Lately I come across a
number of business cards of my colleague Psychiatrists where they mention their
work as being ‘Life Coach’. In general, I have been sceptical of the concept of
life coach- I think it’s just a modern version of ‘Guru’, ‘Baba’, etc. It
appears that talented, accomplished people cannot trust their own judgements at
some point of their lives and the above category of persons fill the need so
created. I wonder if there are any courses to become a life coach and I have
heard of highly questionable methods like ‘whats your favourite colour today?’
being used to guide the person by life coaches. Anyway, this post is not about
life coaches- but about mental health professionals functioning as life
coaches.
Mental health
professionals like Psychiatrists, Psychologists or Psychiatric Social workers
are trained in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. During training,
their exposure to problems of ‘normal’ life is limited- at least in India. Most
of the times the number of mentally ill is in such excess to the people dealing
with problems of daily living- so critical and professional evaluation of
persons with functioning lives is quite rare. Professionals in private practice
may have a greater chance, but again I have my doubts. Psychiatrists spend
about 5 mins with one patient, while psychologists have simultaneous tests
running in 3 cabins. Very few professionals actually see their patients for long
durations. And then there is the problem of doctor- shopping by the capricious
patient, because of which the drop-out rate of patients in therapy is
considerable. So I doubt how many mental health professionals are really doing
therapy and have accumulated the diverse, rich and deep experience to be able
to contemplate on the problem that is ‘LIFE’.
So when I see life
coach printed on the business card- I am prone to be sceptical- particularly if
the professional is young, has a busy practice and not known to be
contemplative (through lack of writing/ presenting/ researching).
No comments:
Post a Comment