Imagine a best friend who wants nothing more than your complete success, who always listens with interest to what you have to say, and who gives you the feedback you need to make tough choices and changes. This is the essential job of a coach, to help you state the problem clearly and understand it, to plan an approach to solving it, and to execute that plan. Coaches believe that you already have the knowledge and skills you need for its solution, and that their job is to help you bring them out and use them effectively.

Coaching is an outgrowth of "client centered " therapy, a style developed by Carl Rogers in the 1950's and 1960's. While coaching is not therapy, it shares the client-centered view: that the client is basically a healthy, integrated person, that she already has the resources and knowledge to solve her issues, and that the coach's task is just to focus her talents in a productive way.

Most coaches work almost exclusively over the telephone, without ever meeting their clients face to face. Sometimes clients and coaches are separated by oceans and continents, but feel as if they are in the same room. At first, it may seem strange to be working through issues with someone you can't see, but almost everyone gets used to it, because coaches are trained to use their voice to communicate more than words. Coaches are also trained to listen to the meanings behind the words you are using, and can read the tone of your voice as naturally as you could read someone's face. Trust me, it really does work well, and it is much, much more convenient than having to come in to my office. You can be coached in any setting you want, even if you're lying on the beach.