“I believe in therapy, and I believe an objective opinion sometimes helps you be a better person.”
Liz Abere
So often the word ‘therapy’ symbolises lying on a couch with someone psychoanalysing the underlying subtleties in your behaviour based on repressed feelings and experiences. In many respects this is true. Therapy seeks to investigate your background and the life you’ve led to understand how you function.
As opposed to this, business coaching is about accepting the clients as they are and co-creating a better future for them and their business, using a professional framework. The factors and circumstances that a business coachee has been through has moulded them into who they are. Yet business coaching does not seek to understand why they are who they are, it strives to work with the best of them so that their business can flourish.
Business coaching works with you as you are
Where to look
There is no doubt that mental health plays an enormous part in how an entrepreneur, business owner, executive, or any other person seeking business coaching behaves. This is not ignored in business coaching, however, it is not the main focus.
While therapy looks at your past to see how it has influenced you, Business Coaching looks to your future to see how you can influence it.
This differentiation is important because when choosing a professional to assist you, you need to be aware of the variations between the various offerings. When you look for help, it is not uncommon for people to take the first recommendation that comes their way. Support appears in various forms, so the challenge of what will be right for you may become overwhelming.
Are Therapy and Business Coaching mutually exclusive?
Is it possible to look backwards and forwards at the same time?
Absolutely!
The key question is: What do you want to get out of this process?
That doesn’t only help you decide where to look and who to work with, it gives you an insight into who will be the best partner to guide you through your journey.
Carl Rogers said “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Therapy helps you to accept who you are.
Business coaching assumes you already accept who you are and that you are ready to change for the better.
To understand more about what business coaching offers, contact us at SA Business Coaches for a free consultation.