Life Coaching and therapy may be considered similar, but they are not the same thing. Each focuses on helping the individual to discover solutions on their own. There are many different types of therapy, some of which may be, in content, quite similar to life coaching. Some kinds of therapy, such as those aimed at dealing with a phobia, tend to be problem-focused. Treatment ceases when the symptoms disappear or become manageable for the client. Analysis is another type of therapy. It is long-term and works at uncovering the roots of issues—understanding the client's emotional history and possible past psychological trauma—in order to enable the client to move forward. Thus, there are a wide variety of therapeutic options, ranging from quick and narrowly focused to long and broad-scoped and everything in between, but all are regulated.
The evidenced-based coaching movement supports the use of coaching techniques based on proven concepts in clinical psychology/counselling. Coaching techniques, like those based on the work of Alfred Adler * and Gestalt Coaching, based on Gestalt psychology** are emerging based on traditional counselling approaches.
Coaching is a professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual, or team, that supports the achievement of results, based on goals set by the individual, or team. The individual or team chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions as well as concepts and principles which assist in generating possibilities and identifying actions. Coaching accelerates the individual's or team’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of possibilities leading to more effective choices, fresh perspectives, enhanced thinking and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles.
How can you determine if coaching is right for you?
Since coaching is a partnership, ask yourself if you find it valuable to collaborate, to have another viewpoint and to be asked to consider new perspectives. Also, ask yourself if you are ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes in your work or life. If the answer to these questions is yes, then coaching may be a beneficial way for you to grow and develop.
What are some typical reasons someone might want to work with a coach?
There are many reasons that an individual or team might choose to work with a coach, including but not limited to the following:
· There is something at stake (a challenge, stretch goal or opportunity), and it is urgent, compelling or exciting or all of the above
· There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence, or resources
· A big stretch is being asked or required, and it is time sensitive
· There is a desire to accelerate results
· There is a need for a course correction in work or life due to a setback
· An individual has a style of relating that is ineffective or is not supporting the achievement of one’s personally relevant goals
· There is a lack of clarity, and there are choices to be made
· The individual is extremely successful, and success has started to become problematic
· Work and life are out of balance, and this is creating unwanted consequences
· One has not identified his or her core strengths and how best to leverage them
· The individual desires work and life to be simpler, less complicated
· There is a need and a desire to better organized and more self-managing
· There is a lack of self-esteem and/or self identity
What has caused the tremendous growth in the coaching industry?
Coaching has grown significantly for many reasons. Generally the world has changed a lot, and coaching is a useful tool to deal with many of those changes. There is more job transition, more self-employment and small business. Some of the real life factors include:
· Rapid changes in the external business environment
· Downsizing, restructuring, mergers and other organizational changes have radically altered what has been termed the “traditional employment contract”—companies can no longer achieve results using traditional management approaches
· There is a growing shortage of talented employees in certain industries—to attract and retain top talent, companies must commit to investing in individuals’ development
· There is a widening disparity between what managers were trained to do and what their jobs now require them to do in order to meet increasing demands for competitive results
· There is unrest on the part of many employees and leaders in many companies—people are wrestling with fears around job insecurity and increased workplace pressures to perform at higher levels than ever before.
· Companies must develop inclusive, collaborative work environments, in order to achieve strategic business goals, and to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction
In addition, individuals who have experienced the excellent results of coaching are talking to more people about coaching. In short, coaching helps people focus on what matters most to them in life: business and personal. People today are more open to the idea of being in charge of their own lives. Coaching helps people do just that; so the industry continues to grow.
How is coaching delivered? Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by teleconference call) to assess the individual’s current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action, and establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the telephone, with each session lasting a previously established length of time. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of one’s personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments, or models, to support the individual’s thinking and actions. The duration of the coaching relationship varies depending on the individual’s personal needs and preferences. What should someone look for when selecting a coach?The most important thing to look for in selecting a coach is someone with whom you feel you can easily relate and create the most powerful partnership. Someone you feel comfortable with. Be sure to ask:· What is your coaching experience?· What is your coach specific training? · What is your coaching specialty or client areas you most often work in? · What specialized skills or experience do you bring to your coaching? · What are some coaching success stories? (specific examples of individuals who have done well and examples of how you have added value, although due to confidentiality names would not be mentioned.) How long does a coach work with an individual?The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual's or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months of working with a coach may work, this could be once or twice a month. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period. Factors that may impact the length of time include: the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the frequency of coaching meetings, and financial resources available to support coaching. How is coaching distinct from other service professions? Professional coaching is a distinct service which focuses on an individual’s life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management. In an effort to understand what a coach is, it can be helpful to distinguish coaching from other professions that provide personal or organizational support.Therapy—Coaching can be distinguished from therapy in a number of ways. First, coaching is a profession that supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success. Coaching is forward moving and future focused. Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a relationship between two or more individuals. The focus is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past which hamper an individual's emotional functioning in the present, improving overall psychological functioning, and dealing with present life and work circumstances in more emotionally healthy ways. Therapy outcomes often include improved emotional/feeling states. While positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one's work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability and follow through.Consulting—Consultants may be retained by individuals or organizations for the purpose of accessing specialized expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, there is often an assumption that the consultant diagnoses problems and prescribes and sometimes implements solutions. In general, the assumption with coaching is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.Mentoring—Mentoring, which can be thought of as guiding from one’s own experience or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development, is sometimes confused with coaching. Although some coaches provide mentoring as part of their coaching, such as in mentor coaching new coaches, coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach. Training—Training programs are based on the acquisition of certain learning objectives as set out by the trainer or instructor. Though objectives are clarified in the coaching process, they are set by the individual or team being coached with guidance provided by the coach. Training also assumes a linear learning path which coincides with an established curriculum. Coaching is less linear without a set curriculum plan.Athletic Development—Though sports metaphors are often used, professional coaching is different from the traditional sports coach. The athletic coach is often seen as an expert who guides and directs the behavior of individuals or teams based on his or her greater experience and knowledge. Professional coaches possess these qualities, but it is the experience and knowledge of the individual or team that determines the direction. Additionally, professional coaching, unlike athletic development, does not focus on behaviours that are being executed poorly or incorrectly. Instead, the focus is on identifying opportunity for development based on individual strengths and capabilities. Maggie is a leading expert on confidence and self-esteem coaching and is the only Dawn Breslin™ Accredited Life Coach Practitioner and Group Trainer on the Isle of Wight and one of very few in the UK to have graduated from the Dawn Breslin Training Academy. Maggie is also an OCN accredited Corporate & Executive Coach and Personal Life Coach, having graduated from both Newcastle College and The Coaching Academy and has considerable experience in coaching individuals in their personal lives, in addition to their careers. Her holistic and lively approach to personal development from the delivery of the training and coaching continues through to on-going support. No ifs, no buts, just results.Maggie is passionate about helping people to rebuild their self-esteem and their confidence and loves to watch people change in front of her. She loves to help everyone she can to really live their best lives and enjoy themselves to the full. Not only that she practices what she offers to all her clients and lives her life to the full and enjoys it all.
* Alfred Adler (February 7, 1870 – May 28, 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor and psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology. Adler co-founded psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud and a small group of Freud's colleagues. He was the first major figure to break away from psychoanalysis to form an independent school of psychotherapy and personality theory. Adler had an enormous impact on the disciplines of counselling and psychotherapy as they would develop over the course of the 20th century (Ellenberger, 1970).
** Gestalt psychology is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies; or, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The classic Gestalt example is a soap bubble, whose spherical shape is not defined by a rigid template, or a mathematical formula, but rather it emerges spontaneously by the parallel action of surface tension acting at all points in the surface simultaneously.
Life Coaching vs Counselling and other therapies - To learn more about this author, visit Maggie Currie's Website.
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Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland Smith's Website |
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Maggie Currie
(Visit Maggie's Website)
I am a leading expert on self-esteem and
confidence building. I am a graduate of
Newcastle College, The Coaching Academy
and Dawn Breslin Training Academy. I am
one of very few life coach practitioners
and group trainers in the UK accredited by
Dawn Breslin.
In additional I am an OCN accredited
Corporate & Executive coach and an OCN
accredited Personal Life Coach.
I am passionate about helping people to
live the lives they want to live and just
love to watch people change in front of
me.
In addition I am an accredited holistic
therapist and practice Indian Head
Massage, Thought field Therapy, Crystal
and Coulour therapies, Reiki.
I really love what I do.
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