WHAT SHOULD A COACH KNOW ABOUT THERAPY?

Two weeks ago I presented a zoom meeting on Meta-Therapy (which is the next book I’m working on). I presented it to 50 psychologists and psychotherapists in Ukraine. Most knew something about NLP, but hardly anyone knew about Meta-States or how therapy occurs at a meta-level as a meta-function. That got me thinking about the contrast between Coaching and Therapy.

In the very first manual for Coaching Mastery, I put several pages on the difference between coaching and therapy. There are still several pages that distinguish the two so that as a coach, you can be crystal clear about what you are doing and what you are not doing. Central to that distinction is the presence of ego-strength. As a coach, you challenge people. Yes, you do so out of compassion and care and even love, but you challenge people. You disturb their peace, you shake them up so that they awaken to their possibilities and potentials, and you stretch them so that they do not stay in their comfortable and familiar comfort zones.