Therapeutic Coaching® by Pat Vitale & Mirtha Solis

back to article list

Our research shows us that training to become a coach can vary from a 4-hour workshop to a 2-3 year program and even home study courses taught over the internet! The costs vary from $120 to $7000. Currently there aren't any regulations governing "Coaching" as a whole. There are a few new organizations that are trying to create standards and ethics for coaches.

Anyone can become a coach. You are not required to have any clinical or educational training as a counselor in order to become a coach. A coach, as defined at a recent workshop I attended, is someone who:

• Helps you set goals.
• Achieves and maintains motivation.
• Follows up with you to see that you are on track with your plans.

Coaches work with people who need a mentor, someone who can guide them and keep them focused. Sheryl Richardson, and other well known international coaches have inspired many through workshops and books with useful exercises to get focused and motivated. Often in our busy and stressful lives, we find a need to have someone keep us on track and motivate us to stay with a goal from inception to completion. These kinds of mentors have proven to be invaluable to many people. But what happens when no matter how much you try to get someone motivated or give them tasks to do, they simply can't follow through because of limiting beliefs, unwanted negative emotions and experiences, poor decision making strategies, or values conflicts. What is the job of the "Coach" then? There are philosophies about coaching that say a coach would refer this kind of person to a therapist for therapy. If they can't follow through and accomplish tasks from week to week, then they should be referred out to a therapist to work through theses issues. As stated at a recent workshop, "a Coach works with the present to the future and a therapist works with the past to the present.” Wouldn't it make sense to work with the full continuum of experience that a person brings with them—the past, present and future?

We have been working as clinicians in the field since 1983. We have specialized in addictions, worked with children, adolescents, families, adults inpatient and outpatient. About 10 years ago, we decided to change our practice and train to be coaches, consultants and trainers. Coaching was not a big deal back then and there weren't any formal training programs. So we decided to train in areas that would enhance our skills and experience and had been proven as effective ways to facilitate change, positively, effectively and with fun. We have had a coaching practice ever since. As we looked back on our practice, we realized that we had developed a wonderful practice of blending both therapy and coaching together to produce profound change easily, effectively and with an incredible amount of enjoyment on both the clients part and ours. Hence the term "Therapeutic Coach®"! Our skills as a "Therapeutic Coach®" allow us to work with the issues a coach would work with like goal setting, achieving and maintaining motivation, follow up to see that you are on track with your plans and to work with the therapeutic issues that get in the way of achieving those goals by quickly clearing any obstacles, blocks, limitations or unwanted emotions that threaten the success of our clients. Working with the whole person and their continuum of experience—past, present and future! As a result of the success of our clients and requests by our students we have developed a training and certification program for "Therapeutic Coaching®". This Certification Program will be incorporating cutting edge techniques and theories from the fields of Quantum Physics, NLP, Hypnosis, Business Management and Consulting, Team Building and Leadership, Family Therapy, Systems Work, Developmental Stages, Life Cycle Stages, Motivational Counseling, Couples Communication Counseling, Structural Therapy, Learning Styles, Experiential Learning, Past Life Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Addictions, and Training and Presentations Skills, just to name a few! It will be the most comprehensive, cutting edge training available to prepare anyone to become a "Therapeutic Coach®". In addition, the training will cover all of the compliance issues of practicing as a Coach in MN whether you are a licensed health care professional or an unlicensed health care professional.

We have taken the best of over 35 years combined clinical, managerial, corporate consulting and training experience and wrapped it up into a complete comprehensive cutting edge training experience! We will be offering a basic training package and advanced trainings to continue to keep you up to date on new technologies and enhance your practice. Certification and advanced courses are being submitted for CE credits in all of the Licensed Health Care Professional Fields.

If this training interests you, please call for more information and an application. Our first class begins in Jan. 2002 and is limited to 18 students. Application deadline is Nov. 30th.