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The Nature
and Scope of Coaching
Coaching vs. Therapy vs.
Consulting
In a nutshell: coaching focuses on the current and
the future, it is about discovery and achieving the results you want
to achieve. Therapy focuses on uncovering, recovering and resolving
old pain. Consulting will tell you what you need to do and the best
way to do it. Coaching holds that all clients are naturally
creative, resourceful and whole and that they do not need to be
fixed. For more detailed definitions and explanations read below.
| Therapy |
Coaching |
| Deals with identifiable dysfunctions in a person |
Deals with a healthy client desiring a better
situation |
| Deals mostly with a person's past and trauma,
and seeks healing |
Deals mostly with a person's present and seeks
to help them design a more desirable future |
| Helps patients resolve old pain |
Helps Client learn new skills and tools to build
a more satisfying successful future |
| Doctor-Patient relationship |
Co-creative equal partnership (The Coach helps
the client discover own answers) |
| Assumes emotions are a symptom of something
wrong |
Assumes emotions are natural and normalizes them |
| The Therapist diagnoses, then provides
professional expertise and guidelines to provide a path to
healing. |
The Coach stands with the client and helps him
or her identify the challenges, then partners to turn
challenges into victories, holding client accountable to reach
desired goals. |
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With
Respect to Psychotherapy
WHO THE CLIENT IS
The individual coaching client is someone who wants to reach one or
more of the following: a higher level of performance, learning, or
satisfaction. The client is not seeking emotional healing or relief
from psychological pain.
The coaching client can take action to move towards a goal with the
support of the coach. The successful client is not excessively
limited in the ability to take action or overly hesitant to make
this kind of progress.
HOW SERVICE IS DELIVERED
Coaches and clients arrange the schedule and means of contact (e.g.,
in person, by phone, or via e-mail) that serve them both. They are
not constrained to follow a standardized schedule or means of
contact.
THE RELATIONSHIP IN COACHING
A coach relates to the client as a partner. A coach does not relate
to the client from a position of an expert, authority, or healer.
Coach and client together choose the focus, format, and desired
outcomes for their work. The client does not relinquish the
responsibility for creating and maintaining these nor does the coach
take full responsibility for them.
RESULTS
Coaching is designed to help clients improve their learning and
performance, and enhance their quality of life. Coaching does not
focus directly on relieving psychological pain or treating cognitive
or emotional disorders.
TIME FRAMES
Coaching concentrates primarily on the present and future. Coaching
does not focus on the past or on the past's impact on the present.
Coaching uses information from the client's past to clarify where
the client is today. It does not depend on resolution of the past to
move the client forward.
EMOTIONS
Coaching assumes the presence of emotional reactions to life events
and that clients are capable of expressing and handling their
emotions. Coaching is not psychotherapy and emotional healing is not
the focus of coaching.
RELATIONSHIP TO PSYCHOTHERAPY
Coaching can be used concurrently with psychotherapeutic work. It is
not used as a substitute for psychotherapeutic work.
ADVICE
Advice, opinions, or suggestions are occasionally offered in
coaching. Both parties understand that the client is free to accept
or decline what is offered and takes the ultimate responsibility for
action. The coach is not discouraged from offering advice, opinions
or suggestions on occasion.
REQUESTING
A coach makes a request of the client to promote action toward the
client's desired outcome. A coach does not make such requests in
order to fix the client's problem or understand the client's past.
With Respect to Consulting
Definition: In all of the following statements, the word 'client' is
used to denote the person who is being coached, regardless of who is
paying for the service.
EXPERTISE
Coaches are experts in the coaching process and may not have
specific knowledge of a given subject area or industry. Where
coaches have expertise in other areas, they may use it to facilitate
the coaching process. Coaches do not use this particular expertise
to diagnose, direct, or design solutions for the client.
RELATIONSHIP
Relationship is the foundation of coaching. The coach and client
intentionally develop a relationship which is characterized by a
growing and mutual appreciation and respect for each other as
individuals. This relationship is not an adjunct to or byproduct of
the coaching. Nor is it based on the client's position or
performance.
USE OF INFORMATION
In coaching, information drawn from the client is used by the coach
to promote the client's awareness and choice of action. This
information is not used to evaluate performance or produce reports
for anyone but the person being coached.
SCOPE
Coaching has the freedom and flexibility to address a wide variety
of personal and professional topics. In any given coaching
relationship, coach and client alone determine the scope of their
work. Coaching is not necessarily restricted to a narrowly defined
issue nor is its scope determined in any other way.
CONTRIBUTION TO RESULTS
In coaching, any contribution the coach makes to producing the
client's desired outcome is through on-going interaction with the
client. The coach's role does not include producing a contracted
product or result outside of the coaching sessions.
ONGOING IMPACT
Coaching is designed to provide clients with a greater capacity to
produce results and a greater confidence in their ability to do so.
It is intended that clients do not leave coaching with a perception
that they need to rely on a coach in order to produce similar
results in the future.
(Table above is from Choice Professional Coaching
Magazine - Volume 2 Issue 1)
(Additional descriptions & information
provided by the International Coach Federation)
Active Choices, Inc. Coaching & Training
630.443.5137 info@activechoicesnow.com
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