1. Diagnosis

The coachee and group members are uncertain how to stay present with a service user's distress and still move decisively into practical help.

2. Behaviour Observations

What you might see or hear that points to this pattern.

• Some group members express fear about encountering strong emotion from service users and feel unprepared for it.
• The coachee identifies leaping into practical action — not the emotional holding — as the high point of her own performance.
• Group members are uncertain how to transfer awareness of a service user's human and emotional needs when passing the case to another organisation or colleague.

3. Session Objective

The objective of the session is to help the group understand that emotional involvement and practical action are not in tension — that holding space for distress can coexist with moving into help. Help group members name what made it possible to act effectively in the moment, and surface the fear some carry about meeting raw human emotion. Get the group to articulate for themselves what it looks like to pass empathy, not just information, when handing a case on to another person or organisation.

4. Session Tactics

How to prepare for and structure the 45-minute call review.

Open the floor to one coachee's account of a demanding outreach, tracking the rest of the group for signs of anxiety or disconnection as the story unfolds. When the story reaches its action phase, shift the group's attention explicitly to what factors made decisive action possible in that moment. Invite others to share their own experience of being with a service user who is visibly distressed; when fear of that emotion surfaces, discuss giving the person enough space to cry while remaining present and available to move to next steps. Explore with the group how empathy — not only case detail — can be carried forward when a case is handed on to another party. Where a group member is not yet ready to name what they will do differently, allow more discussion before pressing for a concrete takeaway.

5. GROW Experiments

Experiments the coachee might choose to try. These are offers, not prescriptions — the coachee selects what feels right for them.