Coaching Practice/Training:

“Recent surveys have shown that more and more executives and managers are seeking coaching for increased self-awareness, a more balanced life, better goal setting and less stress.”  From the jacket of the book, Co-Active Coaching.

 

I am a Personal and Professional Coach (sometimes referred to as a “Life Coach”), in the process of becoming credentialed by the International Coach Federation.  My training has been through MentorCoach, LLC, a program specifically designed for therapists who already are very familiar with basic coaching skills such as active listening, support and guidance.  Coaching usually takes place via telephone, thus can be done with the coach and client anywhere in the world. 

 

Coaching is a fast-growing profession helping people change their lives in a positive way.  One of the strongest aspects of coaching is the accountability factor—the client has to be (chooses to be) accountable to what s/he committed to in the coaching session.  Coaching helps people delineate where their life is now, where they want to go, ways to get there and what to work on first.  It is a “results-oriented” philosophy.  I tend to follow the principles from the book, Co-Active Coaching, by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl.  The system is called Co-Active Coaching because “it involves the active and collaborative participation of both the coach and the client.”

 

Coaching is different from psychotherapy as the client is considered to be “whole, healthy and resourceful” having all of the answers within.  They come to the practice with a desire to have help in achieving goals, facing change or in setting priorities. It is not about rehashing the past.  As Phil Towle, a psychotherapist and life coach aptly stated, “Psychotherapy is about helping people heal their wounds, and Coaching is about helping people achieve the highest level of their fulfillment or happiness or success, whether they’re wounded or not.”