“It’s out of control,” the therapist said to me, as I explained what coaches were doing what in the town where we both live and work. “It’s going to have to be regulated.”
In the meantime, I’m there because I’m setting up his website. He is going to go into coaching. He’s one of the best therapists in our town, with an SRO practice. I never asked him why he was adding coaching to the mix. I just assume anyone who could, would, because it’s a great profession, and therapists segue well into the field.
Q: How many coaches are there and how many of them are therapists? A: There are thousands of therapists doing coaching in the US. It’s estimated there are over 20,000 coaches internationally now, with 75% in the US, and an amazing 40% of the 6,000 coaches who belong to the International Coach Federation (ICF) are psychologists or therapists.
Q: Are coaches doing therapy without a license? A: According to the International Coach Federation (ICF), the State of Colorado Mental Health Dept. thinks they might be and is preparing to ask them to register as doing therapy without a license.
Q: Are coaching and therapy the same thing? A: I’m a good one to ask, because I have a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and didn’t get licensed because I realized I didn’t want to do therapy. I went into marketing and PR for many years, where the knowledge of human nature was helpful, and I enjoyed the positive forward-moving goal-oriented emphasis. Then when coaching came along, I realized that’s what I wanted to do next. So to tell me I’m practicing therapy without a license is to invite me somewhere I have politely declined to go, thank you very much.
Linda Watts, a certified EQ Coach for Small Business & Life, ( http://www.lifedesignnetwork.com ), agrees. “What therapists have to get into their heads about coaching,” she says, “is that we coaches don’t want to go there. That would be defeating the whole purpose of coaching.”
Q: Do you think the public knows the difference? A: Yes, intuitively. I have clients also in therapy, and I imagine other coaches do as well. If they were the same thing, why would people be doing that? Legislators may not understand the difference, but the consumer does.
Q: Can you define the difference between the two? A: Here’s a typical coaching scenario: My client calls me from the car wash and I’m on my cell on a cruise where I’m the enrichment lecturer. He didn’t want to “bother” me on my [working] vacation, not being in a crisis, but I wanted to make our scheduled call. Coaching is confidential, but we’re both talking in public and we know it. We agree to meet for dinner when we both return home. He’s working with a therapist, which we don’t discuss. He and I are making plans for his future, and working on Emotional Intelligence competencies. Our mantra is, “We go forward from here.”
The therapeutic techniques I do NOT use in this coaching scenario are: the frame, regression, dependency, no fraternizing, transference, diagnosis, crisis, and no self-disclosure.
Q: What’s your Occam’s Razor on this one? A: Okay, I made that one up, so I can tell you. Occam’s Razor is shaving the answer down til it’s the simplest explanation that covers all the data. Therefore we could pragmatically define therapy these days as “what insurance covers.” A client of Business & EQ Coach Kathleen Spike ( http://www.coachingworksinc.com ) wrote and thanked her for “teaching me how to fly.” That’s not covered in the DSM. One of the reasons therapists are leaving the field is because it’s now basically dictated by the HMOs.
Q: What do coaches do? A: I don’t know about other coaches, but I help people. I help them every way I can, any way I can, and without using therapeutic techniques. I have many areas of expertise, and have not limited myself in ways of helping.
One need I saw, for instance, was people who are depressed. I wrote the eBook, “Depression,” after reading on a depression website, “The cure for depression is the same as the prevention – take positive action.”
If you’ve suffered from depression or know someone who has, you know the symptoms render you unlikely to do be able to do this – indecisiveness and low energy being two of them. So I organize a game plan to get them the help they need. They need to do battle, and they are not in the position to be leading the cavalry. So I do.
According to “Starting Over,””Coaches create solutions to problems people deal with in everyday life.”
Here’s what my client Lulwa Al Marzooqi (Abu Dhabi, we work by MSN and email) says I do: “Since I started learning Emotional Intelligence with Susan: I am more patient in dealing with angry people; I find the ability to empathize with others helps in being loved by others; I get in less fights in conversations, and; It is easier for me to solve problems.
Q: Why do you think coaching evolved? A: To fill a need that wasn’t being met.
Q: What kind of coaches are there? A: Sex, Relationship, Spiritual, ADHD, Business, Marketing, Introverts, Intuition, Resilience, Real Estate, Career, Transitions, Retirement, Teen, Fathering, you name it. Soon there will be a coach for everything. I think that’s great.
Q: What does it take to be a coach? A: There are no barriers to entry. Hang out your shingle and call yourself a coach.
Q: Do you have a problem with that? A: No, I think it’s great. Unfortunately, education, training, credentials and licensing don’t guarantee the person will be good at things like coaching, therapy and teaching. I think we’ve discovered that.
Q: Do you see coaching and therapy as antagonistic? A: No, quite the opposite. And psychiatrists, therapists and the public are beginning to see the possibilities of interface. The Canadian Medical Association has recommended coaching as part of the multi-modal treatment for ADHD. Sometimes I get the person TO the therapist. Sometimes I receive them FROM the therapist. And right now I have a psychiatrist for a client.
Speaking for myself, I’m glad mental health professionals are there, and happy to refer to them. As I said, I don’t want to do therapy. I’ve been the Compliance Coach for some psychiatric patients, keeping them in therapy and on their medication.
Q: Australia’s Boss Magazine claimed that prospective coaching clients were “not very discerning and very educated.” Are they? A: I guess that should read “neither very discerning nor very educated”? Right now among my clients there are the following academic degrees: M.D., Ph.D., M.A., M.S.W, MBA, and assorted bachelor’s degrees. I would say they’re “well-educated,” wouldn’t you? But don’t exclude my clients who are less formally-credentialed, yet plenty savvy. I’m with Thomas Leonard (the founder of coaching) when he said, “Check your boy scout badges and credentials at the door.” In coaching we look at the person.
Q: How do you know if you need a therapist or a coach, or both? A: People seem to know. Intuition, I guess, or they’ve been failed by therapy, or they sense coaching is the springboard to achieving what therapy’s laid the groundwork for. One woman worked with me for a month and her goal was to get up the nerve to go to therapy. What’s wrong with that? I help people.
Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach,
http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation,
implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article
writing and submission, help with ebooks and other
strategies. Susan is the author or How to Write an eBook
and Market It on the Internet. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc
for information and free ezine. Specify Checklist.
