What does it really mean to “be with” a client? In this conversation, Elias Scultori, MCC, and Jayme Roderick, ACC, explore the inner work behind genuine coaching presence—and why it begins with our relationship with ourselves.

Jayme reflects on how a client’s overwhelm can activate our own, how the need to fix or perform can limit what becomes possible in a session, and how courage allows coaches to move toward the moments they might otherwise avoid. Together, they consider imperfection, silence, emotion, chaos, self-awareness, and the body’s signals as part of the coaching process.

The invitation is simple, but demanding: notice what is happening within you so you can meet the client more fully. Because every place we cannot yet be with in ourselves may become a limit in how we can be with another person.

Jayme Roderick, ACC, spent more than 25 years bringing stories to life on Broadway, off Broadway, and at Pixar before turning toward human transformation as an integration and empowerment coach, speaker, and workshop facilitator. Jayme is the founder and CEO of The Colorful Heart, LLC.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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What makes a coaching conference valuable? The presentations and professional learning matter, of course. But sometimes the most meaningful moments happen after the formal program ends.

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori reflects on Luminous 2026, the ICF South Florida conference held in Miami on October 9, where PRIME Coaching Academy was a sponsor. He acknowledges the people who made the event possible, shares highlights from the conference, and reflects on the open conversations about the challenges and future of the coaching profession.

The heart of the episode, however, is an unexpected dinner invitation. After a long day, Elias nearly chooses to return to his hotel and rest. Instead, he joins a small group of coaches for a conversation that moves beyond coaching into childhood, cultural backgrounds, travel, values, world affairs, and the many ways we see the world.

The experience becomes a reminder that diversity becomes meaningful when we are open to learning from it—and that we do not need to share the same experiences or conclusions to form meaningful connections.

Elias offers a simple invitation to coaches: participate in your professional community, especially through regional conferences. Go beyond the presentations. Stay for the conversations. You may find a new idea for your practice, but you may also rediscover why this profession matters.

The real light of our profession comes not only from what we know, but from what becomes possible when we bring our humanity into the room and choose to grow together.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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100 episodes later, what has PRIME SPACE taught us about coaching?

For this milestone episode, Elias Scultori invites regular listeners from around the world to share the ideas and conversations that have had the greatest impact on their coaching.

Their reflections touch on humility, not knowing, presence, partnership, purpose, curiosity, skill development, and the courage to resist shortcuts.

Taken together, they point to something deeper: coaching is more than a collection of techniques or best practices. It is a way of relating to another human being.

After 100 conversations, the journey continues.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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With episode 100 just around the corner, Elias Scultori, MCC, sits down with Amy Donovan, MCC, to look back at the journey of PRIME Coaching Academy and PRIME SPACE—and to ask a larger question:

What are we building?

The conversation begins with the origins of PRIME Coaching Academy and the shared vision that brought Elias and Amy together: coach education that puts the power of coaching at the center.

From there, they explore what has emerged over the past few years—a community of coaches committed to learning, development, connection, and the continual refinement of their practice.

They talk about what it means to be a serious learner, why certification is not the ultimate goal, the relationship between coaching mindset and coaching skill, and what PRIME SPACE has become through 99 episodes of conversations with coaches from around the world.

But this episode isn't only about looking back.

Elias and Amy also look ahead to 2027 and the possibilities for expanding learning opportunities, supporting experienced coaches, and creating more ways for coaches to participate in community.

Because ultimately, the question isn't only what PRIME has built.

It's what we are building together—as coaches, as a community, and as a profession.

Episode 99 is a reflection, a conversation, and an invitation to participate.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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Why Client-Generated Awareness Matters in Coaching...

In coaching, awareness is often treated as the desired outcome of a conversation. But who creates it matters. When a coach provides the insight, answer, solution, or interpretation, the client may receive something useful—but the source of the awareness remains outside of them.

In this episode, Elias explores why awareness needs to belong to the client. He looks at how coaches create the conditions for awareness to emerge, why no magical question or technique can manufacture insight, and why the real value of coaching may be less about what the coach knows and more about what the client discovers for themselves.

When clients generate their own awareness, they do more than find an answer. They are practicing their ability to think, question assumptions, recognize resources, make choices, and trust their own capacity.

And perhaps that is one of the most powerful things coaching can offer: not simply an answer for today, but the growing ability to find their own answers tomorrow.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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What if the body could speak in a coaching conversation?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, speaks with David Ridley-Parris, ACC, about somatic coaching and what becomes possible when coaches expand their attention beyond the verbal and conceptual.

David shares how his work with clients experiencing grief and loss led him to somatic coaching. He noticed that, at times, “their language hadn’t necessarily caught up to what their body already knew.” From there, the conversation explores how the body, the client’s environment, objects, movement, and physical space can become additional sources of awareness within a coaching conversation.

David explains the distinction between conceptual and embodied self-awareness, addresses the concern that somatic coaching may feel “too woo-woo,” and describes how he introduces somatic exploration as an invitation rather than something imposed on the client.

The conversation includes practical examples—from simply taking a few breaths or walking, to using body shapes, moving through physical space to explore decisions, and working with everyday objects as metaphors. All of David’s somatic coaching is conducted virtually, with clients exploring their own bodies and environments from their own space.

At its heart, this is a conversation about expanding the vocabulary of coaching beyond words—and considering what else might support a client in becoming more aware of what is happening for them.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
02:21 - Why David Came to Somatic Coaching
04:13 - What Is Somatic Coaching?
06:08 - Is Somatic Coaching Too “Woo-Woo”?
08:51 - Introducing Somatics Into Coaching
10:38 - Letting the Body Speak
11:29 - Exploring Decisions Through Movement
13:47 - Somatic Coaching on Zoom
14:01 - When Objects Become Metaphors
15:13 - Beyond Words
16:29 - David’s Invitation to Coaches
17:01 - Closing

About David Ridley-Parris

David Ridley-Parris, ACC, is a coach based in Portugal who works with clients around the world. With a background in HR and a coaching practice that includes grief and loss as well as executive clients, David explores how somatic approaches can expand the ways coaches support awareness and exploration.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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It's a question more coaches are asking—and one worth taking seriously.

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, explores why coaching needs a professional organization, particularly as a self-regulated profession. Standards, ethics, accountability, professional identity, collective learning, and public trust all depend on our willingness to come together and take responsibility for the profession we are creating.

But coming together does not mean agreeing with everything an organization does.

Elias challenges coaches to consider a more difficult question: Is the ICF serving the profession? Are we preserving what is distinctive about coaching? And are we willing to question, challenge, and contribute to the benefit of sustainable and intentional growth of the profession?

The answer isn't to walk away.
It's to engage.

Because the ICF is not the profession.
We are the profession.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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What does it really mean to pursue the MCC credential?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, is joined by Annalise Koltai, MCC, to explore her journey from discovering coaching as a distinct professional craft to earning her Master Certified Coach credential with the International Coaching Federation.

But this isn't really a conversation about credentials.

It is a conversation about excellence.

Annalise shares what she learned about the difference between coaching and other helping professions, the value of coach-specific training, and what happened when she became willing to approach her own coaching with a beginner's mind. She talks candidly about the uncomfortable parts of the MCC journey—including examining the habits, assumptions, and personal patterns that had become embedded in her work.

Together, Elias and Annalise explore a central question for every professional coach:

What does it mean to remain committed to becoming better at this craft?

They discuss deliberate practice, supervision and mentor coaching, the relationship between preparation and presence, and why letting go in the coaching session is only possible when we have done the work beforehand.

The MCC, as this conversation makes clear, is not the end of the journey. It can be the beginning of a deeper commitment to the craft.

Because excellence isn't something we achieve once.
It is something we continue to practice.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

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