How Do We Know If We Start Doing Psychotherapy?
by jsibley
Yesterday, I attended a fascinating seminar for social workers about ethical issues related to boundary crossings.
This led me to wonder how we, as coaches, can know when we begin to cross the boundary between coaching and psychotherapy – particularly as there is still a lack of consensus about where that boundary is.
It seems to me that there are several possible issues that make this a significant question:
- For non-therapists, how to avoid the risk of being accused of practicing therapy without a license
- For those practicing therapy, how to avoid complaints to our licensing boards about unethical practices (e.g., practicing across state lines)
These issues may not have come up yet for many (or any?) coaches, but I think it is probably a matter of time, as coaching and public awareness about coaching continue to grow.
Any thoughts? Please share…
About the Author
Jonathan Sibley, LCSW, MBA is a practicing coach and psychotherapist and is chief pot-stirrer for dialog about the relationship between coaching and psychotherapy. After receiving his MBA at INSEAD and a successful career at a Fortune 100 corporation, Jonathan went on to receive his MSW from Columbia University School of Social Work and to study coaching at Executive Coach Academy. Jonathan brings an integrative and multi-cultural perspective to both coaching and psychotherapy and works in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Jonathan has presented on the relationship between coaching and psychotherapy at annual conferences of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the North American Society of Psychotherapy Research (NASPR). Jonathan also leads the Coaching and Psychotherapy Special Interest Group of the International Coach Federation. For more information about me, please click here
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There are 4 Responses so far...
Jonathan…thanks for stirring this ongoing and ubiquitous conversation. As you know I have written extensively on this but here is my ‘conversational’ response as there really is no exact nor definitive answer to this perrenial question. For me, as a psychologist turned coach, if the client is buying coaching then the coach should not offer psychotherapy, especially if they are not licensed. But a coach can come from their heart and create a space for emotions, such as sadness, grief and anxiety without labeling or diagnosing.
Coaches should stay curious asking the client to determine what they want to create….not what they want to tell their story about. We can be sensitive as coaches and allow deep felt emotions, but we best serve the client by maintaining coaching presence, inquiry, curiosity, and deep listening.
The ICF has a top ten list of how to know when to refer a client to a therapist on their website. And there are many free and useful articles at http://www.lifecoachtraining.com/resources
Thanks for commenting, Pat.
I consciously phrased the question to mean (it may not have been clear) how we can recognize, as therapists or non-therapists, when the conversation has slipped into psychotherapy.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think this side of the question has been less explored, and I imagine you might have a lot to say on the topic.
For example, and I think it’s a matter of degree, the more we push towards or encourage going deeper into sadness, grief, or shame, I would think the more the conversation begins to look like therapy. I’m not sure how to measure it, or if it is measurable, but perhaps on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being most emotional), perhaps exploring those feelings at the lower end of the scale and/or for less time is “safer” in coaching and the higher end of the scale, for longer amounts of time is more like therapy?
Thoughts?
jonathan
I like your thinking about “degrees” of going deeper into sadness, grief ,etc, or shame BUT the very nature of going deeper is fraught with risk. I personally use techniques and strategies from my training in Transpersonal Pychology, Psychosynthesis, guided imagery, and Jungian Psychology, but I only open the door. The client has the subjective experience of where these techniques take them. It is my job to be the “guide on the side” and to wonder with them, what learning they got from the experience. ANd….this is important….to NORMALIZE as much as possible any emotional reactions. E-Motion is Energy in motion. So unless the client becomes so distraught or emotionally charged that they cannot come back to center, then Life Coaching (or transpersonal coaching) is a unique journey and is not psychotherapy if it is not for HEALING…therapy implies healing, Coaching implies co-creation
Hi Jonathan and Patrick:
Thanks for your conversation on this important subject. I encourage coaches to err on the side of caution, and I tend to do that myself. New coaches, especially, may attract folks who have tried “everything” and now come to coaching as a possible answer for what they have been struggling with. There is always the temptation for a coach to “coach for the money” or to try their coaching wings on a tough case to prove one thing or another. We know the inevitable results in both scenarios.
Pat’s guideline is very valuable. We all need to print that out and commit to memory. I can offer a couple reasons for a non-therapist coach to avoid “playing doctor.”
- First, it is not only unethical, but it’s dumb to coach above your knowledge or training. You will confuse the client and you’ll feel like a poor coach.
- Second, you open yourself to liability and lawsuit, which would be really ugly.
How a non-therapist coach knows when the client needs more than coaching:
- When an emotional problem of some kind consistently takes center stage in the calls AND the client is not taking action to resolve it
- When you as a coach hope the client doesn’t call today.
- or the reverse of that, when you as a coach get a rush out of needing to help a client feel better by the end of the call.
I realize there are times we all “need someone to lean on,” but the coach needs to seek clients to work with who are “healthier than they are.” Is that iconoclastic? Or just wrong? That keeps us off the slippery slope, I think.
Comments”
best, shirley