Counseling vs. Coaching
I distinguish my counseling work from coaching as follows: when someone comes to me wanting to make something happen--to manifest some concrete goal or project--and wanting help doing so, I offer them coaching. If someone wants to deepen their understanding of themselves and wants help doing so, I consider that counseling.
As a coach I almost always engage in deepening self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-mastery; and this inward work is in service to the outward goal or project. As a counselor I almost always offer “homework” of some kind, asking my clients to put their new insights into action; and the aim of this action focus is to deepen their inner learning and change.
So, there is much overlap in my approach to these two roles and still I find the distinction useful.
My Counseling Work
As a counselor I help people bring more of themselves to life; to rest more in their true nature; to have less suffering and more aliveness. I have come to see that we suffer when we defend against what is. The armor that protects us also weighs us down.
As we wake from our fear-trances and breathe in the present, we become more lithe, undefended and alive. Working with the body imagination and intuition as allies and guides, I look for how one can experience this wholeness and at-home-ness.
Often this involves helping my clients bring to life the disowned parts of themselves and re-incorporate those parts into a larger, richer sense of self. This fosters greater energy and creativity, self-acceptance and sovereignty.
I aim to facilitate learning, empowerment, esteem and acceptance in my clients. My goal is to draw out the latent, hidden or yet-to-be-discovered wisdom and strength in the person.
I work primarily with adult individuals, both women and men. Having provided regional leadership to the men’s movement since the late 1980s, I have a particular understanding of men’s “work.”
I conduct my work, both coaching and counseling, face-to-face and over the phone. Some of my clients travel long distances for in-person appointments, scheduling phone sessions in between. Appointments range in length from 30 minutes to two or three hours.
With an office in Northampton, MA and one in the Berkshires, I can accommodate those who want a central, easy-access location and those who would like to combine our work with a “retreat” to nature. A walk in the woods, the view from our hilltop or a sit by the stream can provide integration or reflection time before or after a session. I have worked with some clients in the woods, using the natural world as a partner and healing container.
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