Appendix B
Professional Coaching Language for Greater Public Understanding
Despite an estimated 20 years of business existence and practice, the profession of coaching clearly remains in its infancy. Although many people in the United States are beginning to hear about personal and business coaches, the vast majority of the public is still unknowledgeable about what a coach actually does. More often than not, coaching is (incorrectly) understood by an unknowing public to be a virtual version of modern therapy; this misperception and comparison may be attributed to the public’s face-value recognition that regular, ongoing meetings with a coach look like therapy sessions.
Coaching has been conducted in the business world for a long time, as consultants have worked with CEOs, executives, and their business teams. Utilizing and combining the processes of business coaching and consulting, and strategic and action planning activities often naturally address individual behaviors, motivation, and related personal improvement. As a result of its evolutionary process, coaching has expanded from the business environment to the ‘life” environment where similar action-oriented work with the coach addresses matters outside the work environment.
The natural outgrowth and extension of this business-related work is known as personal or life coaching, which includes a more encompassing focus on an individual’s life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation, and personal change management. It is perhaps from this broader focus that confusion arises for those who are unfamiliar with coaching. In the public’s earnest effort to get a handle on what a coach does, misleading comparisons are quickly drawn to the therapeutic process, mainly because of the following personal service similarities:
Therefore, in order for knowledge to reach and benefit the end consumer, it is critical that increased efforts be made to distinguish, clarify, and honor the two professions so that the consumer can choose the most effective and appropriate service as dictated by individual life circumstances.
The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the professional association of personal and business coaches that seeks to preserve the integrity of coaching around the globe. In order for the profession of coaching to continue to grow and dynamically create itself so that it can best serve all coaches and their clients, the ICF believes that coaching needs to remain a self-regulated profession.
To that end, it is vital that coaches learn to communicate to their prospects, their clients, the public, and the media in a language that does not confuse our profession with other seemingly like professions.
The ICF regulatory committee has requested that I begin the process of investigating our use of coaching language as it relates to the mental health profession. I have listed my initial observations and suggestions. By no means is this document meant to be definitive, nor is the intent to rob anything from the wonderful process of coaching. The goal is to examine how we communicate what we do so that we differentiate and distinguish ourselves in the most powerful self-regulating frame.
Don’t call coaching: | A helping profession |
Do call coaching: | A new profession |
A personal development profession | |
A professional development profession | |
A personal growth profession | |
A self-improvement profession |
Psychotherapy Language
Verbs
Unearth
Surface
Alleviate
Expose
Intervene
Adjust
Help/rescue
Heal (discomfort/pain)
Confront
Diagnose
Treat
Process (feelings)
Induce
Manifest (symptoms)
Content
Issues
Attitudes
Pain
Dysfunction
Symptoms and sources
Conditions
Disorder
Normal/abnormal
Unconscious/subconscious
Low self-worth
Mood disorders
Anxiety disorders
Social disorders
Suicide
Phobia
Addiction
Depression
Latent desires
Abusive behavior
Destructive behavior
Recurrent/repetitive patterns
Psychic roots of problems
Delusion
Types and subtypes of disorders
Severity levels
Transference
Adult/child behavior
Personality disorders
Antisocial behavior
Chronic behavior
Onset
Pathology
Dependence issues
Withdrawal
Loneliness and isolation (effects of )
Grief (effects and processing of )
Disturbance
Functioning level
Periods of
Panic attacks
Obsessive behavior
Functioning level
Impairment
Causation
Episodes
Trauma
Course (of a disorder)
Illness
Associated features (of a disorder or disease)
Clinical
Coaching Language
Verbs
Focus
Prioritize
Clarify
Measure
Move forward
Plan
Be proactive
Take action
Achieve
Delegate
Solve
Acknowledge
Brainstorm
Mind map
Request
Sort
Emphasize
Develop
Learn
Educate
Accomplish
Target
Complete
Take action
Train
Follow-up/Follow-through
Respond
Communicate
Content
Outcome
Positive action steps
Accountability
Self-improvement
Results
Self-responsibility
Projects
Measurement
Problems
Skills development
Money management
Systems
Organization
Management
Interpersonal communication skills
Intention
Purpose
Success
Balance
Choice
Options
Leadership
Actions
Tasks
Checklists
Possibilities
Response
Integrity
Deadline
Inquiry
Assignments
Follow-up and Follow-through
Goal setting
Vision and mission
Prompted self-discovery
Values
Planning
Strategies
Spiritual development/fulfillment (as a result of actions taken)
Please direct your comments, questions, and follow-up to:
David Matthew Prior, MCC, MBA
Co-chair, ICF Ethics & Standards Committee
Email: [email protected]
Office: 201–825–2082 (EST)
* A distinction should be drawn between relationship counseling and relationship coaching. Generally speaking, relationship counseling is a therapeutic process that is oriented toward and focuses on the healing of pain, dysfunction, and conflict within a relationship. Relationship counseling is performed by licensed counselors. Relationship coaching focuses on identifying and clarifying the current goals of a relationship with an emphasis on action, accountability, and follow-through.
3.139.239.41