Coaching with Roots: Systemic Coaching in the Arab Context
Most coaching models were developed in Western cultural contexts — and while the principles are universal, their language, metaphors, and assumptions don’t always land in the Arab world the way they should. This session invites coaches to explore what it means to practice systemically and ontologically from within our own cultural, relational, and value-based context.
Drawing on over 5,400 hours of coaching practice across the Middle East and GCC, Sharaf explores how Islamic values of responsibility, relational trust, and purposeful growth are not just compatible with masterful coaching — they can deepen it. The session challenges coaches to stop borrowing lenses and start coaching with their own eyes.
This is not a session about adapting Western models to Arab clients. It’s about recognizing that we already carry powerful systemic wisdom — and learning to use it deliberately.
Articulate the distinction between applying coaching models to cultural context versus coaching from within it
Identify at least two ways systemic coaching principles align with and are enriched by Arab relational and value-based frameworks
Reflect on their own coaching identity and the cultural assumptions embedded in their current practice
Apply one immediately usable reframe or question that honours the client's cultural system without reducing it to a stereotype
All
CC : 0 RD : 1
