Coaching - What is it Really?

When I told my Dad I was becoming a personal/professional coach, he asked if I would be working for the Cleveland Browns!  Now, he was just joking; however, the profession of coaching often seems unknown or at least ambiguous to many people.

So, I'm going to give you a brief overview of what brought me to coaching and then begin a series of posts that describes coaching based on interviews done with clients in all areas and fields.

I have a BS and MA in Clinical Psychology.  I have always been fascinated by human nature. I love the emotional component and I also love the science of it.  I worked in business for years in international sales and purchasing and knew I was really meant to be doing something else with my life.  I returned to school to study psychology. 

I worked in this field in varied capacity for about 7 years - including neuropsychology assessment, individual and group work, and as a school psychologist in the Cleveland, OH, public and private school systems.

I discovered coaching while surfing the net and thought, "Wow, what is this"?  I felt such exhiliration just reading about coaching  Although, I brought much to the table with my knowledge and skills in psychology, I knew this was a different skill set and I wanted to be trained by the best.  I first trained with Wellcoaches and then immediately moved on to the Coaches Training Institute (CTI).  CTI provided face-to-face experiential training in 3-day intensive workshops.  I was hooked from the very beginning.  I was clinging tightly to my academic credentials and was in a "show me" mode.  I was blown away witnessing a 20 minute coaching session.  The client experienced profound breakthrough in this short time.

Now, coaching is NOT therapy; however, it IS psychology.  For the client, it is a "deepening of the learning" and a "forwarding of the action."

Coaches are "process" experts not content experts.  The client has the answers.  The coach serves as an experienced guide in their journey.

I discovered that spirituality is always present in us all.  I help people become "deeply joyful!"  This presents differently for each individual. 

Often our dreams are kept safely in a box -- the short story we want to write, the idea for a business, the college degree, the job we would love to have, the trip we would love to take... It takes courage to take that dream out  of the box and put it on and start living it. We lay bare our ego to discover if we are equal to the dream or if only to the fantasy. We put it on the line.  We have the courage to admit that what we want may be just beyond our reach, but if we want it badly enough, anything is possible.  We gamble.  And for this risk, we are rewarded with a legacy for others to follow.  For some it is a trail that is blazed, an attitude that is changed, a place in history, a thought, or a life that is touched.  That’s the difference between us and  those who never take their dreams out of the box.  They leave nothing.

This is how I help my clients.  We take those dreams out of the box, put them on and start living them!

I will be posting interview clips with clients to better illustrate the process and the benefits of coaching.  So, please check back as I'll be posting new ones daily.

Namaste