Life coaching

Life coaching is a practice of assisting clients to determine and achieve personal goals. A coach will use a variety of methods, tailored to the client, to move through the process of setting and reaching goals. Coaching is not targeted at psychological illness, and coaches are not therapists (although therapists may become coaches).

Origins and History

With roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training, life coaching also draws from a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring, and numerous other types of counseling. The coach applies mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques in assisting clients. Coaches are to be distinguished from counselors, whether counselors in psychotherapy or other careers.

Writing for the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations, Patrick Williams states:

It is helpful to understand that both coaching and therapy have the same roots. Coaching evolved from three main streams that have flowed together:

• 1. The helping professions such as psychotherapy and counseling.
• 2. Business consulting and organizational development.
• 3. Personal development training, such as Erhard Seminars Training (EST), Landmark Education, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey seminars, Eric Edmeades, and others.

Williams further states that the movement towards Client-centered therapy in the 1940s and 1950s by psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow helped shift the emphasis in therapy towards the client becoming an active agent in their progress and growth. He credits Maslow's 1968 treatise “Toward a Psychology of Being" with providing the framework for a modern life coaching as it is practiced today.

Credentials

There are several different training programs and coaching institutes available, though no official regulatory standard currently exists. There is no governed education or training standard that a person must achieve before they may appoint themselves a coach. As a result, anyone can call themselves a Life Coach and take on clients. Additionally, there is a high degree of confusion around the terms 'certification' and 'credentialing' as used within the coaching industry and there exists a wide variety of certificate and credential designations, the status of which are still in flux.

There are currently three internationally recognized standards and self-appointed accreditation bodies, the International Coach Federation (ICF), the International Association of Coaching (IAC), and the European Coaching Institute (ECI). There is no independent supervisory board that evaluates these privately owned programs. The ICF, self-proclaimed as the largest worldwide not-for-profit professional association of coaches, in an attempt to self-regulate the coaching industry, has developed a system of credentialing coaches that includes a specified number of hours of coach-specific training, number of hours of coaching experience, and proof of ability to coach at or above-defined standards for each credentialing level. The credentialing levels defined by the International Coach Federation are Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and Master Certified Coach (MCC). Coaches credentialed by the ICF and members of the ICF, regardless of whether they are credentialed, agree to abide by a code of ethics. [1]

The ICF also provides approval, per their independently developed standards, of coach training programs, when they are deemed to meet the professional standards of the ICF organization and agree to continue oversight by the ICF.

The IAC identifies itself as an independent, global coach certifying body. The IAC states that "coaches who hold the IAC certified coach (IAC-CC) designation are coaching at the most advanced level the coaching profession has to offer." The IAC claims to have a subscriber list that is as large as the ICF's.

The variety of groups and associations coupled with no licensing or governmental standards of accreditation has created an environment where virtually anyone can hang out a shingle and practice as a Life Coach. Consumers therefore should proceed with caution if choosing this form of counseling.

Specialization

Coaches tend to specialize in one or more of several areas: career coaching, transition coaching, life or personal coaching, health and wellness coaching, parenting coaching, executive coaching, small business coaching, systemic coaching, and organizational or corporate coaching. Coaching for women writers, coaching for entrepreneurs with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and even coaching for mothers are examples of some of the newer, specialty niches now seen in coaching.

Coaching vs therapy

Coaching and therapy may be considered similar, but they are not the same thing. Each focus on helping one to discover solutions on their own. There are many different types of therapy, some of which may be, in content, quite similar to life coaching. However, some locales require a therapist to have obtained a Master's or Doctorate degree in Psychology, therefore undergoing some formal training in the workings of the mind and therapeutic methodology. Similar requirements for coaches do not exist. Some kinds of therapy, such as those aimed at dealing with a phobia, tend to be problem-focused. Treatment ceases when the symptoms disappear or become manageable for the client. Analysis is another type of therapy. It is long-term and works at uncovering the roots of issues-understanding the client's emotional history and possible past psychological trauma in order to enable the client to move forward. Thus, there are a wide variety of therapeutic options, ranging from quick and narrowly focused to long and broad-scoped and everything in between, but all are regulated.

The evidence-based coaching movement supports the use of coaching techniques based on proven concepts in clinical psychology/counseling. Coaching techniques, like based on the work of Alfred Adler, Gestalt Coaching is based on Gestalt psychology and Reality Coaching is based on the work of William Glasser, are emerging based on traditional counseling approaches.

Controversy

There is some controversy surrounding life coaching, primarily because of its current unregulated, unstandardized nature. Critics assert that the practice of life coaching amounts to little more than a method of practicing psychotherapy without any restrictions, oversight, or regulation, or any protection against malpractice.

However, the legislatures of Colorado have ceased to pursue this kind of a request after a hearing on the matter, asserting that coaching is unlike therapy in that it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past, instead of focusing on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior.

Life Coaching was the subject of a Season Three Episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on Showtime. This episode took a very negative view of life coaching. In particular, Penn and Teller emphasized the jargon and approaches as ridiculous and serving no useful purpose. They stated in summary that viewers would be better off if they decided to "Skip the therapy & coaching, talk to a good friend"

See also

• Emotional Intelligence - @ WP
• Behavior modification - @ WP - SM-201 Entry
• Mediation - @ WP
• Negotiation - @ WP - SM-201 Entry
• Conciliation - @ WP

External links

(Do not link to sites advertising services or offering to match perspective clients with coaches, only to sites with information.)

• The International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO)

• Stankovich, Chris (2003). "Outside Help Not All Alike". Business First of Columbus. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
• Carr, Rey A. (2004). Peer Resources - "A Guide to Coach Credentials". Peer Resources website. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
• International Coach Federation website Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
• Colorado General Assembly website Digest of Bills - 2004, Professions and Occupations. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
• Ethics for Coaches
• "Coaching the Life Coach" interviews with life coaches about the business of being a life coach.
• International Coaching Community. One of the largest professional membership organizations for coaches in the world.
• Association for Coaching. An established professional membership organization for coaches. Accredits coaches and recognises courses
• July 2007 CBS Sunday Morning News Report 'Life Coaches Are For Everyone'
  These Days, People Are Turning To Outside Help For Nearly Every Aspect Of Life
• Molecular Thinking Website for collaborative brainstorming with coaches, colleagues and other Molecular Thinkers in an online community.

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