Many people lead a satisfactory existence but are not content with ‘good enough’ living. They want to get the most out of life and be the best they can be whether it is in relationships, work, leisure, health or personal development. At LPP we focus on helping individuals lead full, joyous lives through the use of targeted psychological strategies. Coaching tends to fall into two broad categories, personal and business. Personal, or life coaching, is characterized by a focus on providing support, direction and motivation to people wishing to make a significant change in their life, meet personal needs and aspirations or focus on personal growth and development. Business coaching occurs within an organizational context and focuses on workplace processes and performance. Life Coaching is often about assisting the client to stay focused, motivated and committed and to develop skills needed to achieve their goal.
About coaches
Coaching is a burgeoning industry with ‘coaching training courses’ being outnumbered only by the number of people calling themselves a ‘life coach’.
Unlike psychology, coaching is not a legally mandated field. The title ‘psychologist’ can only be legally used by individuals who are registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, or an equivalent regulatory body in other parts of the world. The same regulations do not apply to the use of the title ‘coach’, or for that matter, ‘counselor’ ‘therapist’ or ‘psychotherapist’.
To complicate things further, psychologists will often refer to themselves as counselors, therapists, psychotherapists or coaches to define the type of work they do.
While pretty much anyone can call themselves a coach or counselor, many of these individuals will have done some form of training and may be affiliated with or registered by coaching and counseling associations, some of which are very reputable and have prerequisite training requirements for membership.
So the moral to the story is, do your homework and ask plenty of questions about qualifications and registration.
About Coaching Psychology
Coaching Psychology is a field of psychology that focuses on personal growth, enhancing the human experience and organisational functioning by drawing on sound clinical, counselling and organisational psychology research, theory and practice. Techniques used by coaching psychologists are predominantly cognitive behavioural in nature.
Another related field of psychology that focuses exclusively on positive human experience is Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology focuses on character strengths, values, virtues and talents and the way fostering these leads to happy and fulfilling lives, organizations and communities. Positive Psychology provides a strong body of evidence-based practice in coaching.