A Message from Nathaniel Branden Regarding Life Coaching
Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2006, Nathaniel Branden, All Rights Reserved
Recently I announced that in addition to my practice of psychotherapy, I was now engaged in the practice of life coaching. Almost immediately I received many requests to explain what life coaching is, and in what ways it differs from psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy, traditionally, rests on the premise that the client has been damaged by some past event(s), and needs to be “fixed” or healed. The concern is with the past and the present. Life coaching rests on the premise that the client possesses unrecognized resources with which he or she can develop strategies that lead aspirations to their fulfillment. The focus is on the present and the future.
Traditional therapy is about excavating and neutralizing negatives. Life coaching is about liberating positives. It is about putting the client in touch with his or her own wisdom and creativity
To quote one life coach, “Life coaching is about designing a future, not about getting over the past.”
One’s relationship to a life coach is often a long-term project, because there need be no end to the process of learning and growth. This is why many champion athletes and high performing business executives retain coaches long after the time they have become successful.
Not everyone who might want life coaching is suitable for it. I provide an applicant with a form to fill out that helps us to decide if he or she is ready for this kind of growth-work.
If a person suffers from acute anxiety, severe depression, or low self-esteem, he or she needs psychotherapy, not life coaching. However, if a person is basically healthy but is seeking greater fulfillment in one another aspect of life, life coaching can be invaluable. Addressing a wide range of issues, including work, finances, health, relationships, education, spiritual development, and recreation, life coaching looks to close the gap between our dreams and the realities of our existence.
If you would like to have a brief discussion with me about whether life coaching might be right for you, please call my office (310-274-6361) and my assistant will schedule a time when we can talk. There will be no charge for this discussion (and it will not be longer than fifteen minutes). Perhaps I should mention that fees for life coaching are usually less than fees for psychotherapy.
www.nathanielbranden.com
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