Psychologist, Life Coach, or Both?!?

You don’t have to be a licensed Psychologist to also do Life Coaching, but man, it sure helps.

My experience over time has been that my sessions with clients drift many times, often within the same session, between “Coaching Stuff” (identifying client strengths and dreams, resource building, strategic life planning, business building, developing intentional positive narratives, the Principle of Attraction), and “Therapy Stuff” (past experiences, training or upbringing, or internal limiting narratives that submarine the strengths, plans, hopes, or intentions of the client.)

I actually think it could be quite ineffective, and at times unethical to work with certain client presentations only as a Life Coach (because you have no training to see and understand deeper levels of the presentation in the room), OR as only a Therapist (with a focus only on diagnosis, so-called “pathology”, deficits, and what’s WRONG with the client’s world.)

The most natural, effective, and most holistic approach, in my mind, is to have both skill sets and training ready and available as a client’s presentation drifts among the past, present, and future, between their intentions and less-than-conscious material, between their gifts, skills, and opportunities, and their intra-psychic and behavioral Achilles’ heels.

That’s my take anyway.

I have a PhD in Counseling Psychology and two certificates in Coaching, and none of those alone would have equipped me to work with clients across the whole spectrum of their rich and wonderful lives…

Thanks for reading…

Jim Nolan, PhD drjamesmichaelnolan.com 

Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor, & Life Coach

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