THE PERSON – Macarena Ybarra

Discover the career which has led me to become a coach and in a more personal way how I found the true value of Coaching for unblocking certain situation and attaining concrete objectives.

I arrived in Brussels in 1990 to do a specialization in European Law. At the same time, I was working in the European Parliament as well as in the Department of European Affairs of a Chamber of Lawyers.

Two years later, I created my company, European Development Projects (EDP) which trained its clients in the drawing up of international proposals and the carrying out of European projects.

The work principally involved the following activities:

• Drawing up, managing and presenting various international proposals to the European Commission, proposals in which at least three institutions from Member States or third countries had to participate.
• Defining the functions of the project partners and negotiating with them their respective tasks in the overall project.
• Managing technical and financial aspects of the international network.
• Organizing the international meetings.

Later, my career has brought me into the world of coaching. I was trained by the best Spanish, French and English companies certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF). I am certified as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by the ICF, certified Master in Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), as well as a certified Social and Emotional Intelligence Coach, Firewalking Instructor and in other Coaching programmes.

Coaching, as I practice it today, feeds on the knowledge I have acquired in the area of international relations. It takes advantage of my experience of working with people of different nationalities and jobs and the management of the process of change that I have used over the years.

I discovered the essential value of coaching through a personal experience which allowed me to see it not only as a totally separate profession but also as a real way of life.

On returning from my first coaching training course in Madrid, I gave my children a present of make-up. That day when I had just made up my daughter and we were going out to play in the park, she suddenly stopped in front of the entry gate, visibly blocked by her new make-up as a rabbit. I had the choice between two possible attitudes; either I react as normal in encouraging her to go in ignoring her difficulty, or I decide to put coaching to the test in order to see what it could bring to my daughter in this concrete situation. I opted for the second possibility, throwing myself into a rapid Coaching session to discover what was paralyzing her in that way and what she wanted to do confronted by that situation.

Here is the conversation we had:

– What is happening?
– Nothing.
– What do you want to do?
– Go in.
– And what is happening now?
– I cannot go in.
– What is stopping you?
– I am ashamed and afraid.
– What is this shame and fear for you?
– I do not know but it is stopping me from going in.
– How would you feel if you were not suffering from shame and fear?
– Very good.
– What could you do to feel good and go into the park?
– Go in thinking that no one is looking at me!

In a very concrete way, I had accompanied my daughter through a process of reflection during which she had become aware of the situation, of her limits and, above all, of her decision to attain her objective and having, which is more important, the possibility afterwards of reproducing the same behavior in a similar situation.

You can in effect transpose this dialogue into any personal or professional situation, from the adult to the child. What is interesting is that it illustrates very well the Coaching methodology as a path towards change which offers everyone the possibility of working on their potential to overcome difficulties and attain all their objectives.

To finish, I would like to thank you for sharing this personal space. Sharing is a word which is so dear to me and which I always associate with coaching: sharing with the client his or her objectives, process of change , thinking and finally personal success.

If you want to contact Macarena Ybarra, click aquí.