Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between therapy and coaching?
In a brief sense, therapy helps to sort out what is going wrong with you, and coaching helps to develop what is right with you.
Is it counselling then? Or teaching?
Well not exactly, although they may share common aims. "Coaching" is a term coined from sport, where the coach trains and motivates the sportsperson to ever-better performance. In psychological coaching, we work together to look at your potentials, and to convert them into achievements and lead to personal and professional contentment. Sometimes this can involve therapy, to clear the way - as it were.
Would you use hypnosis for this?
If it is necessary or desirable. Certainly using hypnosis can help you to become more aware of potentials that you may not have realised you have, or highlight the importance of some of your positive attributes which you may not have thought much of before. You can also use self-hypnosis to rehearse your skills and performance in your mind. And of course any awareness would be enhanced with hypnosis.
Why would psychology be important in coaching?
Psychologists are trained to understand and analyse critical aspects of human functioning and how to use interventions to develop them. They are academically and professionally knowledgeable about personality, intelligence, emotions, learning, lifelong development, behaviour etc, and how these interact together to influence life-styles and achievement. Psychologists are really the only people who are qualified to assess such things as intelligence and personality. Sometimes such assessments may be needed necessary to make coaching more effective. And when psychometric tests are used, a psychologist's skills at interpreting the most subtle of findings especially in social context are invaluable in taking these findings forward towards their clients' goals.