Creative coaching strategies to spark breakthroughs and move you forward.
🔗 “This isn’t about thinking outside the box. There is no box.”
What It’s All About
Welcome to Stretch the Box Coaching — a space where creative techniques meet practical coaching. This is where you’ll find tools, ideas, and activities that help people get unstuck, re-energise, and discover fresh ways forward.
Rather than “thinking outside the box,” this approach stretches the box you already have — expanding perspectives while keeping you grounded in your unique context. So why not stretch it, reshape it, and make it work for you?
What is Stretch the Box Coaching?
Stretch the Box Coaching is my approach to weaving creative engagement strategies into coaching conversations. It’s about making exploration tangible, playful, and deeply engaging.
With these techniques, clients can:
- See problems from fresh angles.
- Reframe challenges into opportunities.
- Unlock clarity through metaphor, stories, and creative play.
- Build confidence to take the next step.
It’s coaching that engages head, heart, and hands.
Who It’s For
- Career Development Practitioners wanting fresh facilitation techniques.
- Educators looking to make learning more interactive.
- Coaches who know some clients think better with their hands than with a spreadsheet.
- Anyone who loves tools that surprise, delight, and provoke meaningful insight.
Creative Techniques in Action
Scroll through the blog posts linked here to discover:
- Step-by-step guides to creative techniques.
- Reflections from live events.
- Downloadable resources to try in your own sessions.
Here are some of the creative tools and posts you’ll find here:
Steampunk Gears Mapping – Exploring through interlocking gears of values, skills, and goals.
Rubber Duck Reflections → Using simple, surprising prompts to shift perspective.
And so much more. . .
Each post explores not just what the technique is, but why it works and how you can adapt it for different audiences.
[View All Posts →]
Games, Tools, and Resources (Coming Soon)
This page also links to interactive resources you can use straight away:
- Card decks for career exploration and coaching prompts.
- Metaphor-based games like the Gummy Bear Career Oracle.
- Creative kits for workshops and one-to-one sessions.
- Books such as “The Bonkers Book of Stretch-The-Box Coaching Activities” and so much
From the Field: Fuddle on the Rhine
In May 2025, I hosted Fuddle on the Rhine in Cologne Germany — a floating playground of creative career exploration, that brought together career development practitioners from around the world to experience these strategies firsthand.
We explored creative prompts, swapped stories, shared cross-cultural insights, stretched our coaching practice together and proved that a workshop can happen anywhere… even on a riverboat.
Events like these show how powerful Stretch the Box Coaching can be when applied across contexts, borders, and communities.
Fuddle on the Rhine: A Celebration of Creativity, Connection & Career Conversations
Keep an eye out for future fuddles on ……
Why Stretch the Box Works
Because creativity isn’t about abandoning structure — it’s about giving it room to grow.
When you stretch the box, you:
- Keep what’s useful.
- Make space for new perspectives.
- Invite unexpected connections.
Jenn Barfield - Holistic Career Development Coaching 