Life Coaching & Clinical
Psychology: The Therapist as a Life
Coach
Wendy Steedman
wendy@orangerocket.co.nz
Aaron Jarden
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
Presentation Outline
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Purpose of this presentation
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Overview of life coaching
Life coaching and clinical psychology
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Distinctions
Similarities
Case study – “Mary”
Benefits of life coaching
Transitioning to or incorporating life coaching
Resources
Purpose of Presentation
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Our main purpose today is to inform
psychologists about life coaching, because:
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clinical
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:
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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
What is Life Coaching?
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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"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.
What is Life Coaching?
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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Terminology.
The term ‘life coaching’ is increasingly popular, however
is also frequently misunderstood. Other popular terms
for ‘life coaching’ include:
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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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.
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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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:
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where the client currently is in their life
What is Life Coaching?
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‘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:
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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:
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incorporating the life and values assessments
Utilising appropriate and realistic ‘goal setting’
What is Life Coaching?
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‘How they can best close this gap’ entails things such as:
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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.
What is Life Coaching?
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What do people use life coaches for?
People use life coaches for a wide variety of reasons.
Common uses include a combination of:
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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
What is Life Coaching?
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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.
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Distinctions
Clinical Psychology
Life Coaching
Focus
Part of person
Relieve pain &
symptoms
Fix & restore functioning
Past and present
Why?
Needs
Whole life
Attain goals & desires
Create personal fulfillment
Present and future
How?
Wants
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Distinctions
Clinical Psychology
Life Coaching
Contex
t
Medical or clinical
model
Diagnosable illness
Old & established
profession
Paradigm of pathology
Educational or
developmental model
Personal growth &
desirable goals
New profession
Paradigm of possibility
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Distinctions
Clinical Psychology
Life Coaching
Relationship
Therapist as expert,
client as patient
Coach as co-creator,
equal partnership
Responsibilit
y
Therapist is
responsible for
process, direction &
outcomes
Coach is ‘largely’
responsible for
process, client for
outcomes
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Distinctions
Clinical Psychology
Life Coaching
Style
Limited personal
disclosure
Negative language
Limited client
generation
Personal disclosure
aids learning &
motivation
Positive language
Unlimited client
generation
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Similarities
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Basic similarities.
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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.
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Similarities
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Transferable skills.
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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).
Life Coaching and Clinical
Psychology: Similarities
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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).
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Motivational interviewing, similar to life coaching, also endorses
collaboration and autonomy.
Case Study: Mary
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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:
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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:
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high functioning and competent
easy to work with
enthusiastic and motivated
Case Study: Mary
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The three key areas Mary chose to work on included:
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career
finances
recreation
Mary set a combination of short-term and long-term
goals, and developed action plans to target these goals,
for example:
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career – changing career
finances – paying off overdraft
recreation – spending more time with friends and doing
enjoyable activities
Case Study: Mary
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Overall, Mary:
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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
Benefits of life coaching
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Pays better
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Less stressful
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the clientele group are generally high functioning, motivated, and
well resourced.
More rewarding
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because of over demand and undersupply, life coaches charge
around $100-150 per hour/meeting.
the amount of change, because of the whole life focus, is usually
larger and more global.
Additional Variety
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provides a slightly different framework from clinical practice, with
slightly different challenges.
Transitioning to Life Coaching
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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.
Best Resources
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Books
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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
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Hart, V., Blattner, J., & Leipsic, S. (2001). Coaching versus therapy: A
perspective. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research,
53(4), 229-237.
Questions?
If you have any further questions, please e-mail:
aaron@orangerocket.co.nz