Life Coaching & Clinical Psychology: The Therapist as a Life Coach

1. Life Coaching & Clinical Psychology: The Therapist as a Life Coach Wendy Steedman wendy@orangerocket.co.nz A a r o n J a r d e n aaron@orangerocket.co.nz This presentation was made possible with the support of: University of Canterbury Orange Rocket Life Coaching Canterbury Branch of the NZCCP NZCCP

2. Presentation Outline • Purpose of this presentation • Overview of life coaching • Life coaching and clinical psychology • Distinctions • Similarities • Case study – “Mary” • Benefits of life coaching • Transitioning to or incorporating life coaching • Resources

3. Purpose of Presentation • Our main purpose today is to inform clinical psychologists about life coaching, because: • currently there is confusion as to what exactly ‘life coaching’ is • many clinical psychologists are interested in becoming life coaches or incorporating life coaching into their practice • many want to know the benefits of life coaching • Our other purpose is to provide a case study example, because: • by seeing an example of how life coaching can enable change, you will be in a better position to understand what exactly life coaching involves and how this is different from clinical practice

4. What is Life Coaching? • Definitions. • "Coaching is an ongoing relationship, which focuses on clients taking action towards the realization of their visions, goals, or desires. Coaching uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client's level of awareness and responsibility, and provides the client with structure, support, and feedback. The coaching process helps clients both define and achieve professional and personal goals faster and with more ease than would be possible otherwise" - International Coach Federation, 2003.

5. What is Life Coaching? • "Life coaches assist people to discover what they want in life and unlock their own brilliance to achieve it. Life coaching is about people generating their own answers, not looking outside of themselves for solutions. This process is not about teaching what you already know or about clients acting as students. Instead, life coaching is empowering people to invent something new - to think something they've never thought before and to say something they've never said before" - Ellis, 1998. • "A life coach facilitates, encourages and motivates you to set and reach effective personal or professional goals for a more successful life – the life you want!" - Molloy, 2003.

6. What is Life Coaching? • Life coaching is about closing the gap between where a person is and where they want to be. In a sense it is simply moving from A to B - A being where they are and B being where they would like to be. In closing this gap the role of the life coach is threefold. Firstly, they help the person fully understand, appreciate and discover where they are in their life - what we call 'understanding A'. Secondly, they help the person determine what it is that they really want and crave out of life - or what we call 'understanding B'. Lastly, through the coach integrating life enhancing activities, teaching individually tailored skills, and using various techniques, they help the person close this gap between A and B. Through a lot of hard work, setting better and more appropriate goals, learning new abilities and knowledge, and making advantageous choices, the result is a positive change towards a more enriched, successful and happy life.

7. What is Life Coaching? • Terminology. • The term ‘life coaching’ is increasingly popular, however is also frequently misunderstood. Other popular terms for ‘life coaching’ include: • personal or life development coaching • mind coaching • life training • cognitive behavioural coaching • Terms range in variability primarily because the profession is so new. • Terms also vary because a life coach plays many different and distinct roles – i.e., the role of a mentor, a motivator, a support person, a trainer or a coach.

8. What is Life Coaching? • How does life coaching work? • A life coach assists and facilitates an individual’s personal and professional development, by helping them realise their true potential. A coach does this by helping them close the gap between A & B. • In some circumstances a coach provides knowledge and expertise on how an individual can best make changes in their life in the most appropriate fashion (i.e., thought empirically validated research). • In other circumstance they elicit the knowledge and expertise from the individual by asking, and helping them ask, the right questions.

9. What is Life Coaching? • The fundamental principal underlying life coaching is that change is driven from the client first, not from the coach, as it is the client that makes all the choices and completes the required actions in order to move forward. • This makes the client accountable for their behaviour, but also, more importantly, responsible for their successes.

10. What is Life Coaching? • What does life coaching involve? • Most life coaches see clients roughly once a week, for about 3 months. The reasoning put forward for this time frame is that this is the minimum amount of time it takes to make, reinforce, and solidify major changes in a person’s life. • Weekly meetings usually last slightly longer than therapy sessions - between 1 & 1 ½ hours, and it is also common for there to be no definite end time. • During these meetings, a specific process is sequentially worked through which covers the three integrated areas of: • where the client currently is in their life • where the client wants to be in their life • how they can best close this gap between the two positions.

11. What is Life Coaching? • ‘Where the client currently is in their life’ involves helping them to fully understand, appreciate and discover where they are in their life, and entails things such as: • completing a global ‘life assessment’ • completing a ‘values assessment’ • ‘Where the client wants to be in their life’ involves determining what it is that they really want, desire and crave out of life, and entails things such as: • incorporating the life and values assessments • Utilising appropriate and realistic ‘goal setting’

12. What is Life Coaching? • ‘How they can best close this gap’ entails things such as: • developing ‘action plans’ • utilising effective ‘planning’ • learning ‘relaxation skills’ and controlling ‘stress’. • implementing and managing ‘self-care’ strategies • ‘simplifying’ their life • increasing ‘energy’ • tackling ‘self-limiting beliefs’ • Which particular activity is utilised depends on which life domain is the focus and the challenges that are present.

13. What is Life Coaching? • What do people use life coaches for? • People use life coaches for a wide variety of reasons. Common uses include a combination of: • ways to manage stress better • becoming healthier – lose weight, stop smoking, etc. • balancing their work and personal lives better • kick-starting or rejuvenating a career • redesigning or finding a focus or direction in life • enhancing workplace effectiveness or increasing motivation • becoming more organised and managing their life better • increasing confidence • achieving to the best of their ability and potential • setting and obtaining wanted goals, and obtaining them faster • communicating better

14. What is Life Coaching? • How successful is life coaching? • The main principle underpinning life coaching is that the coach helps the client help themselves. As the client makes all the decisions and completes all of the required actions, it would be irresponsible of the coach to guarantee ‘success’. • What we emphasize is that if a client puts in 100 percent effort and energy into making changes in the areas of their life that they are unsatisfied with, listen and think about the questions the coach is asking and consider their advice, they will succeed in improving their life – they will close the gap between where they are and want to be. • Thus, the more relevant question is: ‘how much’ will they succeed? - as it is really more a matter of degree.

15. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Distinctions

16. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Distinctions

17. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Distinctions

18. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Distinctions

19. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Similarities • Basic similarities. • As with (most) therapy, a life coaching client wants to change. • The coach is in a professional helper role. • Ongoing and confidential relationship. • The dialogue is the primary vehicle for delivering service. • Sessions are regularly scheduled. • Assumption that change occurs over a period of time, rather than ‘quantum change’. • Like a therapist, a life coach provides an objective and impartial viewpoint.

20. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Similarities • Transferable skills. • listening • conceptualisation • reframing • positive regard and empathy • interviewing skills – e.g., note taking, agenda setting, assigning homework • process skills • dealing with difficult issues and roadblocks • In addition, as Williams and Davis mention, “your academic preparation and training as a helping professional…is highly applicable and relevant to the coaching relationship” (2002, p. 49).

21. Life Coaching and Clinical Psychology: Similarities • Converging theoretical integration. • Many forms of more recent therapeutic interventions are very similar to, or incorporate, life coaching principles or strategies. For example, Williams and Davis mention that “over the past 20 years, some schools of therapy have begun to look more like coaching programs” (2002, p. 49). • For example, in ‘motivational interviewing’ by Miller and Rollnick (2002), “change is motivated by a perceived discrepancy between present behaviour and important personal goals or values” (2002, p. 39). • Motivational interviewing, similar to life coaching, also endorses collaboration and autonomy.

22. Case Study: Mary • Mary, a 26 year old office supplies sales manager, lived with her partner (26) and younger brother (19) in a rented house. • Mary presented with challenges around: • handling stress • having no direction in her career • work / life balance issues • struggling to cope with the death of her farther 6 years earlier • controlling her finances • Initially, Mary appeared: • high functioning and competent • easy to work with • enthusiastic and motivated

23. Case Study: Mary • The three key areas Mary chose to work on included: • career • finances • recreation • Mary set a combination of short-term and long-term goals, and developed action plans to target these goals, for example: • career – changing career • finances – paying off overdraft • recreation – spending more time with friends and doing enjoyable activities

26. Case Study: Mary • Overall, Mary: • became more productive with her time • learnt how to manage and be proactive about stress • put in place many strategies in order to simplify her life • became more confident – primarily by understanding more about what she valued and testing certain self-limiting beliefs • established a good self care program • learnt a better strategy for making important decisions • learnt how to communicate better, both in her professional and personal life • discovered how to identify and overcome roadblocks and challenges • learnt how to set goals and use action plans in order to achieve them

27. Benefits of life coaching • Pays better • because of over demand and undersupply, life coaches charge around $100-150 per hour/meeting. • Less stressful • the clientele group are generally high functioning, motivated, and well resourced. • More rewarding • the amount of change, because of the whole life focus, is usually larger and more global. • Additional Variety • provides a slightly different framework from clinical practice, with slightly different challenges.

28. Transitioning to Life Coaching • Approach a specific life coaching training agency. For example: • www.resultslifecoaching.com.au • www.coachfederation.org/training • http://www.coachingplus.co.nz • Approach a local life coach and negotiate a mentoring and supervision scheme. • Read life coaching books and web sites. • Undertake life coaching.

29. Best Resources • Books • Williams, P., & Davis, D. C. (2002). Therapist as life coach: Transforming your practice. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. • Neenan, M., & Dryden, W. (2002). Life Coaching: A Cognitive Behavioral Approach. New York , NY. Taylor & Francis. Articles • Websites • www.orangerocket.co.nz • www.lifecoachtraining.com • www.coachfederation.org • Articles • Hart, V., Blattner, J., & Leipsic, S. (2001). Coaching versus therapy: A perspective. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 53(4), 229-237.

30. Q u e s t i o n s ? If you have any further questions, please e-mail: a a r o n @ o r a n g e r o c k e t . c o . n z