DO YOU NEED TO BE A PSYCHOLOGIST TO BE AN EFFECTIVE COACH?

In a recent email that I received, a Meta-Coach asked if she needed to be a formally educated Psychologist to be an effective coach. After answering her email, I thought that might be a question that others have. The following is part of what I sent and part of what I have thought of since.

In terms of lacking formal Psychological Training —most of such training in Universities would not help you anyway. Most of it is the history of psychology, overviews of the key thinkers in psychology, statistical analysis for research, study of abnormal psychology, the DSM IV, etc. Now the only part that would be helpful would be psychotherapeutic approaches and/or an internship, yet even then, so much of it is about problems, disorders, and operates on a whole different set of assumptions from coaching, namely, that people are broken. And even that all depends on the given professors and their leanings. The more they would lean to Cognitive psychology or Brief and Solution Focus therapies, the better.