Thrive

Online coaching for peacebuilders and humanitarians

Top executives pay top dollar for the best in executive coaching. We believe that people building peace should also have access to professional coaching by trained humanitarian coaches—coaches who have been in their shoes and who have been equipped to help them maximize their potential in the powerful context of the coaching relationship.

“As a peacebuilder in a war-torn country you are swimming against the tide—your family, society and cultural tides. All that swimming against the tides had taken a toll on me. Life became hard for me as I couldn’t do the simple things which I could do in the past. My coach listened to me, understood my situation and encouraged me to bring changes in my life by making better choices and decisions. ”
— M.T.E.*, Peacebuilding Project Manager, Kabul (Afghanistan)

Prioritize your resilience from anywhere in the world

Thrive is Petra's core coaching program, designed to help peacebuilders go further, higher, and faster, in a healthy and sustainable way that prioritizes their resilience. Petra's Thrive program brings the power of transformative decision-making as our coaches help Petra clients develop and implement a creative, personalized, empowering action plan.

Through a hybrid online/in-person model, you benefit from online coaching with minimal expense over an extended period, yet actually meet face-to-face with us for added enrichment to your personal growth journey, either at our retreat center in Spain or at your location. It is also possible to pursue all of your coaching online. Our main concern is that you get the support you need, in whatever way possible.

Coaching brave Afghan women peacebuilders online, New York/Malaga/Herat - 2021

“Petra’s Thrive program has allowed me to make continual progress on my vision without the burnout and self-sacrifice I had become so used to working with as a peacebuilder and entrepreneur. Indeed, the support gained through coaching has been transformative in how it has enabled me to accomplish goals in a healthier and more sustainable manner.”
— Hilary Jo Caldis, Founder & CEO, The Female Voice
 

  • Coaching is generally undertaken with clients who are self-aware and have the internal drive to make changes and formulate solutions. Coaches are not counselors, psychotherapists, teachers, trainers or consultants, although they may use some of the same skills and tools. Some coaches may have professional credentials in psychology; most do not. That said, most coaches collaborate with therapists when a client requires this form of intervention. This is particularly appropriate in cases when a client has experienced trauma, secondary trauma, or a critical incident.

  • The status quo in the sector is to ‘tough it out’ until things reach a critical point. By then, intervention is often too little, too late. Coaching is a valuable approach to help professionals building peace deal with the many issues and challenges of their work before they become problematic. Instead of waiting to reach this crisis point, the relationship with a Petra coach helps peacebuilders look ahead, plan ahead, and craft and implement tailored resilience strategies with a coach who knows the field realities and challenges firsthand.

  • You decide which goals or problems to work on while the coach is there to ask questions, listen, draw out information while helping to reveal blind spots, and support personal learning. Coaches can provide helpful input or suggestions you ask, but the best answers always come from you as you are truly the expert on your own life. Together, you will design action steps to help reach your goals, and your coach will follow-up with you to help you stay accountable.

 

* Some names and organizations cannot appear for security reasons.