What is coaching?
Coaching has actually been around a long long time. In the area of sports
and athletics and physical fitness, many people have hired a professional to
help them achieve their desired goals. Most of your top athletes have
coaches to help them achieve their next level of success. Tiger Woods has
his own professional coach. Coaching has also been popular in the financial
community. Financial coaches help business persons to achieve their ultimate
financial success. They help them to create a vision of where they would
like to be in 5 or 10 years and then help them create a road map to achieve
that success.
Coaches do today almost all the training in business. Coaching differs from
most business consulting in that business consulting traditionally is more
focused on organization change and restructuring. Coaching is more
humanistic in nature, and deals more with the individual and his/her
personal growth.
A coach is someone who is objective and can help point out your areas of
weakness, and offers encouragement and structure. A coach is a guide who
wants to help you a achieve your goal by helping you to stay focused - work
one step at a time and helps break down a goal into small measurable steps
to help you reach your maximum success. A coach will give you homework
assignments that you will work on from one session to the next. Coaching may
done in person, on the phone or e-mail. Coaching became popular in the
therapeutic community since the late 1990's - Since that time more and more
psychotherapists have entered into the profession of coaching.
How does coaching differ from psychotherapy
Psychotherapy usually deals with issues from the past that have not been
worked through. Most people have come from some kind of dysfunction in their
up bringing. It may have been the actual experience that left one feeling
insecure about themselves or their own perception of those experiences.
Psychotherapy provides a safe and nurturing space to explore those early
psychological wounds. By active listening, the therapist listens and gives
feedback. The client learns to identify their feelings and clarify their
thoughts and are then able to make better choices in their every day life.
Therapy usually deals with our internal feelings and thoughts. It is more
insightful and self reflecting. Psychotherapy can deal with the future but
usually focuses on the past and the here and now. Psychotherapy is done in
the therapist's office.
Coaching on the other hand is external. It focuses
more on movement than on insight. Coaching deals with the present and the
future. A coach only looks at the past as to how it may be obstructing the
movement toward the goal in the present or future. Clients are going
after their goals and dreams. They create a vision of how they want their
life to be in the future. They walk into that vision; create a mission
statement and one step at a time they work toward their goals.
The coach provides encouragement and structure. He
or she helps to develop a road map and keeps the client on course. Clients
receive homework assignments in between sessions. Coaching may be done in
the coach's office,or by telephone or e-mail.
Coaching helps clients achieve goals that they may not be able to achieve on
their own. A coach stretches you to go further than you thought you could
go. Many people find that by working with a coach they are able to achieve
their goals often much quicker and with more ease. A coach helps them to
stay on course, encourages the client and helps them not to take on more
than they can accomplish in one setting, therefore helping them to work
smarter not harder. A coach is trained in motivational techniques and helps
the client to decide if a goal is a realistic, healthy goal.
What type of clients are best suited for coaching?
Anyone who is interested in going to the next level of their life or career.
Everyone is born with dreams and visions. I believe each of us were
created for a purpose. That purpose I believe is to be all that we
can be. Some of us have books to write, children to raise, dreams of going
back to school, transitioning in our lives, going to college, having a baby,
moving toward a new career, achieving a goal weight, being better homemaker,
achieving our ideal life style. What ever our dreams are a coach can
help us achieve that goal.
Are you ready for a coach?
(1) Are you ready to pursue the life of your dreams?
(2) Do you want to step into the next level of your career or profession?
(3) Do you want a rich fulfilling marriage?
(4) Do you want to go back to school?
(5) Do you want to raise emotionally healthy and successful children?
(6) Do you want more balance in your life?
(7) Do you want to pursue a life of harmony, order and beauty?
What ever your dreams are, if you are willing to put in the work to achieve
them, than a certified professional coach can help bring your desires into
reality. I would love to be that coach.