CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND WELLNESS When to Use Coaching, When to Use a Psychologist— Some Tips on Finding the Right Fit The McLean Institute of Coaching, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, indicates that 70 percent of those people who seek out and obtain coaching benefit in various ways such as improved performance and better communication. A variety of evidence-based research can be found at the Institute’s website: https:// www.instituteofcoaching.org. Coaching can help clarify goals, identify obstacles to achieving goals, improve self awareness, and develop strategies to work more productively. It is important to know when you might want to seek out a coach rather than a psychological professional. Some coaches have psychological credentials as well as coaching credentials, and personally I gravitate towards such coaches, but it is important to be clear about what you are seeking from a professional and find the right profession and the right fit. In general, coaching focuses on setting goals and developing and implementing strategies to achieve them. Therapy focuses on mental health and emotional healing. Therapy focuses on cognitions, but coaching focuses on behaviors. Providing therapy requires a license, and therapists are subject to ethical rules and guidelines established by a licensing board. Coaches may hold certifications in particular areas of coaching, but currently licensing is not required at the federal or state level. Seeking a Coach If your primary goals include finding direction and clarity, identifying specific goals, and developing strategies to achieve them, coaching is a possible path. Coaching can be provided one-on-one or in group settings. Many coaches have business experience or at least a good understanding of business. At one point, I rejected a coach who became a coach because she hated practicing law. My theory was “How can she coach me to do what she hated doing?” Although I generally prefer working with someone who liked what she did before coaching, I worked with this particular coach at one juncture and found that her hatred for what I did actually could be used to Contributing Author: Mary E. Vandenack, Vandenack Weaver LLC, 17007 Marcy Street, #3, Omaha, NE 68118.
identify the pain points of the profession. Coaches have varying specialties such as leadership coaching, positive psychology, health coaching, business coaching, spiritual coaching, or life coaching. The first step is to decide which type of coach you need. You can then identify coaches with credentials that match your purposes in seeking one. Rather than searching the internet for coaches, consider reaching out to your network for a referral. Ask for referrals from your business network or groups you participate in on LinkedIn. Know what you are willing to pay. Coaching can get very expensive. Before hiring a coach, discuss the amount of sessions to achieve your initial objectives and know what that will cost. Interview your prospective coach. The coach should be a great listener. Ask about her experience. Ask for examples of her successes with other clients. Inquire about the style the coach uses as well as the tools. Ask for references. Consider a coach from another locale. In my “small” big town, almost everyone knows a lawyer or has a sibling or child who is a lawyer. Coaching is confidential, but I just don’t want to have those conversations with someone who might know someone else that I have worked with or am discussing. I want to be able to be open. Be Clear about Boundaries The best coaches (and therapists) know the boundaries of their abilities. It is important to discuss and make your boundaries clear early on. If your boundaries are disregarded or minimized in any way ever, there is one word: RUN. A free peer coaching service might seem tempting, but if the coach you choose through that service has no real coaching experience and tries to impose mental health diagnoses on you or, worse yet, starts reaching out to people you know with comments about you, again, RUN. When Your Coach Should Refer You to a Therapist There is a significant inter-relationship between cognition and behavior. Psychotherapy is outside the scope of coaching work. Most coaching certification organizations provide a list of signs and symptoms that indicate when a referral should be made to therapy.
Published in Probate & Property, Volume 36, No 6 © 2022 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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