Psychologist or Life Coach: I need Help Finding Help!
This is a quandary that seems to be experienced with ever-increasing frequency, and indicates an uncertainty not only in how the lay public seeks help, but also in how they understand and characterise their own needs.
The contemporary helping professional functions in a great number of guises, which presents the client, patient, or training candidate with a staggering array: psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, life coaches, mentors, counsellors, and any of a number of other designations. Each of these professionals lay claim to a particular area of expertise and specialised practice, and each of them have trained and become certified through different routes, of varying length and strenuousness. And, to further complicate the situation, a vocal portion of this array will tout their qualifications, approaches and treatment remits as being the best or most appropriate. It does not seem unlikely to think that sometime in the near future, we will hire people to help us find help.
This article does not seek definitively and exhaustively to explore the characteristics - similar, dissimilar and unique - of the many approaches and forms of help available. It concerns itself instead only with the basic relationship of Psychology to Life Coaching, the exploration of the idea of a Psychological Coach, and its ramifications for training and credentialing. The article also refutes the suggestion that in terms of their respective backgrounds, approaches and techniques, they are fundamentally different, or that in some way Life Coaching represents a valueless therapy lite and that Psychology has nothing to offer except when a clinical diagnosis is involved.
These two appellations Life Coaching and Psychological Therapy - more usefully mark different modalities or foci of interaction with clients, lying at either end of a wellness or need continuum (for instance, clients who are mentally ill versus clients who are life ill) than wildly opposed theories and systems of treatment. It is my belief that the Life Coach and the Psychologist are a good deal more similar than many would have you believe, and that the basic clinical tools and techniques typical of many modern psychotherapeutic approaches are in many respects identical to those that should be employed in good Life Coaching.
The absence of quantifiable mental illness does not mean that the issues are any less serious, or deserve anything other than the highest-level, qualified, professional attention. Accordingly, those clients who, although not clinically unwell, seek to make change of varying degrees of depth in various aspects of their lives, should expect to benefit from the skills -empathy, intuition, formulation, unconditional positive regard, professional and ethical awareness, assessment of risk and other such core competencies- possessed of a practicing psychologist or someone who had undergone advanced training, and not settle for something more dubious. This under no circumstances implies that a cold, dispassionate, pathology focused, and medically-borrowed model of mental illness need be applied to the life coach seeking population, but instead that the specialised skills of engagement, thinking about thinking, and responsible client contact, have an equally valuable application to the well and the unwell alike.
A client who seeks to overcome a deep depression, and benefits from the structured approach of cognitive behavioural therapy, for instance, is not entirely unlike the high-functioning executive who has experienced a revelation of profound career dissatisfaction, and who requires a structured, collaborative coaching approach to help him or her become oriented towards an attainable set of goals and to live life -professionally or otherwise- more optimally. Only one of these people fits diagnostic criteria; both, however, are in need. This need, I propose, is best filled by the psychologist coach; someone who has benefited from formal, recognizable training and a period of supervised practice and is equally at home in dealing with problems and concerns both clinical and non-clinical, and capable of differentiating between the two. The inclusion, if possible or appropriate, of the full spectrum of human needs, can also add real depth and satisfaction to ones practice. It allows the seeing of clients who might otherwise be deemed not ill enough. Furthermore, stepping-up and claiming this area of need also provides the public with a more safe, qualified, and ethically and professional accountable alternative to the sometimes dangerously unqualified practitioners.
Psychologist or Life Coach? I suspect that this question will remained unresolved and subject to further discourse. Perhaps the key is greater public education about various treatment domains, as well as more stringent regulation. Maybe the solution lies in the public feeling justified in taking their experience and needs even if not psychiatric seriously enough to demand the best. It might also be strongly encouraged that these helping professionals are not only honest with their clients, but candid with themselves, about the limitations and appropriateness of their skills when it comes to the enormous range of people seeking input and support. Surely this is an open topic and very much in development, and its outcome, for now, seems impossible to predict.
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Dr. Andrew Ritcheson operates a Psychology and Life Coaching practice in London.
Dr. Andrew Shepherd Ritcheson BA(Hons), DPhil(Oxon)\r Psychologist - Life Coach - Consultant\r London, UK.\r http://www.DrRitcheson.com\r DrRitcheson@aol.com
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