After a time of quiet centeredness in the middle of the labyrinth, I walk the loops back out into the world - just as slowly and mindfully, but with a sense of myself as I connect with the activities of the day. 

This rhythm, first centering, then grounding, is how I prepare to meet my clients. It is also how I return to myself after holding space for others.

Living the Practices as a Coach

Coaching isn’t only about the questions we ask, it’s about the quality of presence we bring. That’s why at Awaken, our training begins with the coach’s own transformation.

Before we can invite others into depth, empowerment, or spiritual growth, we need to cultivate those same roots within ourselves. Again and again, our graduates tell us they came for skills and certification, but what they left with was far more. They describe becoming braver, more whole, and more themselves.

Centering and grounding are part of that journey. These simple practices are not only ways of steadying ourselves before a coaching session; they are daily ways of returning to love, clarity, and connection.

This is also where the art of emotional integration becomes so important. In our work training spiritual awakening life coaches, we’ve seen how welcoming emotions, rather than suppressing them, creates authentic transformation. When we learn to meet our own emotions with compassion, we become better companions for our clients.

Centering and Grounding Practices

Diana Raab, PhD offers the following recommendations on becoming centered and grounded, which I've modified a little: 

Centered:

• Breathe in slowly for a count of five, and then out for a count of ten.
• Make a list of all the things and people you love.
• Pause to acknowledge all your senses. What do you see? Feel? Smell? Taste? Hear?
• Try a guided lovingkindness meditation.
• "Walk" a finger labyrinth.
• Formulate positive and healing rituals for your day.
• Engage in self-nourishing activities such as walking, yoga, massage, facials, coffee with a friend, or whatever makes you feel good about yourself.
  

Grounded:

• Establish a connection with nature by touching the earth with your feet or your body each day.
• Drink herbal teas that come directly from the earth.
  
• Keep a supply of stones, soil, or sand ready for the touch.
• Eat a balanced diet.
• Maintain a consistent meditation or self-reflection practice.
• Engage in regular physical activity.
  
• Learn to feel into your innate desires, needs, dislikes, and non-negotiables related to others, and express them freely.

A Training That Transforms You First

This is why transformational coaching begins within. At Awaken, our ICF-accredited certification programs are not only about mastering coaching competencies, they are about becoming the kind of person who can hold others with presence and love.

Our students often say the biggest change isn’t just how they coach, it’s how they live. They find themselves more centered, more grounded, more at home in their own skin. And it’s from that wholeness that they begin to empower others.

Whether you join us virtually this March or September, or in Spain in June for our flagship, in-person transformational coach certification program, one thing is certain: this isn’t just a course that teaches you to coach. It’s a path that helps you come home to yourself.

About the Author: Christi Byerly, MCC, is the founder and CEO of Awaken Coach Institute. Her coaching process motivates you to build a community of empathy and grace around you, and to live your mission as part of something bigger than you are. With over 15 years of coaching experience, Christi has trained hundreds of new coaches and maintains a thriving practice focused on depth, presence, and authentic transformation.