Unlocking Your Potential Therapy VS Coaching
"A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life"
-John Wooten
Do you have that one friend that you reach out to when you're struggling through something? Have you thought about what makes you call that individual over another? Maybe you are that person to a friend? We all look for and appreciate that support person when we're struggling. Who is available to listen and hold you gently accountable when necessary?
Years ago, when I started in the spa industry I chose that field because it felt right for me to make others feel better. It felt worthwhile, even if just for an hour, I could offer some relaxation and comfort. As often happens within the spa industry, it draws a particular type of person capable of holding a healing space for others. I have discovered that my journey of personal expansion was similar to others within the industry. Our desire to help eventually extends beyond the table as a provider. You've blocked an hour for service and find that you've spent a considerable amount of more time offering your ear as a friend to your clients. I believe that happens because that healing element is a part of our wiring from the beginning. Not everybody within the industry, of course, transitions, but it is interesting how many do.
For me, the spa was the launching pad into personal coaching. Personal coaching I discovered was a broader expansion of that desire to hold intimate space for support and healing.
I believe my journey of transition into coaching was a process of listening to my own truth and how I was feeling called, ultimately guiding me to support others. Then it became a process of skill implementation and integration. I had to learn the necessary and proper coaching skills and allow for a period of personal growth and integration.
Eventually, I learned to gain the confidence to feel as though I could effectively support others as a coach. The integration part was the most challenging because I had to see through and into where I would settle into as a coach. I would discover there are many styles and types of coaching. There's business coaching, life coaching, spiritual coaching, meditation, motivational coaches, and the list goes on. At the core of all of these styles is the same thread of desire to support others. I settled on "intentional living" and stress management coaching because I see this as a standard component of all coaching styles.
The fundamental question of "how do I want to live"? Let's dig in and explore that. Therefore for all of the tools and processes I've learned and carry in my arsenal I still always come back to the same core question "How do you want to live? What matters to you most"? And then we open the arsenal and utilize the training and tools for success. If you want to be a better musician or tennis player, hire an instructor or coach, and to manage stress better or create clarity, you hire a Life Coach.
What is a personal life coach, and how is that different from a therapist?
Having a coach is choosing to have someone support you in a collaborative process. Both parties create a conversation. Although a coach won't have all the answers, they have a broader knowledge base for a desired area of growth. As a coach, our job is to ask questions that will provoke thought and direction into revealing your wisdom, seeing you as a whole, and already having the answers inside of you. A coach helps you discover those answers in yourself and then further developing an inspired action plan. Working with a coach is generally specific and measured for your success. There is a clear line of delineation between coaching and therapist. While coaching can be therapeutic, it is not therapy. A properly trained coach will be aware of when to refer a client to a licensed mental health professional.
A therapist is explicitly educated to work with diagnostic dysfunction generated perhaps through illness and or trauma, may or may not involve medication, and explores mental and psychological well-being. Although ethically, things are held confidentially within coaching and therapy sessions, there are stricter privacy laws governing therapists. At times therapists and coaches will work together to gain the desired client outcome.
A healthy individual working with a coach is like having a personal cheerleader bringing a co-creative process of clarity toward self-growth and development and focused/goal-oriented achievement for success. This saying says a lot, "The quality of your life is a function of the questions you ask yourself. "Great coaching knows how to ask the questions that evoke the kind of answers and support that elevate your life.
Knock it out of the park!
XO Donna
Building Personal Resilience Workshop Series Starts January 2021
http:/https://www.mindfullyconnected.org/group-series
