When a coach may help

An alternative to traditional therapy focuses more on the potential of the future than the problems of the past

By Elizabeth Cooney Globe Correspondent / January 4, 2010

Carol Kauffman has a question for you: If your life could look the way you’d really like it to look, what would that be? Depending on your answer, she’ll help you build on your strengths so you can pull yourself toward your goals, step by small step. She’ll also hold you accountable.

Although Kauffman is a psychologist, this is coaching, not therapy. Codirector of the new Institute of Coaching at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, she is working to solidify the growing body of evidence-based research supporting the relatively new field that is often defined by what it is not.

“Therapy helps you overcome the challenges of the past and coaching helps you very clearly identify your vision of the future,’’ she said. “Coaching is a process of change that revolves around strengths and potential, rather than feelings of pathology and pain.’’

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