Blog Posts | Darren Priest Coaching

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Building Trust, Respect, and Empowerment into Boundary Management Training

Fostering Safety and High Expectations Without Catastrophising Boundary management is a critical skill for professionals who work closely with clients, especially in sectors such as healthcare, education, social work, and counselling. The primary aim of boundary management training is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both professionals and clients. However, the approach taken in such training can greatly influence the culture of an organisation

November 9, 2025 No Comments

Employability

My Best Hopes for Supported Employment: Helping Clients to Thrive

Employment Needs Analysis Individual Employment Plan At the heart of Supported Employment lies a simple but powerful idea — that everyone has skills, strengths, and resources that can be built upon to create meaningful and sustainable work. My Employment Needs Analysis (ENA) and Individual Employment Plan (IEP) documents represent my very best hopes for how Supported Employment can truly work with clients — in ways

November 3, 2025 No Comments

Employability

Reciprocity, not money, makes the world go round

When you’re building your career or searching for new opportunities, the strongest connections often start with one simple action — giving first. This is something I feel is important for me and I wanted to share it with you. Psychologist Dr Robert Cialdini calls this reciprocity — the natural human tendency to return what we receive. When we offer help, appreciation, or interest first, others instinctively respond

October 30, 2025 No Comments

Employability

Value My Skills Cards

I am kind of old fashioned and enjoy working with tactile cards. However, this can also be done online Value My Skills | unionlearn Coaching Session Plan: “Discovering My Transferable Skills” Purpose To help the client identify and build on their transferable skills using a strengths-based, Solution Focused Approach. Duration 60 minutes Materials “Value My Skills” transferable skills cards Paper or digital notes for

October 22, 2025 No Comments

Improve

Book Review: Go Beyond: Solution-Focused Pocket Mentor for the Work Evolutionists: Start Transformations Today – Book 1 by Elvira Kalmar

The central premise of this book, apart from the smart way a Solution Focused (SF) approach seeps into the fibre of its pages, is the notion of a ‘Work Evolutionist’. My initial, admittedly cynical, reaction was that this was an appealing title conceived before a theory. Nothing could be further from the truth. The concept is grounded in many years of practice at the cutting

October 7, 2025 No Comments

Employability

An example script: How to use Dr Julia Yates’s Career Coaching Cards

Click here 45-Minute Scripted Session (with 3 Career Coaching Cards) 0–5 min | Welcome & Orientation Coach:“Thanks for being here today. We’ll use these Career Coaching Cards as prompts. Each card reflects an idea that can help people think about their careers. I’ll invite you to pick a few that stand out, and we’ll use them to imagine the future you’d like and the

September 17, 2025 No Comments