What do u think about the COACHIng practice? Coaching vs. THERAPY?
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I recently finished my MA in Clinical Psychology. I love my work as a therapist and wouldn't trade it for the world. I, personally, don't know very much about life coaching. One of my colleagues has been watching the new Scott Baio show on VH1 that chronicles his life as a single middle-aged man (I think?) and he recently sought help from a life coach who "told" him to dump his girlfriends and learn about his shortcomings from his ex-girlfriends. Professionally, I would not feel comfortable dispensing such advice in such a direct manner. Ethically and legally speaking, there is a great amount of liability involved when instructing people on how to live their lives. I am much more comfortable with the way I work in which I help people to arrive at, perhaps, the same or different conclusion on their own. I feel the people in our lives do have a lot to contribute, but we can also learn a lot from ourselves and through examination of where our lives may have went wrong and when they were right. But I must, the same things don't work for everyone. If everyone benefited from a clinical therapist, then there would not be a place for counselors, life coaches, and social workers.
I think a lot of the slack comes from people who find unskilled people practicing and charging the client for a service that they are not providing to the best of their abilities, with life coaching its not very difficult to just wake up one morning and decide, "Hey, I think i'll be a life coach," whereas, for a doctor, lawyer, or even clinical psychologist its much more difficult with education, certification exams, and licensing.
I don't know where you are in your academic career, but it does not take very long to get a Masters in Counseling psychology or Clinical psychology (about 2 years); and while you're in school you can do some of your life coaching and when you graduate you can continue to coach and have a graduate degree to boast with it unlike some life coaches that I've encountered (one of my classmates who is one paper shy of her MA degree has already opened her office and is taking clients for educational consulting and life coaching -- similar to what someone pointed out before me).
As far as analyzing is concerned, I go back to my statement about how everything is not for everybody. Although it may be tempting to tell a person who is seeing you for coaching that his problem truly lies within himself and the negative feelings he harbors within, but, to me, that may be the fastest way to lose a client. He may leave thinking to himself that if he wanted deep analysis he would have a paid a clinical psychologist to "lie on their couch", but he wants a more direct solution and you wouldn't be giving him that with an analysis. Whereas, if you got your Masters, it would be easier to incorporate the two, analyzing and coaching, to meet the needs of each of your clients.
Lastly, I've found that in the profession world, there is always going to be someone who thinks you're not good enough and that you could have done more, especially when your job begins to overlap with theirs and they feel that their business is threatened. For example, as a Master's level psychologist, I have doctorate level psychologist at every turn, making life even more difficult for me and making it harder to make money in the state I live in. Why? Because they feel that I may take business from them and they'll lose money. Surgeons look down on family practitioners, clinical psychologists look down on social workers, nurses look down on medical assistants, etc., etc.. There will always be someone, somewhere thinking you could have done more, but don't let that stop you from doing what you love. Think of all the people you wouldn't be able to help if you made decisions based on that alone.
One more thing, if I had to pick between a therapist and a coach. I would definately go with a therapist (and no, I'm not biased). Mainly because I generally like the opportunity to solve my problems on my own instead of letting someone think them through and give me their advice expecting me to follow it. I would much rather talk with a person who can bring to light some things about myself and past situation that I never realized before and let me use that information to make my own decisions.
According to the wikipedia definition of coaching, its not something I would seek out. There are no educational standards required to be a "coach". You can rent an office, and put a sign on the door, and thats it! Definitely not something I would be interested in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/life_coach...
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