As caring coaches, each of us is called, from time to time, to do depression coaching. And while each of us has been discouraged and even depressed, from time to time, few of us live at the darker side of depression. Far from discouragement, much closer to complete despair, some of our clients have been depressed so long that they have forgotten what it is to feel happy or even to have hope. Yes. Hopeless. Without hope. Nearly empty, but for the pain of despair. For these people, be assured that you, as a well trained coach, can do for them the great good of freeing them of their burden of hopelessness.
As a Coach Make the Difference that No One Else Can
Coaches, even those dedicated to depression coaching, are far less interested in the past, than psychologists. We are naturally focused on the future. And the future is made of hope and possibilities. This perspective is critical because the puzzles that make up most of our psychological enigmas are as insoluble, as they are actually irrelevant. We can help free our clients of their past without getting caught in that quagmire of memories misinterpreted or, even worse, never having occurred.
Depression Coaching Deals with the Whole Person
Knowing that happiness and depression are reflections of our state of mind, and then realizing that the dominant component, nearly four-fifths, of our state of mind is determined by our physiology, means that each of us can control our state of mind. For example in one well documented study, inmates in a mental institution who previously had been treated with strong anti-depressants, were able to successfully go off those powerful drugs by practicing smiling for 15 minutes, three times each day for two weeks!
Even Depression Coaches Are Focused on the Upside of Human Potential
With so much of human nature so often a mirror of external suggestion, the coaching community’s fundamental bias toward the upside of human potential means that even depression coaching is a self-fulfilling prophecy of optimism.
Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach
Very interesting Dave, I never heard of depressing coaching but now that I read your article it makes sense. Depression can be pretty serious so I would hope anyone offering this service would have the proper training to work with someone in that fragile state.