B\Coach Training as Seen Through the Eyes of a Therapist

Thomas Jarrett, LCSW-ABD / Business Coach


I am a trained mental health therapist (licensed psychologist, clinical social worker, LMFT etc…) I considered the following questions:

How will the B\Coach experience compare and contrast with your previous training?

A: That largely depends upon your previous experience! Let us start with some similarities. B\Coach utilizes facilitated triads and practice groups to train coaches, both telephonically and in person at the scheduled retreats. That means as you coach, or are coached or observe the coaching process, highly- trained coaches, with exceptionally low student to instructor ration of 3:1 will facilitate that process. They will do so initially demonstrating coaching over a series of ‘demo’ sessions then once you get into the 5th module of your COACH2 experience orchestrate controlled coaching sessions that are scripted and reviewed, often point-by-point.

In the clinical world, the furthest match might be a process recording, where the clinician “recalls” the session’s content as best as possible, and documents in a written format that is reviewed with a supervisor. More similar would be live or videotaped clinical practice sessions where a supervisor observes, then provides real time feedback following the session. I myself am used to being audiotaped at the Albert Ellis Institute, where I serve as a fellow, then having my sessions reviewed by supervisors. Essentially then, a B\Coach student does not wonder if his or her coaching is effective, or might work in the real world, they find out. This is valid as many of the B\Coach students come from diverse business and professional backgrounds, thus representing an actual range of potential coaching clients.

A distinctive feature of B\Coach is the 360 nature of the review process. Imagine coaching during a 10-minute coaching session, then having the Person Being Coached, yourself (as coach), select observers and then a facilitator (sometimes the founder himself) provide feedback regarding the session. We discuss what worked and what might have been improved along with practical suggestions, in light of our B\Coach training and selected behavioral events often scripted by those parties listening. The outcome is a superbly reflective and realistic feedback process to enhance coaching confidence and technique.

What are some essential theoretical differences with counseling or therapy?

Coaching is all about the client, as B\Coach instructs. As such in B\Coach we do not problem solve until it is clear that the actual problem has been surfaced and is important; view clients through a diagnostic lens; give advice (however neutrally worded); lead clients to obvious solutions; or otherwise impose upon them a methodology “for their own good!”. But wait, you say you are there for your clients, truly listening and reflecting their content and emotions. In B\Coach, we do not use reflection of emotional content directly. Rarely do we restate or rephrase a client’s point even if they don’t know what they mean. I myself had to learn not to ensure I understood each nuance of a client’s belief system, before I could coach them. I realized that by attempting to understand the client with my own meaning making system, that it was a focus on me and not them. We assist clients to uncover and surface for themselves, Right Action, a term you will hear often in B\Coach. It is about the right people doing the right things in the right way at the right time and for the right reasons to get the right results—all of which is often contextual. It is about business coaching in a bottom-line environment; hence B\Coach students highly value not only RightACTION, but other COACH2 values of Respect, Confidentiality, Development and Mastery.

How does the coaching methodology differ from counseling or therapy?

Right from the start, coaching is not psychotherapy or counseling. Therefore a comparison may be seen as either inappropriate or unfounded. It may share some similarities, in that the emotional and mental well-being of our clients are naturally enhanced through the coaching process. However the coaching multilogue is not designed to restore functioning, treat mental illness, or represent a doctor/patient or diagnostic relationship. Neither is it direct mentoring or consultation, assuming expert knowledge of a field that may be transmitted and shared. All of these may be critically important to the client. Yet, they represent solutions just like coaching that need to be designed efficiently in business. The fact that the B\Coach model may be viewed through a consultative or therapeutic lens is a tribute to its developmental depth and broad applicability. In my experience, B\Coach training was never suggested as a substitute or replacement for psychotherapy. A better comparison would either be life coaching and counseling, or B\Coach and perhaps industrial psychology, however the comparison would be unnecessary as B\Coach may be used solely with individuals as effectively in life, work or community.

The B\Coach CIM (Coaching Interaction Model) is a prime developmental model, whose goal is enhancement of the client’s Awareness, Purpose, Competence and Well-being with a focus on well-being in terms of results in a business/professional setting. B\Coach graduates are trained to assist clients to Identify Openings, Generate Possibilities, Develop Plans, Preview Outcomes and Commit to Action by use of coaching delivery designed as Feedback, Questions, Statements, Challenges and Ideas with the person being coached.

To view a B\Coach session one might notice that the coach listens very effectively and models brevity, conciseness and precision in the questions asked the person being coached. At the same time, B\Coach sessions skillfully utilize both tension and timing to draw attention to relevant issues. A well-run session will seem to completely support the client’s experience while maintaining the business focus. Typical questions test assumptions, inferences and regularly seek to address relevant issues affecting performance, change and transformation- what B\Coach describes as single, double and triple-loop levels of learning, originally derived from the work of Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, formerly at MIT. It is noteworthy that B\Coach respects and integrates many cutting-edge theories that have been tested in the real world to facilitate our training experience. This would include Goleman’s work in emotional intelligence, Beck and Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics® and Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline. As a well-read clinician and a former Army Officer, I had never before been exposed to these authors. I believe I have been exposed to ideas even graduate student’s in top MBA programs have likely not heard of, or rarely utilize.


Is there a resemblance between B\Coach and any therapy components?

Only for the purposes of illustrating the quality of the coaching interaction, in terms familiar to therapists, imagine the precise question formulation and selection of a cognitive behavioral therapist, exploring beliefs and assumptions and inferences, the discipline and sparseness of a psychoanalyst, and the solution-oriented and empowering inquiry of a solution-focused therapist.

Now add the real questions a military or cutting-edge entrepreneural planner would need to ask themselves or their team and you begin to get an idea of the experience of using the B\Coach COACH2 methodology. To integrate, you would then need to infuse the entire dialogue with compassion, awareness and ground it in business reality. If it sounds impossible, I would say it is for most coaches-not trained in B\Coach’s methodology. It is quite an ideal, but B\Coach models the standard while assisting us in every possible fashion to reach it in whatever means most efficient for us. I have been training for almost an entire year in B\Coach and currently use what I have learned with executives in a corporate environment.

The point being it takes much more than a retrofitting of previous therapy experience to work within a business setting. Even being a qualified Cognitive-Behavior therapist cross trained in Solution-Focused and Narrative therapies, I could not have intuited or simply developed what I needed without my B\Coach experience.

Essentially, my former diagnostic and professional accountability would have interfered with a key factor of the B-coach model: Not assuming responsibility, accountability or authority over the person being coached. It is likely I could have used many select skills drawn from systems theory, as well as cognitive therapy. Perhaps even used solution-focused questions to elicit and maintain a change dialogue, but It would never have occurred to me to utilize performance, change and transformation as a template by which to craft my delivery approach dependent upon the developmental level of the coaching client. If you are not sure what I mean, then you see an example of the point I’m making!

How might my therapy approach be affected by this training?

Again, speaking only from my experience, my ability to surface, articulate and measure goal setting, commitment, feedback and contingency planning with clients was tremendously enhanced by the B\Coach training experience. Through the use of the Strategy Focused Developmental Coaching System and the ISIS process, Goal setting has a much more three-dimensional quality with clients. No longer interested in listing behaviorally measurable objectives, I now work with clients to select realistic, measurable and actionable goals which are aligned with the client’s available energy level, core desires and actual level of commitment. I am much better at detecting subtleties in language that belie limited or non-existent commitment.

Do coaches have something to learn from Clinicians

Absolutely! Mike always includes relevant clinicians where applicable. I myself presented two lectures related to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, as I am a fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute. At other Times, we study the work of Psychology as presented through Goleman or Boyatis (Emotional Intelligence) or Reivich and Shatte (The Resilience Factor). Where applicable, Mike always references (if not interviews personally) the original source. In March, he will be the special guest speaker at the Albert Ellis Institute’s Rational Emotive Behavior Coaching pilot course. We also enjoy several intellectual forums that allow a free exchange of ideas, as in B\Coach we recognize and honor creative tension and disagreement at times. Also familiar to most clincians, Mike utilizes a number of personality assessments to assist us understand ourselves as coaches while scientifically surfacing the personality preferences and styles of our clients. These include the REISS Profile of Core desires, MBTI Step II, Learning Style Inventory, Personal, Interests, Attitudes and Values along with others (included within the training). These same instruments are available for later use with our clients (at nominal cost) with members of the B\Coach community offering to interpret the results if needed.

Are Clinicians good candidates to be B\Coaches?

I believe we are, especially because of our extensive training in human developmental theory, and clinical interventions. Many therapists have also served as supervisiors, and are comfortable teaching and conducting seminars--so useful in a business setting, or teaching other coaches. We are also well suited to coaching, as we have been conditioned to adhere to ethical guidelines and a “do no harm” mentality that promotes client welfare.

What is needed is to recognize the essential difference in the coaching and counseling paradigms, and then retool ourselves in a model which holds the promise of reaching an almost unlimited population which is free of labels, limited sessions, and embedded authority relationships. Not all clinicians will be able to make the transition, but those who do will never regret their training, if it is like what I went through with B\Coach.

About the Author
Thomas Jarrett, LCSW is the President of TheraCoach, LLC: A Coaching, Consultation and Psychotherapy organization dedicated to Executive Developmental Coaching, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Consultation, and Solution Focused Methodologies. He is also a Solution Focused Coach, Hypnotherapist and Former U.S. Army Ranger & Communications Officer. He is a graduate of B\Coach Training Systems, and is a currently in the Master Business Coach program at B\Coach.

He is a Ph. D. Candidate at New York University, where he is completing his Dissertation on the Experience of Clinicians who Transition to Coach Training in the B\Coach System. His website is www.theracoach.com and is available at 1-866-JARRETT.
 

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