Therapy Today

Dilemmas
The counselling-coaching interface
This month’s
dilemma explores
the interface
between counselling
and coaching. Is it
ethical to counsel
a client at the same
time as coaching
his brother, against
the advice of your
supervisor?
This month’s dilemma
Lucy is a counsellor who is
just completing a two-year
diploma in personal
coaching. Martin, one of her
private counselling clients,
has asked her if she will see
his brother Alex. Alex has
been made redundant and
wants some ‘confidence and
career coaching’. Alex knows
Coaching has been an
emerging discipline within
its own right for many years,
with a theoretical base and
ethical structure that is similar
to, but also different from,
counselling. With the launch
of the BACP Coaching division,
it seems timely to consider the
interface between counselling
and coaching, and in particular
the dilemmas faced when those
differences and similarities
present in clinical work.
Like many practitioners in
the coaching field, Lucy is
both a counsellor and a newly
that Martin has been having
counselling for the past
year to help him overcome
depression following a messy
divorce. Lucy’s supervisor
Estelle has cautioned Lucy
about seeing a relative of a
client, whatever the service
being offered, because of
the potential boundary
issues and effects on the
qualified coach; for her, one
framework will influence and
inform the other. The ethical
imperative is for her to hold
the boundaries between the
two. Martin’s request that
Lucy sees his brother Alex for
coaching presents her with a
difficult dilemma. Additionally,
how the interface between
the two activities is managed
in supervision is also brought
into view. The concerns of
Estelle, Lucy’s supervisor,
appear to be made irrelevant
by Lucy because Estelle is not
a coach. Yet, perhaps Estelle
relationship she has with
Martin. However, Lucy
believes that as she’s
offering coaching it will be
a very different relationship
with Alex, that the issues are
just not the same, and that
Estelle doesn’t understand
as she doesn’t coach herself.
What should Lucy do? And
what should Estelle do?
has something important
to say here. The responses
below hopefully tease these
issues out. I am also keen to
receive your responses for
the next dilemma, outlined
on page 33. The December
dilemma not only raises
issues about confidentiality
and responsibility, but about
how the interface between
employer, employee and
counsellor is managed.
Please send your responses
before 29 November to
andrew.reeves @bacp.co.uk
Andrew Reeves
Mary-Jane Kingsland
(mentor and coach)
A coaching approach is well
suited to the type of situation
that Alex finds himself in, and
it is apparent Lucy feels well
qualified to start work with
him. However, for Lucy to
start unravelling this ethical
dilemma, she should ask
herself why, against the advice
of her supervisor Estelle,
she feels that she is the right
person to coach Alex.
Although Lucy may feel
capable of adopting a pure
coaching relationship
with Alex, her year-long
counselling of Martin will,
undoubtedly, inform her
assessment of Alex and
his situation. As Martin’s
counsellor, Lucy will have
discussed Martin’s familial
relationships in the context
of his ‘messy divorce’ – and
as such she is unlikely to
regard Alex and the very
different challenges he faces
with complete impartiality.
A coaching relationship
requires a different skills set
from counselling, and I think
Lucy will find it difficult to
‘switch hats’. There is a real
danger that Lucy will lapse
into counselling with Alex –
particularly if she encounters
apparently familiar ground.
Equally, there is every
likelihood that Lucy’s ongoing
professional relationship
with Martin will be marred
once she starts work with
his brother. It can also be
anticipated that Martin may
subsequently regret offering
Lucy’s services, as he may
feel that the one-to-one
relationship that he has with
Lucy is no longer special but
‘shared’ with Alex. When
Lucy is examining her own
motivations for wanting to
coach Alex, she should also
consider why Martin would
suggest it in the first place?
Estelle will have identified
that no matter how
professional Lucy strives to
be, by delivering counselling
to one brother and coaching
to another, the brothers
may confuse the help they
are getting from the same
practitioner. The implied
nuances of both are not
widely understood outside
of the profession. Lucy
may find that despite her
own professionalism, the
brothers will compare their
time with her and draw their
own conclusions – possibly
damaging their relationship.
Before making any
decisions, Lucy must reflect
upon her relationship with
Estelle and ask herself if
her ego is influencing her
November 2010/www.therapytoday.net/Therapy Today 31