Mind States - October 2007
Personal Growth & Prosperity
Coaching / Holistic Counseling
© 2002-2007 by Diane Ruth Ph.D.
I have been a personal growth and prosperity coach and holistic counselor for the last thirty years. The focus of my practice is to help individuals learn how to create a fabulous and satisfying present and an amazing future. The practice of personal growth and prosperity coaching and holistic counseling differs significantly from conventional psychological therapy.
Psychology spends more time discussing the past. It can involve doing remedial work. It can also include correcting past problematic behavior by helping the client process their emotions through a variety of traditional psychotherapeutic methods. Coaching, on the other hand, is positive and motivational. It is based in the present and is goal-oriented. It helps the client get the most quality out of living their life with fun, satisfaction, and fulfillment. Holistic counseling teaches self use techniques for identifying and releasing old emotional blocks and limiting beliefs and decisions. The personal growth and prosperity coaching process then becomes more powerful, successful, and effective.
Sometimes it is true that a client has non-clinical “unfinished” business with the past that must be dealt with. Perhaps they have some old, inappropriate or limiting beliefs about their abilities for success. There may be emotionally-charged negative experiences that are keeping them stuck in some area of their life.
For example, experiencing a debilitating fear of public speaking can play havoc on one’s career. I once had a client (we’ll call her Barbara) who had been promoted to a position in her company that required her to make presentations to various business groups—and she was terrified!
As a child, Barbara once froze up in front of the classroom while trying to give a book report. She was subsequently laughed at, criticized and ridiculed. This created an emotionally-limiting decision—she never wanted to get up in front of an audience ever again. The event had been “lost” to Barbara’s conscious memory. I coached her by using a timeline process. This helped her identify the memory. Through this activity, she was able to quickly and easily release the block permanently. Within just a few sessions, she was the “darling” of the Toastmaster’s Club.
Another significant difference between psychotherapy and personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling is that there are none of the imbalances in this relationship that are usually found in psychology. Personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling is a co-partnership dedicated to the client’s performance of excellence and rediscovery of their values, inclinations and desires. A personal growth and prosperity coach or holistic counselor does not present himself or herself to the client as an authority, expert, or psychological healer; the client is the expert on themselves. The coach or counselor is their supporter and guide. They keep the client focused and on-track.
The boundaries that exist in the psychotherapy relationship are quite rigid. This is mostly because the patient/client is usually suffering from a clinically-diagnosable condition, and sometimes they can be very fragile emotionally. Breeching these boundaries can often be devastating for the patient/client. Some boundaries can include no contact outside of the therapeutic setting, e.g., office, clinic, hospital, etc., except in very rare and extenuating circumstances. Self-disclosure on the part of the psychotherapist is generally minimal. Also, allowing a genuine two-way friendship to evolve is not supported.
Personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling has much more flexible boundaries. The assumption is that this kind of holistic counselor is dealing with an emotionally healthy, relatively well-adjusted and effectively functioning individual. Transference and counter-transference is not a concern as it is in psychotherapy. Friendships often blossom, and certainly, the potential for deeply felt affection exists.
A second difference between psychotherapy and personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling is that in psychotherapy, the client is generally going through severe pain and suffering. They are seeking relief and are looking to the therapist to fix them or help them eliminate their problem. The client will seek therapy to deal with their acute distress so they can then leave, terminate the relationship, and resume their previous semi-functional status.They usually never quite achieve their potential for amazing accomplishment and euphoric inner peace.
The personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling relationship could last months and years. Other times, there are situations where a client wishes time-limited personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling because of a special project or personal transition. An example of this might be resolving a romantic conflict or quickly learning highly effective rapport skills for a job promotion. This is different from psychotherapy. In psychotherapy, the brief encounter may be for a specific emotional issue or concern, such as overwhelming grief over the loss of a loved one. Sometimes the client may be severely emotionally damaged and need to stay in psychotherapy for many years simply to maintain an emotional holding pattern. This could serve to help the client avoid potential institutionalization. Personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling clients often stay for the duration because they want to—not because they need to. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the average length of time a client is in psychotherapy is two to seven years of weekly treatments. The average length of time a client works with me is between 9 and 19 sessions.
Of course, no one is able to accurately predict the exact length of time a person may require help through the personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling process. Goals, of course, may be set. In addition, some people work with a personal growth and prosperity coach/holistic counselor and a therapist at the same time. In my practice, I offer simple and easy-to-learn techniques and mini-exercises for releasing blocks and for self-improvement. This form of holistic counseling can take place wherever we agree—over the phone, in an office (anybody’s), in a park, at a restaurant, at home with family, on a plane, or on the beach. Wherever and for whatever reason personal growth and prosperity coaching/holistic counseling occurs, the resulting rewards in one’s life can be amazing.
Dianne Ruth, Ph.D. is a Personal Growth & Prosperity Coach / Short-Term Holistic Counselor offering professional services by phone or in her office in San Diego, California, USA. Call toll free 1.888.223.1485 or direct at 619.275.2775 DrDianneRuth@DynamicResources.net. www.DynamicResources.net