Coaching is a concept that, despite being increasingly established in a wide variety of sectors and job markets, many people still do not understand. Partly due to the Anglo-Saxon origin of the term and partly due to its novelty, there are even those who assume that the function of the coach is basically the same as that of a psychotherapist, while others take a very different position and believe that coaching consists only of in informing and expressing oneself, that is, carrying out a communicative exchange about the emotions or motivations of a person seeking these services.
Neither of these two beliefs is correct: neither is coaching psychotherapy, nor is it limited only to the world of words. In this article We will see how coaching covers a whole series of interesting tasks and processes that contribute a lot to psychology as a discipline
What most people understand by a psychologist is fundamentally a psychotherapist psychologist, someone whose work is included within mental health treatment and assistance services and who treats patients to help them mitigate or overcome a certain source of discomfort that they experience. It affects your quality of life on a daily basis.
In fact, this same idea of what a psychologist is is reflected in what motivates the majority of people to decide on a university degree in Psychology: at least in the Spanish context, the objective of the majority of students who consider To pursue these studies is to dedicate yourself to offering therapy or, in general, to be able to help people deal with emotional problems (and enjoy the prestige that this type of occupation offers).
Now, as first-year students soon discover, Psychology is much more than a set of techniques applied in the context of psychotherapy: what this science studies is as broad as human existence, since it focuses on behavior and mental processes, that is, the management of emotions in general, belief systems, social interactions, the interpretation of the reality that people make, etc. Technically, furthermore, psychology is not limited to humans, but also covers the behavior of animals and even their abilities to think: that is how broad this field of professional performance is.
But the idea that psychologists are responsible for helping people with mental disorders remains deeply rooted in popular culture. This is because in the beginning, this was partly true: the first psychologists studied topics such as alterations in perception, the way in which diseases of the nervous system affected thinking, and the characteristics of mental illnesses.
Only in the second half of the 20th century did they begin to tear down walls that separated the broad definition of psychology from what psychologists were in charge of doing in practice. That is why In recent decades, the scope of work of psychologists has expanded and diversified greatly, and so have their goals and the needs to which they can respond And this is where coaching comes into play.
Coaching is, fundamentally, one of the areas of work of psychology; Specifically, it is dedicated to intervening in processes related to the professional and personal development of people, as well as in the management of teams. There is no qualitative distinction between psychology and coaching, but rather certain occupations are “labeled” with the word “coaching” that, despite being within the competencies of psychologists, are far from the world of mental health and psychotherapy.
If there is a fundamental difference between the psychologist who offers therapy and the psychologist coach, it is the following: the former works above all helping people whose quality of life is affected by a psychological problem that affects their way of feeling, thinking or to behave, while the second helps people not so much to face discomfort, but to enhance their well-being by satisfying needs that go beyond the absence of emotional pain, stress, etc.
Misunderstandings about coaching
One of the peculiarities of the term “coaching” is that its application in the professional world is not regulated. That is why many people say they offer coaching services despite not being psychologists; On the other hand, psychologists can only be considered as such if they have completed their university studies in this field.
So that, It is common for those who are unaware of this fact to hire the services of a “coach” even though he or she does not have a degree in Psychology It is also worth noting that a person who has taken coaching courses but does not have a degree in Psychology does not know how to do anything that psychologists do not already know how to do, given that, as we have seen, coaching is not outside the scope of psychology.
What type of work is done through coaching?
Some of the most representative areas of coaching intervention are the following:
As we see, these are areas of professional performance that, despite not consisting of treating psychopathologies, They are capable of both providing well-being to people and improving the dynamics of communication and social interaction in companies, education centers, training processes for athletes, etc.
