HOW IT WORKS
SOLUTION FOCUSED LIFE COACHING
Solution focused life coaching is a service for psychologically healthy adults who want to create change in their lives.
Like all life coaching, solution focused life coaching is a professional service designed to facilitate the creation of personal and professional goals and to create and implement plans for achieving those goals. The process may address multiple areas of life, including work, finances, health, relationships, education, spirituality, and recreation. The goals you set are up to you.
What makes the coaching “solution focused”?
Solution focused life coaching is an approach that deliberately combines the tools and methods of “two worlds,” the world of traditional coaching and the world of solution-focused practice.
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Flexible Goals
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Personal Life
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Professional Life
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Work/Life Balance
From both worlds
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The goals for our work together come from you, the client, not from the coach. You set the agenda for our sessions.
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Our focus is on the future and possibility rather than on the past.
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Our focus is on strengths, resources, and solutions rather than on problems.
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There will be powerful, thought provoking questions that invite you to reflect on things in new ways.
From the world of coaching
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We use tools for both “dreaming big” and for “accountability”—a powerful combination that can bring extraordinary results.
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We may use a set of methods for assessing your strengths and values.
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There is the tradition of using technology (telephone, Skype), making it possible to do coaching with someone on the other side of the world.
From the world of flexible solution-focused practice
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We use a simple but elegant theory: “If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, don’t do it any more. Do something different.”
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We expect that pieces of your solution are already happening, in far more ways than you realize. We will notice them and build on them.
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There is the notion that solutions are often unrelated to problems and can emerge in unexpected places.
Coaching is not psychotherapy
Solution focused life coaching, like all coaching, is not psychotherapy. It does not include assessment, diagnosis, or treatment of psychiatric or psychological disorders. It is not a substitute for psychotherapy, counseling, or other treatment of psychiatric disorders.
That is true even if your coach is a licensed psychologist who provides psychological services in other settings (as is the case for me).
If it is unclear whether it would be appropriate for us to work together for coaching, please contact me. I would be happy to respond regarding your specific situation!
How it's done
We may begin with a free half hour consultation by phone. In that conversation, you tell me a little about your best hopes from coaching, I explain the details, and you get an idea of what it will be like to do coaching with me. If we decide to proceed, we create a plan for scheduling our solution-focused conversations.
You can select from multiple options:
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By phone or Zoom or Skype
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Frequency and length of conversations
In the spirit of “doing what works,” we do everything we can to create a plan that fits for you.