'; Career/Life Transitions: Counseling and Coaching Services, Joanne Hadlock,Ed.D.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. DESCRIBE A TYPICAL COACHING CLIENT AND THE BENEFITS RECEIVED THROUGH COACHING?
  2. HOW DOES COACHING WORK AND WHAT ARE THE COSTS AND TIME COMMITMENT INVOLVED?
  3. HOW DOES COACHING DIFFER FROM THERAPY?
  4. WHAT'S THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CAREER COUNSELING AND COACHING?
DESCRIBE A TYPICAL COACHING CLIENT AND THE BENEFITS RECEIVED THROUGH COACHING
The common characteristic of those who benefit from coaching is the strong desire to have work and personal life in a satisfying balance which most effectively expresses personal values, goals and beliefs.

Coaching helps people clarify life priorities; set goals based on those priorities and develop realistic action plans to implement those goals which are important to their life satisfaction.

Working with a coach creates the motivation, energy and accountability for a person to pro-actively engage in activities which are important to them and which express their deepest value, utilize their core strengths and enable them to live authentically. Coaching is based on the premise that individuals have within themselves the natural resources to set goals and lead fulfilling lives.

The relationship between client and coach is collaborative. Working together goals are determined which best meet an individual's needs. While the client engages the agenda , the coach facilitates that process. Working as a motivator, energizer, cheerleader, objective voice, the coach helps clients stay focused, deal with obstacles as they present themselves, and hold them accountable for their most important vision.

While career is central to people's lives and it is longstanding area of my professional expertise, I also provide coaching assistance for individuals with specific non-work related goals.
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HOW DOES COACHING WORK AND WHAT ARE THE COSTS AND TIME COMMITMENT INVOLVED?
Most coaching occurs via phone and e-mail. This allows for the convenience of meeting without time spent on traveling. This also allows for coaching people who live in geographically diverse areas. Coaching can be focused on meeting a very specific goal, and hence short term, or it can be an on-going process of working on life and career issues as they emerge. Often people come with a specific goal in mind and then find the coaching relationship powerful and continue the coaching relationship focusing on other areas of their lives.

Costs vary depending upon the coaching contract. Rates for career counseling and personal coaching differ from those for business and executive coaching and depend upon the frequency of sessions and whether they are conducted on sight or in a group setting. Low overhead costs enable me to keep service individualized and fees very competitive and similar to most other professional career and business consulting services.

I ask for an initial commitment of 3 months with sessions 3 or 4 times per month by phone. E-mail support between sessions is provided as needed at no additional cost.

For more focused issues coaching is usually short term 3 -6 months. For more internal, subjective or interrelated issues, the length of the coaching relationship is unique to the needs of the client and the coaching contract established to be most effective in meeting those needs.
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HOW DOES COACHING DIFFER FROM THERAPY?
Coaching is not therapy, though many of the techniques used in solution focused therapy are also used in coaching. Coaching is conducted over the phone and it assumes an equal partnership between coach and client. Its purpose is to help clarify and reach important personal or professional goals. It is action oriented and focused on changing behaviors which block you from attaining your goals. Collaboratively strategies and action plans are created to facilitate moving forward. The client is proactive in designing the relationship with the coach.

Therapy is reflective and its goal is self understanding of past events; coaching is pro-active and its purpose is achieving goals which matter to the client. If in the course of coaching it becomes clear that therapy is needed to resolve conflict, pain or trauma, a referral for therapy will be made. Coaching presumes people are not experiencing significant psychological problems as a barrier to goal attainment, yet are wanting to live life more proactively.
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WHAT'S THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CAREER COUNSELING AND COACHING?
In many respects they are quite similar and there are many overlapping strategies used in both. The obvious distinction is that as a career counselor the goals I focus on are all career related. The more substantive distinction is:

As a Career Counselor I often utilize and interpret specific career focused assessments. I also teach and model job search strategies. Hence I am accountable for content expertise and initially function in a consultant role. In addition to selecting and interpreting assessment inventories, I provide information about current career resources, networking groups, effective marketing techniques, and job market trends.

Once the career goal has been clarified, and the marketing and job search expertise learned, my role changes from career counselor to coach, or co-equal partner, as the client moves toward accomplishing the goals set in our initial work.

Career counseling sessions are usually in person meetings in my office. Sessions are 50 minutes long and initially occur weekly.

As a Coach the range of goals is much broader and often quite diverse. In coaching, I view the client as the central resource, and I as the coach, facilitate the client accessing their expertise by asking powerful and clarifying questions, providing structure, objectivity, perspective and accountability to facilitate setting and achieving realistic goals. The client sets the agenda and during an initial session we discuss at length how s/he wants to be coached and held accountable.

Coaching is usually over the phone and done in more concentrated time blocks 4 - 30minute sessions/month ; 2 - 50minute sessions/month. Timing and frequency vary depending upon the issues being addressed, personal preference, and time constraints.
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