Therapeutic coaching is an approach to personal change that harnesses the different but complementary powers of coaching and psychotherapy in a single way of working.
It is coaching rather than therapy, as it focuses primarily on the present and the future, nurturing personal strengths and values in actively shaping a life that is fuller than the current one. It is also therapeutic, providing a space for a deeper exploration of the self than is found in conventional approaches to coaching. This bifocal vision makes therapeutic coaching an effective force for change in people’s working and personal lives.
(Click here to read more about the similarities and differences between coaching and therapy.)
Who is this approach suitable for?
Therapeutic coaching is especially suitable if you are functioning well enough on a day-to-basis and feeling generally OK about yourself and your life, but you want to develop professionally and/or personally, and you think it would be helpful to get to know yourself better. This might just be an unprompted itch, or it might be the result of being in, or contemplating, a transition in your working or personal life.
Or it might be that though you don’t feel the need for therapy, you’re aware of some aspect(s) of yourself that you’d like to change, and you’re not sure how to go about it. A further possibility is that you just have an intuitive sense that there’s more to you, and more to your life, than you’ve yet discovered. Like other forms of coaching, therapeutic coaching can address shorter-term goals, but it is perhaps most valuable when working with the medium-to-long-term in mind.
If there is one question that guides my work, it is this: “What will bring you more fully to life?” If this question holds interest for you, then therapeutic coaching is probably the right choice.
How does therapeutic coaching work?
I don’t think I can find more fitting words to capture the essence of therapeutic coaching than those used by the late American coach Doug Silsbee to describe his own coaching work: “a relationship in which one person is primarily dedicated to serving the long-term development of effectiveness and self-generation in the other.” This highlights the key point that coaching is not about applying a set of techniques; it is not about doing to but being alongside.
So therapeutic coaching is first and foremost a relationship. My role is not to diagnose or interpret or suggest or steer, but to raise your awareness by providing a respectful, inquisitive, perceptive, compassionate and at times challenging presence. Your role is is to commit to the process, to be curious and as honest as you feel able to be about your life and yourself, and to commit to making such changes as seem appropriate.
Research strongly suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all theory or model for enabling personal change; different things work for different people at different times. Research also suggests that both therapy and coaching are more effective when the client is actively involved in the process of deciding what to explore and how. I have particular expertise in facilitating the process. You have particular expertise in being you. I therefore see our work as very much a collaborative venture, in which we bring our different areas of expertise to bear on the project of exploring your situation and deciding what changes you are going to make.
Our work will involve a creative tension between the future- and action-orientated coaching approach and the more exploratory style of therapy. It might be unsettling or even upsetting at times, if the therapeutic part of our relationship involves exploring some difficult experiences. However, any exploration of this kind will be in the service of enabling you to grow in awareness and make sustainable changes.
How long will the process take?
This is not something that can be known in advance, because it will depend on the number and variety of things you want to talk about and the amount of therapeutic exploration that proves necessary. We might only have a few meetings; we might have a dozen; we might have more.
The duration of the process will also depends on how often we meet, and in this respect it might be that we meet quite frequently to begin with in order to forge a good working relationship and generate momentum, then begin to space our meetings further apart. Depending on my schedule, it might also be possible to vary the length of our meetings.
Where will we meet?
I have space available on Wednesdays between 9am and 2pm at Millers Yard in York; see the map for directions. Alternatively, we can meet online. A third possibility is that I can visit you at your place of work if this is in York.
What do I do if I’m interested?
If you’re interested and would like to discuss the possibility of our working together, I offer a free twenty-minute consultation online or by phone. You can email me on dcbritten2@gmail.com or phone on 07585 975523.
York Coaching 