J Health Behav Med Hist 2025-20
Coaching in practice: the cognitive interaction techniques that make coaching possible
Robert C. van de Graaf, MD
Director, MEDTCC Institute for Health, Behaviour, Medicine and its History, The Netherlands
Abstract
This paper presents the third cluster of Interaction Techniques (ITs) within the coaching process: the cognitive techniques that enhance a client’s ability to be coached. Whereas structural ITs provide the framework and relational ITs establish trust, cognitive ITs make comprehension possible. They operate at the intersection of attention, energy, and meaning, helping clients to think clearly, remember, and connect what is being discussed. Drawing on insights from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and coaching practice, the paper shows that understanding is not passive reception but an active, co-regulated process. Coaching becomes effective not when clients are merely motivated, but when they are mentally available and able to integrate what is offered.
The silent prerequisite of every session
In every coaching process there comes a quiet moment of recognition: the client is here—motivated, willing, even trusting—yet somehow unreachable. They listen but do not integrate. They speak but do not connect. Ideas slide off the surface of awareness. What is missing is not willingness, but mental readiness.
Coaching presupposes the capacity to attend, process, and remember. Yet stress, fatigue, or emotional activation can narrow this space of awareness. When arousal rises, the reflective parts of the brain yield to faster, survival-oriented processing, and comprehension collapses. The client may appear cooperative but is, in essence, cognitively offline.
Cognitive interaction techniques address precisely this condition. Their purpose is to reopen the channels of thought—to restore access to reasoning, language, and reflection. The coach becomes, in this sense, a facilitator of comprehension: creating the inner silence in which thinking can occur again.
Coaching as neurocognitive regulation
Cognitive ITs function through the joint regulation of energy, attention, and information flow. The human brain naturally oscillates between states of focused engagement and diffuse relaxation. A skilled coach senses these rhythms and adjusts pacing, tone, and cognitive demand accordingly.
Pausing, summarizing, and segmenting reduce unnecessary cognitive load, freeing working memory to focus on meaning rather than form. Using concrete, familiar language anchors abstract ideas within the client’s own network of experiences. Visual metaphors engage both verbal and visual pathways, enriching understanding through multiple channels.
These techniques are not didactic extras but neuroregulatory interventions. By reducing uncertainty and mental overload, they calm emotional reactivity, re-engage reflective processing, and restore the neural conditions in which thought can re-emerge.
The comprehension principle
Every coaching dialogue begins with a simple but profound question: does the client truly understand you?
Understanding is not the same as hearing. Words may reach the ear yet never land in the mind. True comprehension arises only when what is said fits the client’s own rhythm, language, and mental space. The art of coaching lies in meeting the client where their mind can follow.
When too much is offered, or when ideas move faster than thought can keep up, the bridge of meaning collapses. The client does not resist; their mind simply loses grip. Clarity then becomes an act of care—slowing down, shaping information gently, and leaving space for it to settle.
A skilled coach listens for the moment when understanding falters and restores it through presence, simplicity, and imagery. They translate the abstract into the familiar, the complex into the tangible. They know that comprehension is not a technical act but a shared one—an exchange of attention that builds trust through clarity.
When coach and client think together at the same pace, language becomes connection, and understanding itself becomes the intervention. In that space, coaching turns from instruction into discovery—two minds finding meaning in rhythm.
From confusion to coherence
Confusion is not failure; it is the raw material of learning. The brain reorganizes what it already knows to integrate what is new—but only when information is both safe and comprehensible. Cognitive ITs create that bridge: they reduce complexity to a rhythm the mind can follow.
When a coach paraphrases, connects fragments, or illustrates an idea, they are not simplifying reality—they are translating it into a form the brain can recognize. Coherence feels rewarding because the mind experiences order as relief. The moment a client says, “Now I see what you mean,” is more than metaphor; it marks a physiological shift. Posture softens, breathing steadies, eyes refocus. Insight becomes embodied.
The energetic dimension of cognition
Attention is energy. Every distraction, worry, or inner monologue consumes it. Cognitive ITs therefore act as subtle regulators of that energy—through breathing, pacing, and focused summarizing that restore internal balance.
The coach’s voice, rhythm, and tempo guide the body as much as the mind. A calm pace invites safety; silence allows the nervous system to reset. In those pauses, curiosity replaces defense, and energy once spent on vigilance becomes available for understanding.
Cognitive clarity is therefore not only intellectual but vital. When clients understand, they regain coherence—and coherence feels like strength. The brain experiences order as efficiency, and efficiency as ease. To feel “lighter” after a session is not metaphorical but physiological: the system has re-organized itself.
Thinking together: cognition as relationship
Although cognitive ITs focus on mental processing, they remain relational at heart. Thinking is a social act. The attentive presence of another organizes thought, stabilizes attention, and quiets noise. When a coach mirrors a client’s reasoning, understanding deepens through synchrony.
This is not instruction but co-creation. Two nervous systems align, two minds build meaning together. Understanding becomes a shared construction—an embodied dialogue rather than a transfer of knowledge. In this way, cognition itself becomes relational: thought emerges not inside one brain, but between two.
Clarity as care
Clarity is more than a cognitive virtue; it is a moral stance. To insist on being understood is to honor the client’s mind. In a culture addicted to speed and abstraction, cognitive ITs slow the tempo and affirm that thinking deserves time.
When coaches practice clarity, they model a rare form of respect—teaching that reflection and precision are not luxuries but essentials of care. Cognitive coaching thus restores both personal attention and collective sanity: it heals the modern fatigue of thought.
Conclusion
Cognitive interaction techniques form the silent infrastructure of effective coaching. They restore mental clarity, emotional calm, and attentional focus—the prerequisites for insight and change. While structural ITs provide the framework and relational ITs build trust, cognitive ITs make understanding possible.
When a client leaves saying, “Now I understand what’s happening,” comprehension has occurred—not through persuasion but through alignment. The coach has not imposed knowledge but reopened the conditions in which knowledge can arise. That, more than any technique or tool, is the essence of coaching: thinking made possible.
References
Dijkstra A, Van de Graaf RC, Kootstra Y. Hét praktijkboek voor de leefstijlcoach. Evidence-based technieken voor langdurige leefstijlverandering. Academie coaching en leefstijl 2025.