The coaching/therapy boundary in organizational coaching

Abstract

A literature search revealed diverse descriptions of the coaching/therapy boundary. In an attempt to gain greater definition, organisational coaches were surveyed to discover how they made decisions about the boundary in their practice. Responses indicated that practising coaches viewed coaching as differing from therapy in being future-orientated, short-term, less deep, goal-orientated, appropriate for clients who are mentally healthy, and organisationally focused. But, under such a definition, much of their practice appeared to be therapeutic. In addition, it was found hard to find a theoretical justification for the process and client elements of this definition. It is proposed that, rather than attempting to define a coaching/therapy boundary, it might be preferable to accept the indications from the research that coaching has a significant overlap with therapy, and that coaches would benefit from therapeutic training. Coaching could be differentiated from therapy by the specific competences of coaches and some contextual parameters.

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