At the start of International Coaching Week, I'm reflecting on my rewarding experience as a coach

As professional coaches around the world celebrate International Coaching Week (ICW is from May 12th to 18th, 2025), it’s the perfect time to say “Thank You” to our clients. I for one, am deeply grateful for the trust and time that each coaching client has gifted me. Coaching as a profession has changed me as a person. I have found the glow that lights me up from within, and it’s the energy that I get from my clients that helps me heal and grow.

Being needed is healing. Safety and belonging are most often found in the arms of those who need us, not in the ones we feel we need.

Purpose, passion, and many other things that we are told to chase after can only emerge from the safe space of belonging. The more I want to find “me” the more I need to find others who need me. From that place, I emerge stronger. Secure in the knowledge that I am needed, that I am seen and heard and valued for what I offer to those who need me. A coach offers a safe space for another to be seen and heard, a space for them to see and hear themselves. A space of no judgment, a partner in their progress.

The old saying “give and you shall receive” comes alive in a very real way - I receive the healing power of being needed. This takes away my neediness from other parts of life and helps me find balance in the chaos of chasing dreams that are often elusive.

Those that I need and things that I need often seem to be slipping out of my reach just when I felt all was well in my world. Being needed holds my hand constantly - my ability to hold another’s hand and walk with them is ever present with me. I am needed. I belong. I matter. To those who need me.

There is always somebody in need. Someone who I can be of help and support to. In some small way or sometimes maybe a big way. The size and scale of the need is not important. The significance of ‘what I do’ for another or ‘who I choose to be’ with another, who needs me is not always visible.

Sometimes it’s like ripples in a pond, where they began and how far they spread is not in our hands. A kind word to someone. The silence that supports a soul who needs the space to share. The discount offered to a person unable to pay full price. The full service offered to someone who can, delivered on time and with high quality. Big needs being met and small ones, at work or in life, as a coach, as a communicator, as a family member, being needed is a powerful way to heal oneself.

I find that seeking to be of service to others is a way of being needed. In this, I find meaning and often joy. It is my need to heal that I am attending to. My selfish self-care routine can actually be a way of showing up for others. In giving, I receive.

Nikhil Dey is a certified ICF coach and founder of soul2solecoaching. He is the first recipient of the ICF India coaching excellence rising star award.