FAQ

1.   What IS Empowerment Coaching (or “Life Coaching”)?

The Life Coaching process, whether it’s used to empower people to overcome limiting belief systems or to help them to reach specific personal or business goals, is a process through which a trained and experienced Coach works with a Client (or “Coachee”) for a specified period of time, to help them to accomplish things that they have not been able to accomplish by themselves.

2.  Is Coaching the same thing as therapy?

No. In psychotherapy, a doctor or other trained and licensed expert works with a patient, who is not an expert, and they begin by amassing enough background information about the patient’s life, work and relationship histories in order to begin to recognize and diagnose a form of mental illness. Once that illness has been accurately diagnosed (which may take many weeks or months), the therapist then begins to develop a prescription for a treatment plan to treat and heal or cure the illness, and throughout the process, there is a control and power dynamic in which the expert is always on a higher level and the patient is on a lower one.

In coaching, the Coach is the expert on the Coaching Process and the Client or Coachee is the expert on themselves, so they work together as equal partners or teammates, with both partners equally committed to the Client’s success. Also, in coaching, we begin where we are, with who we are, and we work on setting goals (or targets or destinations) and then creating measurable action steps for achieving those goals or reaching those targets or destinations and structured processes for gauging our progress and maintaining accountability. 

3.  Is what we discuss in session kept confidential?

Yes, absolutely! Just as with any other therapeutic relationship, the only way a coaching relationship can really work is if it’s built on mutual trust and faith in one another, because you need to know that if I promise to be there for you, I will, and I need to know that if you tell me something, or promise to follow through on an action steps that we’ve both decided makes sense for you to pursue, your words will be spoken honestly, so that we can both learn why something is important to you and see where you’re absolutely “on fire” and where you’re still in need of a little support or encouragement (or some recalibration), in order to get you closer to where you want to be. 

4.  Are there any times when what we discuss is not kept confidential?

Yes, but there are only two such times. One is if you disclose any interest in or intention to harm yourself, and the other is if you disclose any interest in or intention to cause harm to anyone else. In both cases, by law, I am required to report my concerns to the appropriate authorities, to prevent serious injuries or loss of life. Other than that, whatever you tell me is held in the strictest of confidence.

5.  Will my Empowerment Coaching sessions be covered by my health insurance?

The most accurate and definitive answer I can give you to this question is “Maybe, but not usually”, and it’s important to understand why. Until very recently, health insurers never, ever covered Life Coaching or Empowerment Coaching, under any circumstances, because health insurance is designed to help people to afford the costs of the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions and illnesses, not the achievement of goals or the acquisition of triumphs. However, within the past few years, some insurance companies have begun to cover the costs of Coaching services because they’ve recognized that those whose lives are working as well as they wish rarely require as many other healthcare services and that since Coaching is usually accomplished within a predetermined, fixed period of time (unlike psychotherapy, which can continue for years, or even decades), it can actually save them and their shareholders money, in the long run, to help pay for some short-term Coaching services. In the end, the best answer to this question is to call your health plan and ask them.