For many years, coaching was defined by its models—structured frameworks that gave emerging coaches a clear sense of how to navigate a conversation. These models, from GROW to CLEAR and countless others, helped shape the early landscape of coaching by offering a map for practice.
But as the profession has matured, we’ve come to see that while models can be helpful, they are not essential. Coaching, at its heart, is not a sequence of steps or questions—it is a way of being.
Models Are Useful, But They’re Not the Point
At Animas, we teach models not because coaching depends on them, but because they can be useful frameworks for structuring a particular kind of conversation. A model can help a coach navigate a goal-setting discussion, plan actions, or even explore beliefs and patterns.
For instance:
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The GROW model provides a clear, goal-oriented process.
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The A–F model within Cognitive Behavioural Coaching helps analyse the relationship between activating events, beliefs, and consequences.
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Transactional Analysis offers a powerful model for understanding interpersonal dynamics through ego states and transactions.
Each of these offers something valuable. They provide structure, insight, and a shared language for exploring change.
But without the underlying principles of coaching, these models are simply processes—maps without territory. They may guide a conversation, but they cannot create a truly transformative one on their own.
You Can Coach Without Models—but Not Without Principles
You can coach effectively without ever using a model.
But you cannot coach without the principles that define what coaching truly is.
But you cannot coach without the principles that define what coaching truly is.
At Animas, we focus on principles before process because our aim is to develop people who can coach, not people who can follow a formula.
The 12 Core Principles of Transformative Coaching form the foundation of this approach. They include ideas such as:
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Relational – The quality of the relationship is at the heart of transformation.
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Humanistic – Coaching begins with the belief in the client’s inherent potential.
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Dialogic – Growth happens through meaningful dialogue, not prescription.
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Unknowing – The coach does not hold the answers but stays open and curious.
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Systemic – The client exists within a wider context that shapes their experience.
(You can read more about these in our post The 12 Principles of Transformative Coaching.
These principles remind us that coaching is not a procedure—it’s a philosophy and a way of being. They enable coaches to work fluidly, responsively, and creatively, regardless of what “model” might fit a given moment.
When Models Interfere
It’s not that models are bad.
It’s that, if used unreflectively, they can begin to impose themselves over the coaching relationship.
When a coach focuses too much on following a structure, they can lose touch with presence, curiosity, collaboration, and unknowing—the very qualities that make coaching transformative. The conversation becomes something to get through, rather than something to experience together.
That’s why at Animas, we emphasise principles before models. We want coaches to be guided by presence and relationship, not by checklists or steps.
Coaching Beyond the Models
In the early days of coaching, models served an important purpose. They gave shape and credibility to a new profession still learning to define itself. They offered clarity and confidence to new practitioners.
But as the profession has matured, many of us have discovered a richer, more fulfilling space—a place where we can let go of rigid structures and trust the deeper principles that sit beneath all good coaching.
That’s what we stand for at Animas.
We teach models, but we don’t serve them.
We believe in a coaching approach that is guided by principles, presence, and humanity—not process.
Because true transformation doesn’t come from following a map. It comes from understanding the territory.
