Gah!!!

[kitty fabulous]

Why are there so many crazy people in the world? And why do they all want tarot readings? :banghead:

[HoneySuckleBlue]

So you can be busy and make mucho denero, or whatever the payoff is for you? (and so you can tell us stories about the really bizzar ones?:bigear: )

[kitty fabulous]

Actually I volunteered for free counselling & tarot readings on another website to hone my life coaching skills and now I'm regretting it.

Can't reveal the gory details because I don't know where else she posts.

I just want to say this: if someone someone is facing a challenge, that's great. They're blessed! I honor that. But if someone takes their entire identity from being broken and "being" one disorder or another, I can't help them. I'm not a clinical therapist, and it says so plainly in my reader profile, several times.

It's late at night and I'm running out of tact.

On a better note, I may have a paying NLP client here in Rochester and I think I can really help her. Just simple behavior change, creating a new habit. Piece of cake. She's a friend and I know she's strapped for cash so I offered her a rate cut.

Valerian kicking in...face about to hit keyboard...ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

[HoneySuckleBlue]

I suppose a practicaly full moon does'nt help either.


HOpe the deal with your friend is a more enjoyable challenge:)

[kitty fabulous]

Serves me right for offering to read on that particular forums site. It's got a reputation for attracting drama and fluff. I think after my second cup of coffee I should be able to at least throw a few cards for this woman.

What's frustrating is that I have two profiles up, one for life coaching and one for tarot. My life coaching services have been completely ignored there, and people have turned down free readings from me upon discovering that when I read I do not and will not "predict the future" tell them whether or not something "will" happen, or tell them what they should do to magically solve their problems.

I use peaceful communication techniques to determine the real need vs wants, remove blame, and keep the reading focused on the querent and not others s/he may imagine are involved, and I use NLP techniques to elicit the present and desired states, and get the question phrased in the most useful manner. Then I use the cards as sort of a map of the present consciousness, and take a look at patterns and trends, and find solutions or challenges. Then, if necessary, we can use more NLP to actually change the consciousness to invite the desired change. I think its actually a pretty cool service.

Except most people actually don't want to be helped. They just want compliant confirmation of the pathological belief that they are irresponsible for their own state of mind and circumstances, that their "future" is not illusion but a pre-ordained event completely out of their control, and that their neurotic obsession with other people is totally justified. It's so frustrating to have gone through all this change myself, and to have all these skills for change, and then to have people coming to me expecting me to confirm their helplessness.

[HoneySuckleBlue]

Do people even know what life coaching is all about?


There is a life coach at the wellness center that I am looking foreward to working in and even after she explained it I still don't really get what she can do for me, or help me to do for my self. Mebbe conciousness needs to be raised in that area?

[kitty fabulous]

The term "life coach" has no real legal definition in terms of liability or credentialing. Basically, anyone who thinks they can give good advice can set themselves up as a self-styled "life coach" without any certification or even knowing what they're doing. There are some places that specifically credential Life Coaches, from what I can tell, the training includes NLP, general counselling training, and sometimes other training as well. Many NLP practioners are calling themselves life coaches now, especially if they are combining NLP with other techniques such as hypnosis or NVC.

Life coaches are people who can assist you in making desired changes in your life. We do more than just give advice - although there are some people who do pay a life coach just for that. A life coach can help with things like developing new habits or improving old ones, managing stress, dealing with conflict, or changing your outlook. We can help you find strategies to tackle specific challenges or to approach a problem from a new direction.

It might help you to understand what a life coach does, to put it in the perspective of the difference between a life coach, counsellor, therapist, and psychologist. A lot of times when people think about finding "help", if they've never gotten assitance before or have only gotten one kind of assistance, they may tend to lump all "help" into the category of "somebody else" (usually with some sort of implied or imagined authority) who "fixes things", and miss the consideration that there's different kinds of help to meet different kinds of needs.

A life coach is somebody who (hopefully) has some sort of training or experience in practical, down-to-earth problem solving and motivation. We're best at the practical level. Some life coaches are also qualified as counsellors or therapists, but we are not necessarily qualified to handle major crisises like physical or sexual abuse, some kinds of addictions (although quitting smoking is often the "cash cow" fo a lot of life coaches), clinical psychological disorders, and medical conditions (we can help with motivation for things like weight loss, but may or may not be qualified to assist you with issues like nutrition.) We may provide referrals and information about other services we can't handle. (A good life coach will tell you when your problem is outside the scope of their experience. A bad one will fake it.) Motivation, improved outlook, and practical, here-and-now solutions are a life coach's strong points. To find out specifically what an individul life coach can help you with, ask about their training and certification.

A counsellor is mainly some one who helps people in crisis. Their training is usually more problem-oriented than the solution-based approach of a life coach, but not always. They have (hopefully) training to handle helping people with things like marital issues, mild depression, career change, unemployment, stress, and so on, and may have training to help with abuse, addiction, and more serious problems. Some counsellors just listen while the client talks out their problems. Helping people through crisis is usually a counsellor's strong point. Like life coaching, however, counselling often doesn't have any real legal definition, and almost anyone can set themselves up as a counsellor or advisor. Sometimes the difference between a life coach and a counsellor can get blurry. The main difference is in approach. A counsellor will listen to you talk about your problem. A life coach will ask you what you want to do about it.

A therapist is someone who has more clinical training to find a strategy to treat a specific disorder. A psychologist has even more training, and can diagnose. I'm not sure whether or not therapists are able to diagnose or not. From my understanding, a psychiatrist is more interested in brain chemistry than a psychologist may be, and is more likely to prescribe medication.

Life coaches do not have the clinical qualifications of a therapist, but we're important because we can help you solve a problem before it becomes a crisis. Especially with the abundance of manipulative pharmaceutical adds in the media ("Feel a little sad sometimes? You may have major depression! Talk your doctor into prescribing you this! ") people often tend to either blow little things way out of proportion and feel more helpless than they actually are, or to believe that something has to become a crisis before they can or "should" seek help.

Life coaches can show you that you can take care of your molehills before they become mountians.