Life Coaching: Life coach, counselor, or therapist.
Life Coach, Counsellor, or Therapist; -
How do I choose?
By
Douglas Woods
Life coaching has become fashionable in recent years and there seems
to be a big demand for what they offer. Counselling and many forms of
therapy are also on offer, these may have been around for many years and
have advantages to offer clients. Yet how do you choose which one to go
for?
Choosing a therapist is possibly the easiest choice to make.
Generally, a therapist will offer a form of therapy to treat a
particular range of conditions in a particular way. So a reflexologist
will offer to treat a range of ailments by using reflexology (generally
massage of the feet). So you’d approach a therapist if you wished to try
that therapy for your condition or you had previously had success from
that therapy, or the therapy (therapist) had been recommended to you by
a friend or other professional.
The more difficult choice comes between choosing a counsellor or a
life coach. What is the difference in the services they offer? How do
you select which one is best for you?
It would be a mistake to dismiss life coaching simply because it may
appear ‘new’ or ‘faddy’. Similarly, it would be wrong to choose
counselling just because it appears to have more of a tradition or has
become better established.
On the surface, there is much similarity between life coaching and
counselling. Both are usually carried out in individual sessions or
sessions for couples. The best life coaches treat their clients with
‘unconditional positive regard’ and to be ‘non judgmental’, so do
counsellors. The best personal life coaches claim to be ‘non-directive’,
whereas counsellors claim to be ‘client centered’ or ‘person centred’.
In fact, all these terms have their roots in the work of the same man;
Carl Rogers.
If you go to both life coaching and to counselling sessions, you will
notice similarities in the approaches used. The listening skills and the
style of questions being used are often the same or similar. If you go
to life coach or counselling training, you will see that there is great
similarity between the two.
All the similarities make it difficult to choose between the two. Yet
there are differences and it is these differences which make a decision
easier.
Generally if you feel there is something ‘wrong’, you would be best
to choose counselling. A counsellor will help you focus and understand
what is ‘wrong’ and how it is affecting your life and help you find ways
of dealing with the problem. Generally, if you feel there is nothing
‘wrong’ or ‘dysfunctional’ but you simply want to change, progress,
improve or to achieve your ambition, then coaching would be better for
you.
An additional factor you need to take into account is the
qualifications of the life coach or counsellor. Counselling is an
established profession and its practitioners should all have recognised
qualifications. Life coaching is still new and there are a range of
training bodies offering many different sorts of training. Indeed, some
life coaches may not be trained at all. So do ask what qualifications
and experience the life coach has.
Douglas Woods is qualified as a life coach, teacher and a counsellor.
You can find out more about his work on his website,
http://www.dougwoods.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/
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