WHEN CLIENT’S MIS-DIAGNOSE

I made a new “learning” during the ACMC in Hong Kong this November. The “learning” arose one day when a similar pattern occurred during the three sessions we did one afternoon, it occurred three times in a row. Now I had seen it before, but always one session here and another there. Never back to back. It was that repeating of the pattern which really brought it to my attention. What repeated was that the client mis-diagnosed his or her situation.

Now that clients mis-diagnose is really not a new thing or that infrequent. It happens. And depending on the client, it can happen frequently. The flawed diagnosis, in fact, could be the problem that keeps interfering and blocking a person from unleashing his or her dream. The client “thinks” X is what he wants when it really is not. The client “thinks” Y is the solution or the resource needed when it is not. Often a person is just cognitively wrong. If you, as the coach, do not check and test the client’s statements from the beginning, the session can get off track from the start. When that happens, it’s very difficult to get the conversation back on track.