Although coaching is a booming profession and, consequently, there is more information and less ignorance about it, There are still some myths and false beliefs surrounding it and that prevent many people from approaching with confidence to carry out a coaching process.
Below we clarify and explain what false myths surround coaching to try to clear up as many doubts as possible about the real work of a coach.
1. Coaching process and psychological therapy are not the same
This may be one of the most deeply rooted false beliefs around coaching. Both professions work in similar spheres, but they do not focus on the same thing. Psychological therapy mainly deals with aspects of mental health works on mental dysfunction: let’s say that it is where emotions are taken to fix when they break down and do not allow the person to lead a normal life.
On the other hand, coaching does not cure or treat mental health problems. In fact, a coachee is not a patient, as it is in the case of psychology, but a client. A coaching process is more aimed at bringing out excellence in oneself, at improving how you relate to your resources and with yourself to be more efficient in different areas of your life.
When a coach detects that there is a mental health background that is preventing the coachee from their personal development, the ethical and correct thing to do is to refer them to a psychologist to treat that area that is not theirs. Similarly, a psychologist may observe after finishing therapy that his patient needs support to advance in some area of ​​his life and it would be appropriate to refer him to a coach to do so. In short: coaching and psychology are not the same, but they should go hand in hand to help people on a much broader level.
2. Coaching is not mentoring either
The key words of a mentor’s work are advise and help, while those of a coach are guide and accompany And although the line that separates them is fine, they are not the same and, therefore, each profession is different.
But they also differ in something important: the mentor is a specialist in a specific topic and advises and helps based on what he or she has done in that field to be successful; Meanwhile, the coach can provide support regardless of the objective to be achieved. The important thing is the methodology to achieve it, not the type of objective itself.
To understand it better, the mentor works with his mentee advising what to do based on what he has already experienced, showing him the advantages and disadvantages of what he does and helping him on his professional path through his own contacts. Instead, the coach accompanies the coachee by focusing on the whys, makes him reflect on what would happen and guides him to find the best path to achieve his goal.
It may be one of the false beliefs that do the most damage to coaching because they leave the coach’s professionalism in question. A coach does not work with pats on the back and with phrases like ‘you can do everything’, ‘if you want, you can’ etc.
In coaching, more than words, active listening and, above all, the methodology that has nothing to do with saying positive phrases prevails. The coach does support and maintain the coachee’s motivation during the process, but he does not do so by encouraging him with empty words.
4. A coach does not transform your life
Expressions such as ‘coaching has changed my life’ or ‘that coach has transformed me’ are common. But they are trap phrases that give all the prominence to those who do not really have it in a coaching process.
A professional coach never tells the coachee what to do. He just uses the question so that it is the coachee himself who traces the path and finds the tools that he himself has to travel it
Therefore, the coach is only a guide, never the protagonist. It is true that the coach’s professionalism will make the coach go more or less straight on that path, but the reality is that everything the client achieves in this case is due to his own commitment and effort.
5. Not all people can receive coaching
Although coaching is for everyone since it helps to solve dilemmas of all kinds and to be able to draw up action plans to achieve vital objectives, the reality is that not all people are prepared to undergo a coaching process at a given time.
A coaching process implies commitment on the part of the coachee and also know that it will mean changes on a personal, internal level, and you have to be aware of this and be open and prepared for that to happen. If not, the coaching process will be worthless.
In this sense, the coach himself can detect that the client is not at the point of intention and commitment to take advantage of the coaching process and the ethical thing to do is to communicate this to the coachee to make the appropriate decisions.
Professional coaches to dispel myths
One of the most effective ways to put an end to the false myths surrounding coaching is for the people who practice this profession to be authentic professionals who demonstrate and make people understand with their good ethics and practice what a coaching process really is and is done.
In our Master in Professional Coaching The coaching methodology is learned from the perspective of respect and ethics, so that the coaches who come out of this training leave a mark of professionalism that makes coaching take the place it deserves in the sphere of human help.
