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Why Choose Coaching 2by2 to prepare you for Professional Coaching?
It seems that everywhere you look, there is a Life Coach Training program to be found. Life Coach training is a big business. Certain organizations charge thousands of dollars for minimal training, and then spend the last portion telling you how to set up and run a coaching business, while charging you ongoing membership fees to organizations which really don’t benefit you in your actual work. $2000-$6000 for training that frankly isn’t going to help you earn that much in the first few years of your new business. But what exactly are they training you to do? That’s the enigmatic question that demands an answer. Sure, they will teach you some skills, and give you pointers to on how set up your independent practice. But then what?
The most popular and cost effective training seems to be found in large seminars that provide an opportunity for direct observation, information, training, and practice. But those tend to have minimal individual attention, and they can cost thousands of dollars, plus travel and lodging, Online is much more cost effective, even easier to complete, because there is no real interaction to support the develop of your new skills. For that matter, there is little accountability.
What if there was training that is online and therefore cost effective, but which also gives you real individualized training? What if that training was the same training that professional counselors receive at the Graduate level in major Universities all over the country? And—What if that course was personally taught by a PhD in Counselor Education with a deep reservoir of experience? Topping it off—What if that course could be taken as a live internet training with real interactive coaching and mentoring? Sounds good, right? Well, hang on, there’s more!
What if you could get your training done online, plus have a local office where people already come in for coaching, and where you can have a real educational internship to begin building a client base for your own practice? Or—What if you could simply continue there and become part of the permanent team?
That’s more like it! A real chance to be mentored and incubated into a new career. All for far much less than a seminar-type life coach training would cost.
Keep Reading, there’s a whole lot more!!
Beginning June 2019 Virginia Beach Christian Counseling is once again opening it’s Counseling & Helping Skills Training program to new applicants.
Real Professional Guidance so you can become a Guide for others!
This three-part program will teach you the same skills taught to professional counselors for working with clients, plus a guided practicum in coaching or para-counseling follows your training, which is then continued in an internship. During your practicum and internship you will work with real clients, under the supervision of skill practitioners. You will become an immediate part of a team of learners and skilled providers who will embrace you as an equal, allowing you to thrive in a hands-on educational experience designed to take you from beginner, to novice, to skilled practitioner in 12 months.
Can I really become a Skilled Professional Life Coach?
That answer is easy…it depends. Yes, that sounds like a typical counselor non-answer. Let’s consider 6 Characteristics that go into a real answer. By the way, the descriptions here apply to coaching and counseling, so the term counselor and coach are used interchangeably.
1. Are you the person people come to for advice, comfort, direction, or just to vent to?
Many counseling students tell me that they feel like they are natural counselors, because of this phenomenon of being the go to person for those in pain. That can be a good indicator that you are naturally approachable, open to listening without bias or judgment, or offer genuine comfort and help.
2. Do your efforts to listen and help really produce results?
When people come to you and report success, relief, of thank you for your help, you have succeeded in being a good listener and likely have provided some level of relief. A successful counselor will see growth in a “client” that is a result of their interaction with the other person. Sometimes, people need multiple interactions with you to get to the end of their journey. Others need only one time help. There is no measure for determining how much is too much, so long as there is growth.
However, if the seek you out frequently, and show no growth, resist dealing with their responsibility to resolve their problems, or just come to dump on you and run, then you may be someone who creates dependency by telling them what they want to hear. This is sometimes a way of ‘connecting’ to people to solve your own needs.
You should evaluate your motives, and the results to answer this question .
3. Do people tell you that you are easy to talk to, are a good listener, or thank you for “just listening to them vent” and feel better?
IF this is true, then you are approachable. People seem to know instinctively that you care. They find some comfort in talking to you. You don’t push them away, but instead convey that you care. You are patient and listen carefully, focused on them, and they open up.
4. Are you someone who feels shy or quiet, but will engage people who approach you happily?
Surprisingly, most counselors are very introverted, and keep to themselves in a group or public setting. This is perhaps a result of the personality types that frequently become counselors. If you have ever taken the Meyers-Briggs personality test, and were classified as and INFJ of INFS personality, you are one of those how chooses counseling or helping fields for a career. You are probably shy, polite, and most likely carry some past hurt. This hurt, plus your quiet demeanor helps you be understanding and compassionate. Those traits are essential to good counseling because you are less likely to assert your own needs over those of others.
If you do not know your personality type, you can take a free assessment by going to https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
5. Do you feel energized by helping others?
Introverts find people tiresome. But when they help, they find deep personal satisfaction, even energy. When you actively listen to people’s problems, sharing their pain in the moment, you might feel a deep satisfaction in knowing that someone trusts you enough to open up to you. When you do not that that this person will return the favor, taking care of you, then you are doing real counseling
6. Do you give advice or help freely, or do you insert your opinion uninvited?
Counseling is not butting in or intruding on people. It requires an invitation to become a witness to an other’s pain or distress. When invited in, you listen. Sometimes you ask questions for clarity, but not out of simple curiosity. You actively attend to the immediate need of someone else, and tune out all other thoughts and biases. You are tuned in to understanding someone’s past, pain, or point of view.
IF you find yourself overhearing others, then offering unsolicited advice or direction, you are not helping from a motivation to serve, you are taking care of your own need to be needed, noticed, or to be the holder of the correct answers. This is not the role or goal of counseling.
To sum it up, you have a good heart, put others needs ahead of yours in the moment, do not take, but give, and know that these individuals are not there to help you, fix you, or satisfy you. They are there to receive, and you are there to give. If you are that person, then becoming a counselor may be right for you!
Now that you know the basics, contact us to set up a one on one meeting with Dr. Chuck to discuss how you might actually become skilled Coach through Coaching 2by2!