Coaching for the 21-st century: Ph.D. Cognitive and Developmental Psychologists as Coaches

A Profession for the Unemployed and Underemployed Psychology Professors?(@ 2001, Dr. Yanina Shapiro, CEO Brain-Flex Inc)

It was 1995, when I first realized that, unless my choice was to become an academic nomad, I had to pull out of academe altogether. Four years of looking for an academic position, many of which habitually had over 400 applicants, seemed quite predictive of what was to come. Perhaps because my first graduate degree was in engineering (please see my CV at www.corporate-psychology.net/ceoresume.htm), it was easier for me to say "I had it" than it would be for a person who entered graduate school right after college. Yet, I did not want to become an engineer again.

Nobody with my sort of credentials, I decided, should take the abuse of teaching 8 different courses per year every year. Nor of being a par-timer at the fabulous wage of $5 per hour, which is what it comes to if you account for the preparation and grading time, etc. And pull out I did. However, soon enough, I was to discovered that there was not much that a non-clinical and non-counseling psychologist could do.

As for the Cognitive and Developmental PhDs, they turn out best qualified to become unemployed. (Please do argue that point if you can. I will be truly delighted to hear that I am wrong). Yet it is precisely those psychologists that are best suited to help normal people become better at what they do and acquire better cognitive skills and organizational skills, which in fact is what coaches endeavor to accomplish, without naming it so. Since you can find out more about me that you could possibly want to know at www.corporate-psychology.net, I will cut my story short and jump on to coaching.

I first heard of Coaching, and more specifically Executive Coaching, when I joined the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology . Then I took a course in coaching at one of those coaching credentialing schools. All I can say about that course is that it was an odd experience - pop psychology pure and simple. No need to go on with that sort of credentialling. The course did not even make it clear what that "coaching" thing was.

A few years ago, in an article attempting to outline the fundamentals of coaching, Dale D. Buss wrote: "It is easy to be skeptical about coaching. Even many of its practitioners don't seem to know how to define it. Few academics have studied it. The names allusion to the athletic world evokes images of detached exhortation, while on the opposite extreme it may seem touchy-feely and overly personal. .... But a clearer definition of coaching is emerging. It is more than consulting, which generally is a finite arrangement confined to business practices. And it is different from mentoring, which almost always involves someone with a good deal of experience in a position similar to that of the person whom the mentor is advising." (Nation's Business., December 1998).

It seems to me that the major problem of defining coaching can be traced to the fact that it a profession that requires only a few hours of training., Anybody can become a credentialed coach after paying a few thousand dollars to some such organization as Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, CA, coachtrain@aol.com or Coach University @ www.coachu.com, whose admission requirements do not even include a college degree. Given that a standard coaching agreement involves 2-3 hours per month billed at the rate of $100 - $600 per hour, the profession has become highly popular. And most people enter it via some such credentialing as offered by the Coach University or Coaches Training Institute.

By now, coaching is practiced by the college drop-out, the Ph.D. level trained clinical psychologist on the run from HMOs, management consultants, spiritual advisors, sport coaches, and stay at home moms. Needless to say, that such variety of backgrounds results in very different relationships between coaches and their clients, which include the touchy-feely therapeutic relationship, the 'in your face' management consulting relationship, the "Jesus loves you" preaching relationship, and any other relationship you can imagine.

Although such widely ranging coaching services have a clear advantage of letting the consumer find the type of coaching they need, it also has an inherent danger. For example, a coach that is not trained as a psychologist, is much less likely to recognize a client who would be better served by a medical or mental health professional (psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, clinical social worker, etc). Mental health problems do exist, and they cannot be wished away. Many a mental health patient needs medical prescription and therapy, not coaching. Coaching cannot help people who have medical problems and need treatment. And in fact it can possibly exacerbate such conditions as for example severe depression.

Also, the coach cannot bring to their clients that which s/he did not learn at school, beyond the kindergarten. For example the knowledge of human cognition, decision making, risk taking, cognitive development, and so on - the 'things' that are most useful in helping people get where they want to be in their professional life. Likewise, the knowledge of developmental psychology could come really handy in coaching children, which many a child of working parents could use.

My idea of coaching in the 21-st century is the coaching practiced by doctoral level psychologists with training in cognitive and developmental psychology, and in the fundamentals of coaching. And I want to find out whether and how many of such psychologists might be interested in becoming "coaches"or coaching psychologists or "psychocoaches".

It is my hope that a few people with an extensive training in both cognitive and developmental psychology will become interested in joining the core associates of Corporate Psychology & Mental Fitness, LLC and/or of Brain-Flex Inc. That core will develop a training program for future coaches, who will become certified to practice Coaching21, the research agenda for coaching 21, and the program for on line and off line services. Perhaps we even can come up with a better name for coaching which, in essence, is a form of consulting psychology and which is currently practiced by whoever wishes to call him/herself a coach.

If you interested in the whole 'coaching thing', please continue reading. Just click on the link below and go. You will be brought to a respective page of www.brainflex.com or www.corporate-psychology.net, the web sites of Corporate Psychology & Mental Fitness, LLC. Also, have a look at my article on Mental Fitness^� If after reading through, you are still interested and wish to ask questions, please write to coaching21@brain-flex.com or ceo@brainflex.com