One of the most common misconceptions that I encounter about my work as a life coach is that I am similar to a therapist. While I cannot speak about other life coaches, I can tell you that what I do through my own personal life coaching programs is not therapy. This is by choice.
Yes, while some of the modalities that I have been trained in and utilize in my coaching work have some therapeutic overlap, my work has some significant differences.
First, let me say that I am not against therapy in any way. I know many people that have benefitted greatly from therapists and their work.
With that said, however, traditional therapy has some limits that I seek to transcend in my work as a coach. In today's post, I thought I'd lay out some key differences between my work, and traditional therapy.
Where Much Is Given, Much Is Required
My new foundational coaching system for individuals (The Energy Acquisition System) is much less accessible than traditional therapy. First, my program requires more financial investment than traditional therapy typically does, and second, it requires more work and involvement from the client.
Why is this? While I cannot speak for all therapists, most therapists charge their clients by the hour for their time. Most therapists primarily give their clients a listening ear, and some may offer the occasional insight along with tools to help a client in their situation. While this can be helpful for some, many need much more than a listening ear. They need a living PATH.
In my work as a coach, my clients do not pay me (as their employee) for my time. If my clients approach the coaching process in this way, it doesn't last very long and isn't very effective.
In reality, my clients are required to invest in themselves much more significantly with the Energy Acquisition System that I customize for each client. This is why I tell my clients how much the investment is, not how much I charge for my time.
This is more than semantics, it's energy.
After years of working with people, I have discovered this truth. If the investment is small, the benefit is also small.
While therapy is often priced much lower, (and even covered by many medical insurance policies) there is much less "skin in the game" for clients in traditional therapy. The accessibility and low investment mean "easy come, easy go".
In the early years of my coaching work, I too made the incorrect assumption that the more accessible my coaching was to people, the more they would benefit. The opposite became true.
My schedule simply filled up and I became frustrated with folks who had one foot in the work, and one foot out. Again, easy come, easy go.
I began to see, however, that the folks who approached my work with a 'do or die' (all in) mentality experienced tremendous transformation.
I have lost track of just how many times I have heard (all in) clients tell me that they received much more impact from the first few weeks of my individual coaching program than they had gained after many years of traditional therapy.
This is because the path that I offer requires people to invest significantly into themselves. I require my individual clients to invest into themselves just as much as I invest into them.
This means 100% total involvement. Because where much is given, much is required...and where much is required and given, much is received.
Energy Transmission Is Essential
We live in the information age. We have Google and YouTube at our fingertips. Now we even have Chat GPT and AI to assist. Simply put, information is not in short supply.
While information can be very helpful, information alone is incapable of transforming anyone.
This is precisely why people can hire consultants, go to therapy for years, watch YouTube videos, consult AI programs, read great books, and yet experience very little life transformation.
While I do share helpful information with my clients in the coaching process, this isn't why my process is effective for my clients.
I don't often talk about this directly, but the key to client transformation in my coaching process is actually because of energy transmission.
Energy transmission cannot occur simply through talk therapy or the regurgitation of academic information, rather it's actually a living, subtle non=physical process that transmits over time through a coaching container.
Like a farmer who plants seeds and works the soil, there is a tremendous joy that I experience at watching the energy transmission magically unfold from the inside out and sprout up into a powerful crop, so to speak, in the lives of my clients. It never gets old.
This is my favorite component of my coaching work that is happening subtly in the background.
Unlike traditional therapists, the qualifications for the specific type of coaching work that I do really must go beyond academic degrees and certifications, and other forms of informational training.
Yes, I have went through various trainings and received the necessary certifications, but this alone means nothing as no academic certification or degree leads to the active ingredient in my coaching process which is energy transmission.
I have discovered that energy transmission to my clients directly correlates with the level of inner mastery that I as a coach have been able to cultivate in my own life.
If I am not personally experiencing energetic ease and flow in my own life, how can I transmit anything to anyone else?
Unfortunately, far too many coaches, consultants, counselors, spiritual directors, and therapists are themselves miserable or struggling in their own lives.
This is why they have little to offer others except surface level information, rigid belief systems, or primarily a sympathetic listening ear. I'm interested in much more than that.
Simply put, energetic transmission to others requires a level of energetic mastery in the life of the coach / therapist, etc...
It doesn't mean that as a coach I have no problems or that I am never challenged by situations in life, rather it simply means that I live what I teach and that it works well for me. This is the key to my integrity and effectiveness as a coach.
If you've been wondering about my new Energy Acquisition System coaching program for individuals, I hope this is helpful as you weigh your options about your path forward.
May you gain mastery over the wonderful gift of life that you have been given. There is no greater gift.
Jamal Jivanjee
Certified Mastery Method Coach, Author
Free To Love Coaching Solutions LLC