Why Love Matters in Coaching

276: Why Love Matters in Coaching with Helena Clayton

In this Episode

The closing episode of the Love in Coaching series, Helena Clayton weaves together the key themes from previous conversations, reflecting on how coaching is evolving beyond performance-driven outcomes towards deeper, more human-centred practice. She explores the importance of coaches doing their own inner work — developing self-awareness and understanding how personal histories and relationships with love shape the way we coach.

Helena considers the ethical and relational implications of bringing love into coaching, including flexible contracting, empathy, and the courage required to work more boldly in organisational contexts. She also reflects on gender dynamics, particularly the role of men supporting men in this work and invites coaches to consider whether explicitly naming love is necessary — or whether it can be embodied through practice. The episode widens the lens to include broader social, global, and spiritual perspectives, highlighting love’s connection to meaning and presence in coaching.

The episode concludes with practical reflections on how love can be embodied through care, deep listening, and acceptance, alongside book, podcast, and workshop recommendations and an invitation for listener engagement — affirming love’s growing significance in coaching practice and the wider world.

You Will Learn

• How coaching has evolved from performance focused to deeper explorations of identity, meaning and human connection and why love is involved
• Why coach’s self-awareness and inner work are essential to understanding how love shows up in practice
• Bringing love into coaching requires ethical courage, relational sensitivity and awareness of wider social and spiritual contexts

Guest Bio

Helena's work is supporting organisations and leadership teams in all sectors to create healthy and human working cultures. Done mostly through designing and running powerful bespoke leadership development workshops and interventions, she is also a coach and coach supervisor. Threaded through and in addition to her core work is her research and pioneering workshops exploring love and the role it could - and perhaps should - play in leadership and in our organisations, as well as in our wider lives.

Connect with Helena