The art of life coaching can be characterized as the ability to empower somebody by awakening the strength that already exists inside of them. The word “coaching” refers to an activity oriented towards the accompaniment and the development of the person being coached. The different activities are led by a person called a coach.
Coaching or executive coaching is personalized coaching that seeks to improve the skills and performance of an individual, a group, or an organization, through the improvement of knowledge, the optimization of processes, and methods of organization and control.
Coaching is the job of supporting dialogue between the client and his coach. It allows the client, by the construction of these exchanges, to find his solution, that is to say, the one most adapted to his abilities, beliefs, stakes, or his situation.
*** The Art of Life Coaching and the Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring
Coaching allows for professional accompaniment. We also talk about operational support or personal support for change outside the strictly professional sphere.
Coaching is clearly distinct from mentoring by positioning. In coaching, the coach (“Coach”) is located alongside the person accompanied (coached) in a position of equality.
The mentor is usually a hierarchical superior, has a guiding role, and acts in the context of more specified functions.
Two Approaches Distinguish Coaching from Mentoring:
– the possible use of techniques such as NLP, Transactional Analysis, Cognitive Neuroscience, or Gestalt Therapy. It should be noted that some people place coaching outside this psychological frame of reference and situate this profession rather in a context centered on the achievement of ambitious objectives, as in high-level sports;
– the marketing aspect of the use of the term Anglo-Saxon, which aims to make this activity appear in an “up-to-date” aspect; indeed, some practitioners bring these practices back to Socrates with his maieutics. Nevertheless, a basic tendency is to prefer to replace the term “professional coaching” with “professional accompaniment.”
The coach is in a high position on the process of change but in a low position on the content to help the coachee progress independently. While mentoring is assumed on the part of the caregiver a high position, a guide status.
The confusion (in French) between these two types of accompaniment is induced by the official translation of the term “coaching,” which has become in its French “mentoring.”
We must also distinguish between coaching: – counseling, on the one hand: coaching is on the side of the accompanied person, the council is on the side of the organization; – and psychotherapy, on the other hand: coaching generally works a clearly identified demand on the “here and now” for a short period while psychotherapy (strongly influenced in France by psychoanalysis) works on the past in a duration most often long.
However, philosophy is one of the roots of coaching insofar as it is an autonomous exercise of reason, even when it is guided by dialogue or Socratic maieutics. Knowing how to pose problems, finding solutions for oneself, and advancing a way of seeing things and life is an integral part of both coaching and philosophy.
I – The Art of Life Coaching in Personal Development
The art of life coaching has developed in response to a cultural upheaval in our societies, a change in the rules on which we count to lead our lives. Here are some lines of the origin and meaning of coaching.
*** These Old Rules Were:
– The rule of linear improvement: “If we are honest and hardworking, our life will get better and better, and in each generation, it will improve even more”;
– The rule of equilibrium: “If we work well, we will each arrive at a state of stability, security, and happiness that will last the rest of our lives”;
– The outer-inner rule: “Our personal life is determined by the directives of the society around us; if we follow them (school, marriage, religion, career, laws), everything will be fine “;
– The rule of learning: “School is good for young people; they learn how to assume their adult life, their career, their social role; adults spend most of their time working, and only a little bit learning. ”
*** Today, the New Rules Are:
– The rule of successive cycles: our life is not linear; we live a chapter, we renew ourselves, and then move on to the next chapter. We go through cycles and transitions. The coach helps the person manage this change, teaches him the art of cycles and personal renewal;
– The rule of continuous change, which does not allow us to rest; no longer imagine that we will reach a state of stability, crystallized and predictable; the coach shows the person how not to be afraid of this endless movement;
– The inner-outer rule: to stay in the race, we must rely on what we have inside us, on what we believe; the coach shows the person how to shape his actions from his thoughts; to make it autonomous;
– The rule of learning for all: our main activity must be learning, regardless of our age. The coach helps the adult to acquire knowledge, change their profession and do well in the middle of what looks like chaos.
Change has become the only certainty in our lives; people and organizations live in perpetual uncertainty and fear. Few of them formulate long-term plans; they simply follow their day-to-day busy schedules. The problem comes from the fact that while we are seeing society move from a “stable-ordered-balanced” model to a pattern of “continuous and disorderly change,” we still live, most of us, according to old rules. And we are angry to see that they do not work anymore. Instead of learning how to blossom in a world of change, we consider ourselves at the end of the race, deceived, without references.
In this context, the mentor coach is a useful resource to promote renewal and learning in organizations and for people.
II – The Theories of Coaching
Coaching, as it is practiced today, has its roots in many conceptual and professional areas. The two most important sources of this practice, however, remain the theories, psychological, on the one hand, and social, on the other, of the development of the adult.
1 – The Psychological Theories of Coaching
– Psychoanalytic Theories:
Although coaching is not psychoanalysis, his thinking has been influenced by it. To Freud, coaching uses symbolic thinking, the idea that language reveals more than words. Adler is an important source for modeling the power of purpose, vision, and personal responsibility. De Jung retains the work on the spiritual awakening of the mature adult and the importance of myths and rites. Erickson’s work is the starting point for any work on growth, phase-by-phase development. We can also rely on the writings of Roger Gould on the myth of absolute security.
– Psychosocial Theories:
In this field, the works of the anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep (“Rites of passage”: transition, separation, incorporation), Bernice Neugarten (the adult and the life cycle) or Daniel Levinson (“the seasons of the Life “and his contribution to the role of the mid-life crisis) are all essential for considering adult life according to its structures, sequences, and transitions.
– Theories of Moral Development:
Anchored in Piaget’s theories of cognitive development, Lawrence Kohlberg’s contribution is important to the coach, who often has clients struggling with moral issues or moral reasoning. Coaching is about helping people to “live their own integrity” in everything they do.
– Adult Therapies:
Coaching is not therapy, but interaction with the client uses the pathways of therapy. The coach must, therefore, follow the research in this area, for example, the gradual transition from the idea of treatment to that of learning. The field of “solution-centric” short psychotherapy is perhaps the closest thing to coaching: developing the client’s skills, refocusing on what he or she would like to be, and going to see “beyond” the problem, accompaniment … Similarly, “narrative” therapies provide a rich questioning mechanism.
2 – The Social Theories of Coaching
Coaches often help facilitate group work, team development, organization, or training. They must, therefore, be interested in the theory of human systems. This theory explains that adult development occurs when complex human systems undergo change. That is when two or more systems (biological, psychological, interpersonal, family, group, political, economic, etc.) cause an imbalance in a person’s life, which in turn causes management strategies and rebalancing. According to this theory, it is the timing of events that leads to growth or regression.
– Theories of the Social Context:
Kurt Lewin and his concept of “reeducation” and Marjorie Friske and his model of “four commitments” (interpersonal, altruistic, mastery, self-protective) are essential bases.
– Theories of the Family and the Couple:
The development of the couple, according to Dym and Glenn, for example, goes through the phases of expansion/promises, contractions/betrayal, and resolution/compromise.
– Theories of Career Development:
John Holland, in the 1950s, ranked individuals in categories (realistic, investigative, artists, social, enterprising, and conventional) leading to certain trades. Donald Super has developed a theory on careers, particularly in phases with those of adult development, based on cycles and phases. As for Dalton, Thomson, and Price, they produced a very useful model in four stages of development within organizations (apprentice colleague, mentor, sponsor).
All these works, as well as those of Charles Handy or Tom Peters, are used by the coaches.
III – Two Types of Coaching
That of being and that of performance.
Neither is more important than the other. Both are necessary and are part of the art of life coaching.
– The Coaching of the Being Is a Work on the Inside:
It concerns energy, beliefs, values, self-esteem, courage, and refocusing. But many coaches are trained especially for performance. While both are often linked.
– Performance Coaching
It works on the outside: the objectives are clear and can be achieved. The work is done on what we will learn; the coach asks questions, encourages his client to dare, and offers challenges.
IV – Coaching in Personal Development: The Case of Thomson Coaching (Life Coach and Therapist Thomson Dablemond).
Personal and professional coach and Mentality Therapist (Mentalotherapy or Mentality Therapy is a psychotherapeutic and coaching approach invented and developed by Thomson Dablemond). He is a Life Coach and mentality therapist.
Passionate about Psychology Philosophy and personal and professional development. Thomson Dablemond is committed to the awakening of consciousness, to the change of mentality, and to helping others to understand their life in order to give it better meaning and to live it.
Since 2016, with the aid of his pen and teleconferences, he has accompanied several people, sometimes for a change of mentality, sometimes for their self-realization. His leitmotiv is to be useful to humanity: what justifies his Coaching.
With him, Coaching has experienced a new impetus and a new horizon, thanks to its approach: mental therapy. No doubt, do not hesitate to contact him for private or group coaching, just like for training or conferences.
Specialized in strategies to change the mentality, motivation, and progress towards an enlightened and transformed life, THOMSON COACHING is a center for personal and professional development – and Mentality Therapy.
An approach of personal development focused on the previewing and the directed impact of theories, principles, and methods in Mentality Therapy. THOMSON COACHING is interested in the inner being. His accompaniment is a work on the inside: it concerns energy, beliefs, values, self-esteem, courage, and refocusing. And more particularly, its approach is impregnated with Mentalotherapy or Mentality Therapy ( Mentalothérapie, in French) designed and developed by Thomson Dablemond.
Experience – Professionalism – Satisfaction: This is what characterizes us. Our mission is to be useful to humanity by helping you to find, understand, illuminate, guide, and succeed in your life in all areas!