When Client Progress Stalls: Why It’s Not a Setback — It’s a Signal

Author: Satyam Veronica Chalmers, Founder Depth-Oriented Coaching Institute.

Sophie arrived at her coaching session beaming.
After months of feeling invisible at work, she had finally spoken up in a leadership meeting and her idea had been received with enthusiasm. In the following weeks, she set clearer boundaries with colleagues, took on a high-visibility project, and even started saying “no” without apologizing.

It felt like a breakthrough.

But then, something shifted.
She started cancelling sessions at the last minute. She avoided the project that had once excited her. Her voice, once animated, sounded flat.

When we finally met again, she sighed and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I was doing so well… and now I just can’t seem to keep going.”

As coaches, we’ve all seen this arc.
A client begins open and energized. Insights flow. Action follows. Then… a stall.

It’s tempting to interpret it as disinterest, or a loss of motivation. But often, it’s something far more meaningful: the system’s way of slowing down to protect what feels vulnerable.

Why Progress Often Triggers Protection

From a neuroscience and parts work perspective, change isn’t just mental, it’s somatic and relational.

When a client begins to take meaningful steps toward visibility, vulnerability, boundaries, or new ways of being, they’re stepping beyond what their nervous system knows as “safe.”

This can activate protective parts:

• A protector part that worries about failing… or succeeding.

• A younger part that feels exposed, unsafe, or unseen.

• A manager part that distracts or overthinks to regain control.

To the client, this can feel like confusion, stuckness, or self-sabotage. But inside, it’s a protective response. The progress has bumped up against inner edges.

The Neuroscience of Stalling

The brain’s default is safety through familiarity. Even if an old pattern is uncomfortable, overworking, people-pleasing, emotional suppression, it’s predictable. It keeps the nervous system regulated in its own way.

When a client starts disrupting those patterns, for example, speaking up, claiming space, saying “no”, the amygdala and autonomic nervous system may read it as threat.

That can trigger a stress response: fight, flight, freeze… or in coaching, stall.
Progress doesn’t just bring hope. It brings risk.
And the system, wisely, slows down.

How to Support Clients When They Stall

Our role isn’t to push through this phase, it’s to pause with it, meeting the client exactly where they are.

1. Normalize the Stall
   Let your client know slowing down isn’t failure. It’s part of the arc of change.

   “It’s common to feel a dip after making big changes. Let’s stay curious about what’s showing up inside.”

2. Invite Mindful Contact
   Track what’s alive in the moment, for example, breath, body sensations, tone, posture, or silence.

   “What happens in your body when you think about moving forward?”
   “Is there a part of you that feels unsure, scared, or hesitant?”

3. Explore the Protective Parts
   With gentle curiosity, invite the client to meet the part that’s pulling them away from action.

   “If that hesitation had a voice, what would it say?”
   “What is it protecting you from?”

4. Resource the System
   Support safety through grounding, affirming wins, or visualizing support. Until the nervous system feels safe, logic alone won’t move things forward.

5. Stay with the Process, Not the Problem
   Shift focus from “fixing” the stall to exploring what it’s revealing. This is often where deeper integration and transformation happens.

Stuckness Is Not a Problem. It’s a Portal.

When Sophie began meeting her stall with curiosity rather than judgment, she discovered a part that feared visibility would lead to rejection. By acknowledging and resourcing that part, her momentum didn’t just return, it felt more grounded and sustainable.

This is the paradox of progress: the moments that look like setbacks often hold the deepest opportunities for transformation.

When we meet those moments with presence, mindfulness, and parts-aware coaching, we stop forcing change and start creating space for what’s truly ready to emerge.

About the Author: Satyam Veronica Chalmers is the founder of Depth-Oriented Coaching, where she coaches, trains and mentors coaches to work with presence, mindfulness, somatics, and parts-informed approaches. With over 25 years of experience, she is passionate about supporting coaches to slow down, attune to what’s emerging, and hold transformational space with depth and integrity. Through her programs and writing, she invites coaches to reconnect with themselves and discover the kind of presence that truly supports change.