[Evangelista]

Hi..I am confused about the concept of Coaching and Psychotherapy. I have google'd it and it leaves me more confused...

I have heard the term 'Life Coaches".."Career Coaches"..understand how that concept can work, but how can Coaching be used instead of psychotherapy for the more pathological disorders...and even Trauma based disorders...

I dont know..it sound from what I read that most do it because it doesnt have so many client strings attached and since insurance dosent pay for it..its a little more lucrative for the practioner..again..sounds a little to much like "heal yourself for the Gipper" it is very dynamic based...is that a good thing when dealing with really bad deep stuff..when you are not suppose to form an attachment with your "Coach"..seems to me it would be very hard to work thru anything using the "Drive-thru" method... any input would be appreciated....

[(JD)]

I haven't fully formed an opinion about the "coaching" aspect of current society.

From what I have learned, it is more about having a "coach" only, not a therapist... If you were ever in structured sports, think about the job of the coach... encouraging, seeing what you lacked, giving ideas on how to correct it.... very directive at times... IMO life coaches are quite that surface only effective...

For me, I would not want someone who is not fully trained and licensed in psychotherapy to dig with me into MY mind.

[Rapunzel]

The main difference I can see between coaching and psychotherapy is that coaching is about positive changes that you can make in your life in order to maximize your abilities and potential, (which therapy and counseling also do), but coaching doesn't deal with pathology and isn't mental health treatment. Some counselors and psychologists also offer coaching.

As far as I have been able to tell, coaching doesn't seem to require licensure. There is training for it, but technically just about anyone could probaby hang out their shingle as a coach. Don't quote me on that though. I think the jury is still out and they probably are moving towards more certification.

A coach is different than a therapist in a couple ways. a coach is not certified or licensed to hold therapy session. they have a specific area of expertise and they teach that.

For example - Laura Davis author of many self help books among them - The Courage to Heal, Allies in Healing, I thought we'd never speak again, . She is a coach. what she teaches is not therapy tools. she teaches people how to write non fiction and how to write a book proposal for pubishing.

A therapist around here is also a parenting coach - she teaches parenting skills and effective parenting for various aged children. At weekly parenting classes that meet in a church sunday school room on wensday night.

A WIC Breast feeding coach teaches new mothers how to breast feed their babies.

A gymnastics coach teaches gymnastics.

A career coach teaches skills needed for specific carreers - secretary, military, teacher, actress, actors, chefs,

A Life coach teaches people to be self sufficiant - how to shop for groceries, take care of a home, keep a bank book, get along with others, Socializing skills, anything that will help the person have a more productive and calm lifestyle.

Therapists are certified and or licensed to work with mental disorders, family problems, marriage problems and so on. a whole bunch of things.

A coach works on one specific area of expertise and does not have to be certified or licensed.

How can coaches be used instead of trama therapists? take someone who has lived through a house fire - they now have to learn how to manage with any number of special aids in order to function and have a calm and productive life. I know many people who have had PTSD from going through car accidents and fires and instead of therapy they just needed to know how to drive again or cook on a gas stove again. once they accomplished that they were no longer afraid and suffering the PTSD sympyoms of panic from feeling helpless.

I had PTSD symptoms because i got hit by a car. Instead of sitting there in therapy talking about my fears and so on arround the accident I did something about it - A friend and I went up to the local department store and the two of us spent the day biking around town with her coaching me through the times when I had to enter traffic on my bike.

Yea I could have taken a bus for months and talked my fears over with my therapist, while sitting in a room but the way I did it - by having someone right there coaching me through the hard spots right as they happened, I was able to get back to my normal independant funtionality right away, instead of taking months to get the courage to get on a bike again I was biking alone a week after the accident.

Sometimes coaching has better results then therapy when it comes to some problems.

[Evangelista]

Thank you Sky, Rap, Myself...

I can see where short term intense focus on a particular event or trauma could be beneficial, like you stated Myself..but you stated a friend helped..what if it had been a stranger..no attachment ..because these ppl are not really your friend, and do not have a vested interest in developing a therapeutic relationship..would you of allowed a perfect stranger, someone who really didnt know you at all to "Coach" you ..there an advocate yes, and I get the feeling its all about "empowering oneself to do the work in a very dynamic, and abbrievated time"..but they dont want the strings attached to it... with the client..the relationship is not developed over time, there is an almost rushed feeling to "fix it quick"..I think that is where I have an issue..especially with Trauma based work..if you are going to "Coach" someone thru an event..maybe it may work if it is more recent (the trauma) like you would do a debriefing type therapy..but if the concept of your issues being like a "suitcase" that you can unpack and leave in the office ...I would think that most Therapists would jump at the chance not to see there clients suffering from years of built up pain and agony that revolves around trauma..and I am definitely all for empowering and healing..but mmmm...maybe its a trust issue....trust is usually developed over time isn't it? Maybe thats my hang up...maybe Coaching doesnt involve the "trust" factor..ya know the exercise where someone stands behind you..and your willing to just fall back.."trusting" that the person behind you will indeed catch you and not let you fall smack into the floor..mmmm..I dont think I would do that with a total stranger..no matter how much they "Coached" me to just "let go"..

I am very concerned that Coaches appear to carrry all sorts of Behavioral Health certifications, including Ph.Ds, but why when they are under the blanket of coaching certain things dont apply, vs when they are under the blanket of psychotherapy they do...mmmm..again sounds like a way to break free of the constraints put in place by standards adopted and enforced by associations to protect the client..i.e...oh that wasnt psychotherapy when I did such and such...but coaching..so their rules dont apply...

Just confusing for me...but I thank you for your replies..much fodder to take in concerning the issue..alot to digest...and thank you Myself for all the great info

[JustBen]

Coaching is in a similar place as hypnosis as far as society is concerned. There's no state licensure for it and (almost) no laws regulating it. Practitioners might be licensed therapists looking for new opportunities and a chance to make a living outside the managed-care system; they might be people who have spent years studying coaching specifically; they might be someone who took a weekend class on it ad hung out a shingle.

Ask 100 coaches what coaching is, and you'll get 100 different answers. I know some coaches that I'd work with in a minute, and I know some that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. If you're thinking about this, I'd just suggest talking to the particular coach you're interested in and asking him/her what coaching means to them, and ask them specifically what they do.

[(JD)]

May I add, "And what qualifications they have for doing it!"

[JustBen]

Yeah, a very important addition.

Yes I would and have. I needed help in parenting skills so I took two different parenting classes from parenting coaches. one was a licensed therapist when she was not teaching parents how to appropiately parent their child(ren) and the other was not a therapist.

I needed help in controling my anger. For this I also went through coaching by taking an anger management class that did not deal with looking beyond the anger to my abusive past. the person just focused on teaching me appropiate ways to handle and express my anger no matter why I was angry be it form the past, having a challenging child or something in the normal every day life p#$$ed me off. I did not know the coach personally. I just picked up the phone and registered for the coaching classes and went to them sight unseen,

In both the parenting classes and anger management classes I benefitted more because we were dealing with specific situations in my present life not digging beneath the surface riling things up because regardless of what abuse I went through I still had to manage the present day stuff.

Regardless of the fact that I had been hit as a child todays standards do not allow a parent to take a belt to their child. I could talk until I was blue in the face over a space of months with my therapist about getting hit as a child with a belt but that was not going to teach me right then what I need to know to bring my child home within the DHS time frame that was set.

All emotions aside I had to learn new skills on how to deal with not the past but the present and that is what coaches are for. they deal with today the present and only today the present. Because they are not looking behind the sceens so to speak they don't need to know the person personally to teach them new skills that will help them today.

Kind of like learning a new language. a coach can teach a person how to speak and write french fluently without knowing them personally and digging below the surface as to the whys whens and hows of that persons past. its not improtant for that coach to know for example that the person had a french speaking relative and so on.

Im not a certified or licensed teacher but yet I can and have taught children how to read and write.

Im not a certified and licensed music instructor but have taught children how to read music and how to play some basic chords and scales and a few songs.

Years and years ago before Freud and pavlov and so on how did people learn to survive, a trade skill and so on - from those that knew how to do that - a mother taught the girls in the familys how to breast feed. teachers taught children and some of those children became teachers, a blacksmith taught others how to shoe horses, Candlemakers taught others whether or not they personally met them how to make candles, people who knew how to work in the mines taught newer miners how to mine whether or not they were meeting them for the first time. None of these people in those days had behavioral health certificates and other therapy based certificates.

the idea of "coaching" isn't new, its just a new label for something that has always been going on. Kind of like a person who cleans was suddenly calling themselves janitors and now that name has once again been changed to Custodians, - the word Janitor sounds more professional then cleaners, and the word custodians sounds more professional then janitors.

Coaches takes the place ot the word teacher. and anyone who knows anything about something can teach another person what they know about a product, trade, skill and so on. Even you. I bet there is something that you know how to do that someone else does not know how to do.

I taught someone how to use hypnotic techniques. Why not. I dissociate - use relaxation and visualization to calm myself and I am so good at it that I can completely mentally relax myself into my mental visualization called La La Land to the point where I actually feel like I am floating and hearing the music I imagine and so on.

So when another member of the parenting class asked me how to do the relaxation visualizations that the coaches were having us do in class and she could not do it their way I taught her how to progressive relaxation and staring at a spot until her eyes got blurry and the spot seemed to disapear and her eyes felt tired, then taught her to focus on her senses to bring the visualization into forming pictures in her mind.

another example of coaching - Parents are natural coaches for their children - teaching them how to dress themselves, how to feed themselves, go potty themselves, clean their rooms and pick up their toys, put bandaids on boo boos, relax their children to sleep, and so on -- do parents recieve a certificate to enable them to teach their children? of course not but they are able to do these things every day of their childs life without being a therapist, doctor, and so on.

Hang in there. the wording may be confusing but the concept and so on has been around a long time. Take out the official wording and it may make better sense to you.

[(JD)]

I'm sure there are "coaches" doing psychotherapy along the way. In fact, some of what you described earlier Myself, imo was exposure therapy.

There isn't much one can do about ppl attempting therapy without specific training and certification. The main difference - and a very good one to remember, imo - is the main reason to use someone who is licensed is the generally accepted level of expertise and knowledge, and the oversight thereof. However, as long as a coach does not use a protected term (in the USA) they can do pretty much what they wish.

I do personally hope that it is soon governed and begin functioning within established parameters of licensure!

[Evangelista]

Oh thank you everyone for the much needed input..I was so confused at utilizing a Ph.d who is a doing Coaching for trauma work..but was not sure how this is accomplished..I am testing the waters so to speak (2 visits), with this concept but having a hard time at how intense and how quickly the actual work begins, before a connection is formed. ...unlike psychotherapy ...again that Trust issue..but I will keep the pole handy Justben..just in case.. ..Myself, Sky, and Rap..thank you again for all the explanations and experiences..again I think part of my intial knee jerk reaction is..its moving to fast to quick with someone who is very passionate about his work..but who still is a stranger .. so I will just have to ask to slow it down somewhat...I dont think thats to unreasonable a request...

nope sure isn't go at your speed. Sometimes its better to get there slow then to go too fast and end up with more damage.

[Evangelista]

Myself..Coaching...mmmm..jury is still out on this one...and thank you for the info you pm'd me..it made sense..I am not a person that can talk to chairs, or strike pillows..or strangle stuff toys to express emotions...but unless he takes the time to understand..mmm...me...how is he going to know that..we need to start at emotions 101, so I will slow it down and maybe we just need to have a Heart to Coach type of interaction..I am overwhelmed when something is just continuously placed in front of me to hit or lash out at...I dont do that..although I have had to tell him to back away a few times..I just thought of this...the only thing in the room I have had any desire to push away or strike out at is him...mmm...food for thought...that is why we need to slow down I think in his zeal to heal..I am getting some space problems when he gets to close..

I think he is cool, and he wants to help, and I respect him and his abilities...but SLOW is good right now...I knew that pole JustBen suggested would come in handy..maybe I should set a space boundary of at least 2 feet..just until we have worked together longer..

Wow..Thanx..this has helped..sometimes I do my best processing of issues online...amazing...now just need to apply it IRL...

[JustBen]

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_Sky said:
The main difference - and a very good one to remember, imo - is the main reason to use someone who is licensed is the generally accepted level of expertise and knowledge, and the oversight thereof.

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I look at professional licenses the same way I look at driver's licenses. Having a driver's license doesn't mean that someone is a good driver--after all, there are lots of bad drivers out there and most of them have licenses. Having that license means that they fulfilled some fairly minimal qualifications, jumped through the appropriate hoops, filled the forms out in triplicate, and paid fees to all the little agencies that are entitled to their cut. The main value of a driver's license, in my opinion, is that the state has something to take away from you if you screw up too badly.

In my experience, most professional licenses fit in the same category. You have to go and get the education, pass the test, and do your supervised time as an intern...but a lot of crummy therapists can meet those qualifications. The big advantage is that the license can be taken away if you screw up too badly. I'm working toward a license now, so I know how powerful a motivator that can be--all my hard work, all the money I've spent on education, all the hours away from my family...it's all consolidated into that piece of paper, and I'm definitely not going to do anything to jeopardize it. (Not that I'd do anything unethical to begin with, but you know what I mean.)

I almost hate to put it this way, but if I'm going to see a professional to help me with personal issues, I want that licensure issue hanging over his or her head. I want that person to always have the consequences of screwing up in the back of their mind. The stakes just aren't as high for someone who doesn't have a license to lose.

[(JD)]

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and the oversight thereof.

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