Who Are My Clients?
In Chap. 3 we argued that self-awareness was an important aspect for the coach, and we offered some ideas for becoming more self-aware through using different lens to consider who we are. These included psychometrics as well as self-reflection and journa
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Who Are My Clients?
Introduction In Chap. 3 we argued that self-awareness was an important aspect for the coach, and we offered some ideas for becoming more self-aware through using different lens to consider who we are. These included psychometrics as well as self-reflection and journaling. We believe the same principles apply to thinking about our clients. We believe each is a unique person, with their own personal strengths, as well as their own biases, prejudices and ‘messed-up-ness’ of what it is to be human, but in spite or maybe because of these, they are wonderful. In this chapter we draw again on the concept of the coaching mindset, applying the idea to how we think about and see our clients. Should we see them as people to be ‘fixed’ or as wonders to behold?
Deficit Psychology Model v Positive Psychology Model For the first 100 years or so years psychology’s primary focus was toward explaining dysfunction. This deficit, or disease model, as it has become known, meant that psychologists were highly active in thinking about, researching and writing about human mental illness and dysfunction. This led to classifications such as DSM, a manual which describes hundreds of mental conditions, how to diagnose them and how to ‘fix’ them. What got neglected was the more positive side of human functioning. What do humans do when they are at their best? Of course, there were many examples of individual psychologists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, and movements like the Human Potential Movement, who were concerned with these aspects over this period, but this was far outweighed by a focus on negative behaviors and functioning. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Passmore, T. Sinclair, Becoming a Coach, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53161-4_4
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4 Who Are My Clients?
In the last few decades greater focus has been placed on these more positive aspects of human behavior. Out of the Human Potential Movement, also known as humanistic psychology, has come positive psychology. This new approach argues that we need to consider equally positive aspects of human functioning, as opposed to solely focusing on the negative, and to study this with similar methods, specifically quantitative methods, as dysfunction.
Lens As we suggested at the start of the chapter a useful starting point for this approach is to consider our mindset. As a coach, are we looking for what’s wrong in our clients, or are we helping them to look for what’s right? The ICF competency of the Coaching Mindset, while sometimes difficult to observe, encourages us to work with a positive mindset toward our clients, being open, curious, flexible and client centered. While we are not suggesting we need to be naïve and ignore unhelpful behaviors or clinical issues, we start with a focus on the positive and the potential which rests in each and every client. One way of exploring or thinking about this is in terms of strengths. There are a wide range of strengths tools which have been published (see Box 4.1 for examples). Box 4.1 Examples of Strength Que
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