Coaching? Or
Therapy? What is the
difference? Several years before
I became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I studied to become a
Certified Life Coach. I trained in
various programs, did some classes and a lot of reading on life
strategies. I had always felt that my
life experiences and people skills would lend to helping people in their lives
to achieve their dreams. I had used many
of these skills that I had acquired to improve my own life. As a
therapist, I have used my training as a life coach in my work with clients and
in my education and training for my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy; I
learned that coaching is a big part of the therapy process. Coaching however; is not therapy. Here are some descriptions and quotes about
coaching that may help you to understand the differences. Those who do meet criteria for mental health services benefit greatly from therapy and coaching can help them support and maintain changes in their lives. However, coaching is not a substitute for therapy services. Profession Coaching: Professional coaching provides an
ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in
their personal and professional lives.
Coaching helps clients improve their performance and improve the quality
of their lives. s needs. The coach seeks to elicit solutions and
strategies from the client, and they believe the client is naturally creative
and resourceful. s job is to
provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the
client already has (International Coaching Federation, 2007). Life Coaching As an Operation System:
Life Coaching is a
powerful human relationship in which training coaches assist people to design
their future rather than get over their past.
Through a typically long-term relationship, coaches aid clients in
creating visions and support achieving those goals. Coaches recognize the
brilliance of each client and their personal power to discover their own
solutions when provided with support, accountability, and unconditional
positive regard (Williams & Davis, 2002). In my own words, I would describe coaching as a partnership based on
future thinking. s past in reference to looking for strengths that the client can use to
achieve their goals. In therapy we are
first looking for pathology. We want to
discover why the client is not able to meet their goals so we can diagnosis the
disorder and develop a treatment plan for their disorder. We do emphasis their strengths but we are
more focused on the areas in which the client is struggling to function in his
life. Diagnosis is an important part of therapy. It is one part I find that, I have
reservations about. I must diagnosis
clients every day using the criteria required from the DSM-5, as my bible of my
professional standard and ethical code.
I understand the need for determining the best treatment approach for
the client. However, I may or may not
share the diagnosis with the client, as some client do not wish to know, and
often do not find that the client meet any or all of the requirements for a
diagnosis. I do treat those clients,
because many of those clients do need therapy services. On the other side, I have many clients who
present to therapy with no need for mental health services and talk therapy
services, but do need coaching services.
They need that partnership that they have not been able to find in any
other arena in their life. They need
accountability, support and the feeling that they have someone who believes in
their dreams. Often clients will explain
that they have desires, and dreams for changing things in their lives, but feel
no one else believes they are capable of achieving those dreams. They may express they have accomplish many
things professionally, however, they have been on a path that was not of their
choosing or at one time was comfortable, but now they are tired of that
path. They have possibly never voiced
their deepest desire or idea for what they would really like to do in life to
anyone but you. This is one of the
amazing parts of the work that I do. I
love hearing the stories, and the dreams that my clients have, both in therapy
and coaching. They always inspire me. |
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CategoriesaddictionAnger management Coaching Counseling Services Family Therapy Grief Healthcare marriage, relationship Mental Health parenting Therapy |
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