I saw a flyer advertising Life Coaching at a local medical center. The flyer said that Life Coaching promoted change and you could expect the your life to be changed by adding “zest” to your life, look at things from a different perspective, create action plans and be more creative.
I read that and thought, those are pretty big promises how could anyone pass that up?
I often feel as though I am doing life coaching with patients who do not have serious mental disorders but are simply seeing me for life issues. It has taken me a while to depart from my more rigid, psychoanalytic stance that I learned in my residency training to a stance that allows me to give more direct, practical feedback (as opposed to deep, psychoanalytic interpretations).
But I’m still doing therapy. I’m listening to patients discuss their issues and helping them recognize blind spots, form a different perspective, suggest other alternatives they may not have thought of, etc. As a therapist, I have to remain neutral, that is, I’m not giving advice based on what I would do if I were in the situation. That’s one of the differences between professional feedback and advice from a friend or colleague.
I can’t imagine having anything useful to say to people (that was not my own personal opinion) if I were not a trained therapist. So I’m still a little baffled at how the trained life coaches achieve the results listed earlier without some experience/knowledge of psychology.
Some people may not need psychological interpretations but may benefit from having a person who gives you their undivided attention and is supportive. But be cautious in whom you choose to work with especially if you plan to share your innermost thoughts with them as the life coaching industry is not regulated in the same way as therapists. In this type of work, maintaining professional boundaries becomes of utmost importance.
Let me know what you think