Lately we hear a great deal about personal coaching and there are a number of organizations set up to “certify” coaches. Recent numbers tell us that coaching is now a $ 1.5 billion (yes, with a ‘b”) industry. Yet less than 20% of coaches are from the mental health or medical fields.
But what is coaching and how does it differ from psychotherapy?
Coaching is a change process focused on exploring and leveraging people’s strengths to realize their potential. It is related to positive psychology and has elements of cognitive, behavioral, and solution-focused therapy.
However,coaching is not traditional therapy in the sense that the focus is on meeting specific goals without wider exploration or resolution of past or current personal or dynamic issues the influence progress toward the goal.
Depending on the focus of the coaching relationship, goals can range from improving executive leadership, small business start-up/performance, marketing, parenting skills, symptom management for conditions such as ADHD, compliance with treatment for chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, compliance with bariatric weight loss diets, etc.
Coaching often takes place by phone and over the internet (to this day, I have never met any of my coaches face-to-face), making it convenient and available to a much wider client base than those in your immediate community.
Many, many people participate in coaching, some in lieu of traditional psychotherapy. In today’s busy, hectic lives people still need help, but want it at their convenience. Also, some personal challenges do not require intensive, in-office intervention, but are more conducive to a less involved relationship that is supportive, structured and solution-focused.
Coaching is not covered by health insurance, however, many business-sponsored Health Savings Plans will reimburse for coaching related to a medical issue (such as ADHD, diabetes, weight loss, smoking cessation, stress reduction). Coaching is a great way to increase out-of-pocket reimbursement from clients.
So the better question might be not should you add coaching to your practice, but how to add coaching (and how soon)? Take some time to examine your treatment specialties and assess if any will work well in a coaching model. For example, I treat children with ADHD and autism, but the parents often need support on parenting skills. I added a parent coaching program to my offerings with great success. I now serve many children in my office and coach their parents by phone once a month. Parents love the extra support and the convenience.
How can you add coaching to your practice?
Susan Giurleo, PhD is a licensed psychologist who owns her own successful private practice and teaches other mental health professionals about private practice success. She is the author of The BizSavvy Therapist Blog (http://www.bizsavvytherapist.com) where you can find tips on how to help more people, make more money and enjoy life as a mental health professional. You can also download her free report, “8 Easy, Low Cost, Easy to Implement Ways to Market Your Private Practice.”