I have a coaching client who says she wants “accountability” from me to make her do the decluttering she needs. She wants to email me after she’s calendared it so it holds her accountable, and would prefer to meet several times a week to make sure she does the homework (I’ve limited it to twice a week, which is more than I would prefer). We are 3 sessions into a 9-session package. I keep bringing her back to her brain feeling like she needs someone besides herself to “make” her do something. She also very focused on semantics – when I say it’s your brain, she spends 6 minutes on explaining why she calls it a “part” of herself. We spent a whole session with her saying she’s going to give me feedback on my coaching her because she needs specific things which aren’t what I’m coaching her on. I know it’s her brain avoiding the work.

C – Client says I need you to hold me accountable
T – Her brain is distracting her from holding herself accountable
F – Determined
A – Continue showing her the results of her thoughts, allowing myself the discomfort of not seeing the “win,” processing the session afterwards to see where I can improve, asking here for other possible approaches
R – Not giving up on my client

So I am asking… is there another approach that might be useful here? I’ve thought through what else I can do besides keep pointing her back to what her brain (or in her terms, the part of her) that wants to distract and avoid. But it seems that she was on the verge of quitting (which is sad for herself because she’s not going to get the decluttering done).