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How is Coaching Different from Therapy?
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By Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psycho
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TITLE: The Difference Between Therapy and Coaching AUTHOR: SusanDunn, MA, Clinical Psychology WORD COUNT: 1173 WRAP: 60 URL:http://www.susandunn.cc Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc Photoavailable: http://www.susandunn.cc/images/susaninstripe1.JPG
¡°The Difference Between Therapy and Coaching,¡± by Susan Dunn,MA, Clinical Psychology
¡°Oh,¡± said Bob, after listening to me explain what I do, ¡°Socoaching¡¯s like therapy for healthy people?¡±
No, because for one thing there are healthy people in therapy,and for another, coaches aren¡¯t doing therapy. In fact thisstrikes many of us coaches as funny, because we intentionallychose not to be therapists, and so are many therapists. Over1/3rd of the members of the International Coaching Federationare therapists! In fact, I fit the hybrid of many coaches¡ªI havea master¡¯s degree in clinical psychology, but had a career inmarketing and PR. Why didn¡¯t I make therapy my profession? I waswaiting for coaching to come along.
GRASS ROOTS
The field of psychology is at least 100 years old¡ªFreud openedup his consulting room in 1886, and the American PsychologicalAssociation (APA) was founded in 1892. It is by all accountsexperiencing major growing pains right now, and whether it¡¯slabor pains, or death throes remains to be seen. Therapy wasoriginally based on the medical model of disease-there wassomething wrong with the patient that the expert must find andthen fix. As in ¡°cure.¡±
Over the years, there have been many changes in the field ofpsychology, with new names (Winnicott, Jung, Adler) and newtheories (Rational Emotive, Cognitive, Behavioral), but allassuming pathology.
Martin Seligman¡¯s Positive Psychology is a force in a newdirection we¡¯re watching carefully, and the fact that he¡¯sstarted a Coaching School shows at least some affinity to thecoaching philosophy.
FILLING A NEED
Coaching evolved to fill a need that wasn¡¯t being met. Haven¡¯tyou looked at least once at a professional athlete and said, ¡°Ifonly¡¡± or ¡°Well, sure, when you have that kind of help.¡± We maynot all be 6¡¯5¡± with superb reflexes, but each of us has aunique set of strengths and just as much raw potential todevelop if placed in the right hands.
We all know what a professional coach does for an athlete. It¡¯sa combination of teaching specific techniques and skills and alot of work on ¡°mental attitude,¡± or whatever it¡¯s being calledthese days. (I think of it as Emotional Intelligence.) Sportscoaches have long been into the mind-body connection.
But 10 years ago, who was around to do this for you when youwanted to build a business, or find a new career, or getunstuck, or create a retirement worth living for, or be a moreeffective father?
Not that you couldn¡¯t do it alone, but it would probably goquicker and better with fresh insight, perspective, and perhapssome specific expertise. Coaches are ¡°change agents,¡± but alsoare specialized. You may want someone who can help you with lifebalance, who understands your field (engineering), who hasactually been a single Mother, who has served on a Board, whohas built a successful business, who has been a manager or aprofessor, who has lost 50 pounds, who has helped someone elselose 50 lbs., or who is himself multicultural.
SO IT¡¯S LIKE FRIENDSHIP?
No. Friends and loved ones have their own issues, agendas,perspectives, and points of view. They also ¡°project¡±¡ªthat is,if they are timid, and you want to do something they considerdaring, they¡¯¡¯ try and discourage you, and tell you it¡¯s ¡°foryour own good.¡± I¡¯m not talking about bungee jumping; I¡¯mtalking about starting your own business at age 50, or movinghalfway around the world, or walking away from a 6-figure jobbecause it¡¯s making you sick.
Friends are not trained to be objective, and the closer they areto you, the less likely they¡¯ll be objective. Everyone involvedwith you emotionally has a vested interest in what you do. Theyalso, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve found, do not have the time.
So for those of us who wanted more out of our lives orparticularly out of ourselves, who wanted personal andprofessional development not in the pop-psych short-term-goalway, but as a lifelong proposition, where was there to go?
Reading self-help books gives theory for a mass market, butwhere could you get a personal and individualized program? Itwas time for something new for the millennium ¨C coaching!
About 8 years ago, I was burning out of my then career field,and looking for something I didn¡¯t even know the name for. Iwent to a therapist who said I was depressed. Damn right I was.I said I needed to find a new career that was meaningful, andshe said she ¡°didn¡¯t do that,¡± and didn¡¯t know anyone who did,but we could talk. She asked me about my father, a lawyer, andif I was ¡®supposed to have been the lawyer.¡¯ There were nofemale lawyers in 1966 when I graduated from college, my fatheris long dead, and I was beginning to feel I was and nobody hadtold me. What I was looking for was what coaching is allabout¡ªfinding your passion (or reclaiming it) and going forward.
USER-FRIENDLY: CONVENIENT, EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE & AFFORDABLE
Not surprisingly, since it evolved to fill a need, coaching isvery user-friendly, mostly done by telephone, from wherever youand/or your coach happen to be. It uses your time efficiently.No wait, no drive time, no dress code, no need to cancel becauseyou¡¯re on vacation. It¡¯s stream-lined, cyber, results-oriented,and becoming more affordable all the time as it becomes morecompetitive.
AND WHO ARE THE COACHES?
Well, some are therapists, but they come from all walks of life.There are credentialing schools (I direct one, EQ Alive!), butthe ¡°requirements¡± for the field are established by theindividual consumer. As Thomas Leonard, the founder of Coachingsaid, ¡°Check your credentials at the door and leave your BoyScout badges at home.¡± He himself was an accountant who had aknack for helping people with the more important things in theirlives.
WHAT KIND OF COACH FOR YOU?
Coaches help people, and in the most amazing ways. Soon I thinkthere will be a coach for everything, and I think that¡¯swonderful. Now there¡¯s a Potty Training Coach. If you¡¯relaughing, you haven¡¯t been there, as I was ¨C thousands of milesfrom any family member stumbling around with my friends, theblind leading the blind, and confused by the conflicting adviceI was hearing and reading, and a pediatrician who said, ¡°You¡¯llknow when he¡¯s ready.¡± Not this first-time mother!
There are coaches for ADHD (the Canadian Medical Association hasrecommended coaching as part of their multi-modality treatmentplan), Depression, Divorce, Elder Care, Communication,Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Relationships, Intuition,Introverts, eZines, Marketing, Real Estate, Retirement, BreastCancer Survival, Emotional Intelligence, Fathering, PublicSpeaking, Career, and Writing. If you can¡¯t find one for whatyou want, visit Premier Coach Referral?-http://www.webstrategies.cc/coachreferralservice.htm . We¡¯llfind one for you.
For those who have the income to invest in personal andprofessional growth and are used to paying for professionalservices, coaching makes sense. It¡¯s definitely an idea whosetime has come.
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