From coaching to counselling…a spectrum…a hierarchy or a continuum?

I often find an analogy helpful in unpicking a concept, and was listening this morning to an interesting discussion on the quantum behaviour of macroscopic objects where there was much debate about superconductors and resistance........

To bring in another analogy, it seems to me that we are witnessing a therapeutic evolution which is very exciting, not just for the therapeutic world but for our clients, who have a range of needs from resolution of emotional or mental health issues to functioning at optimum level.

If we look at coaching and counselling in context, I think we can start to see how separatism of the disciplines is really an illusion. There have always been counsellors, those wise sages or elders of the village who simply had lived long enough to impart good advice to the less experienced or less wise.

There have also always been coaches, with roots in existential philosophy and motivational wisdom as in ‘The universe is change. Our life is what our thoughts make it.’ Marcus Aurelius (161-180AD)

It seems to me that, whether people are trying to make sense out of their emotional lives or striving for peak performance in the work place, emotional intelligence underpins the process and ‘therapeutic conversation’ is the key.

It’s no surprise that, whether sports coaching, executive coaching, therapeutic coaching or counselling, the old wisdom still applies. Even Freud said ‘Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.’

To pick up the original analogy, when there is change, there will be resistance.

I see the BACP Coaching Division as a ‘superconductor’, enabling these conversations and possibly accelerating a process which is inevitable. I believe the disciplines will and should merge, and this parallels my own experience of growing organically from counsellor to therapeutic coach.

As American football coach, Vince Lombardi said “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.”

…..which is actually a quote from Confucius (551– 479 BC) !