Can Coaches/Therapists offer Guarantees
Hey, it's Katy, and I'm here to help you befriend your mind, body, and soul. If you stick around with me long enough, you might find that you're a mindful soul too. Hello friend! Today we're going to talk about guarantees in the coaching or the therapy industry. And so if you're someone who's considering investing your money, your hard earned money, into a coaching package or even into therapy, can outcomes be guaranteed?
And I'm going to speak sort of frankly about my personal journey in my coaching business, especially learning marketing, cause I certainly never did any marketing or sales before in my past. They don't teach you that in therapy school. Um, but in, in my journey of learning about marketing and sales, because I am in business and I do sell my services, I give my energy and my heart and my time to help people make changes and they pay me back in their energy through the form of money.
I've had to learn about marketing and sales and. One thing I've struggled with in marketing is being told that you have to guarantee people an outcome. Give a promise, promise them that they will achieve X, Y, and Z, guarantee that they will have this outcome. And the truth is... To me, that's been a little tricky because it's a little bit verging on unethical.
In the therapy world, you are taught you never give a guarantee of a specific outcome. If you were to guarantee someone coming into therapy that they're going to have a specific outcome in terms of the way they're feeling or the way they're relating to their life or what's going on in their relationships, That's a problem because there's a lot of different things that go into what actually creates change in our life.
And the provider, whether it's a coach or a therapist, is really just a fraction of that. They're offering support, they're offering education, they're offering motivation, feedback, all of that. But in the end, it really is the person who takes that information and that feedback and puts it into practice.
and determines whether or not they're going to get the outcome that they desire. There's also external factors in people's lives and their work and their environment that impact whether or not they get an outcome. So in therapy world, you never promise any result because if you do and then that person doesn't get that exact specific result, you're looking at a lawsuit, right?
But even worse. You've let that person down. They came in with an expectation that was not maybe 100 percent guaranteed, and that's really the part that's the problem when you lead people into an expectation that they will 100 percent get this very specific result when you really cannot guarantee that.
So here's the thing in the therapy world and and this is where you know the regulated industry of therapy and mental health care is different than the coaching industry for example, which is unregulated, um, the regulated industry Is somewhat standardized and I have a love hate relationship with this you guys like I could do I probably will do a whole other podcast about how much I really hate the institution of the mental health industry and the underlying gatekeeping and patriarchal power based dynamics that happen within that institution.
However, there's pros and cons to everything right. And within the mental health field, there's standardization and there's something called research based or evidence based practices. And I actually just remembered today that my thesis actually in my master's program was on evidence based practices.
And basically what that is, is has the intervention been shown through research? to actually help people. And there's all different kinds of interventions that a therapist or a coach might utilize to help people reach their goals and achieve certain outcomes. There's interventions of listening, there's interventions of feedback.
There's interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy, which is thought work, or dialectical behavioral therapy, which I'm certified in, somatic therapy. There's a ton of different therapeutic practices that have been research based and shown. through multiple studies to increase the chances that someone might get their outcome.
Now, on top of that, the therapist themself goes through levels of certification. So not only do they go through a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, accruing clinical hours under supervision, taking a licensure exam, beyond that even taking trainings and certifications for specific forms of therapy, these evidence based practices, you have to pass little tests all along the way.
The idea with that regulation of therapists is that there is at least some level or standard of care that, you know, you can say this person has been through these trainings and is more likely to be able to help you achieve the outcomes that you're desiring. Now, With that being said, we all know that there's bad apples in every bunch and that there are therapists and coaches who misrepresent themselves, who don't really apply what they've learned, who don't follow some of the quote unquote ethics or whatever, and so it's not all or nothing here.
Nothing is ever You know, black and white. So while I do still have a part time therapy practice and I do some of that work, it's different kind of work. I really have pivoted into coaching partly because I'm just kind of wanting to move away from some of that institutional stuff, including dealing with the insurance providers and all of the regulatory stuff.
In my coaching practice, what I really fall back on for my guarantee for my clients is that what I teach in my courses, in my programs, and the work I do one on one with people, it is material that has been research based. It's been shown Much of it over decades of research to benefit people's lives and help them change and receive the outcomes that they're desiring, whether it's more peace, whether it's better relationships or less anxiety, less stress, whatever it may be.
The practices that I use are research based practices, and I'm teaching them and I'm guiding people through them in a way that is research based. So, in my coaching packages, of course, I'm not doing clinical mental health treatment with people. We're not diagnosing mental health disorders. We're not doing the medical model of care.
I'm helping people who are wanting to work outside of that model, who are Functioning at a certain baseline level and wanting to improve that even more. And so, the same interventions and the same types of services can be helpful in different settings. So I guess my cautionary tale would be for if you are looking to invest in coaching services, Um, or even therapy services, be aware when someone is promising you a very specific outcome or guarantee, be aware that there's a lot of things that go into outcomes and use your own intuition when you're choosing the provider or the person that you're investing in to work with.
And most importantly, I'm saying this in a very strengths based way. You are always going to be the one that's at the heart of the Transformation and the change that you want to create in your life And I think on the first hand that can be kind of scary like well I don't know how to make this change or I don't know how to get to where I want to go I need someone else to help me do it and that's okay, but the truth is understanding your own empowerment and the fact that you're going to be able to take what you learn and integrate it, apply it with help.
It's okay to receive help on these things, but then you're going to be the one to take responsibility of, of applying what you've learned and making the transformations that you want to see in your life. That's so powerful. That's like magician shit, right? You are the magician. You are the creatrix of your life and that's a really beautiful thing.
So anytime that you're investing in coaching or even therapy, that's gotta be at the core. And I think the other red flag I would say is that if a coach or a therapist is kind of holding themselves above you as this magic, Truth holder, gatekeeper, answer giver that is going to save you and fix you and cure you.
Er, that's a red flag. That's not empowering. That's a dependent relationship that can turn into something really sticky. So I hope this was, um, maybe interesting or informative to you and just wanted to give you a little clue into For me and my programs, I, I can't offer very specific concrete guarantees.
And so whenever I talk about outcomes in my marketing, I'm trying to paint a picture of what's possible, um, that these interventions that I'm using, these skills and practices that I'm teaching can absolutely bring about. When a person takes them on as their own, applies them with help, and makes those changes for themselves in their life.
So, thanks for tuning in. I always love conversation on these things. Would love to hear your thoughts. Reach out, send me a DM, and I hope you have a great day.
