Psychological intervention can take many forms, and while psychotherapy is probably the most popular, it’s good to know about others.

In this sense, coaching is one of the most used concepts to designate several of the forms of application of psychology in non-clinical contexts. It is especially important in processes linked to the achievement of personal or business goals, so that it serves to help both individuals and teams.

Now… what are the characteristics of coaching that differentiate it from the usual work of clinical and health psychologists? To find out, we spoke to Fernando Huerta Moreno , a psychologist who is an expert in clinical psychology and coaching.

Interview with Fernando Huerta: the link between coaching and psychotherapy

Fernando Huerta Moreno is a psychologist, trainer and coach, as well as the Director of the Center for Psychotherapy, Coaching and Human Training, located in Madrid. In this interview he talks about the relationship between applied psychology in therapy and coaching based on his more than 20 years of experience.

How would you summarize the relationship between psychotherapy and coaching?

Psychotherapy works on the discomfort, not only on the symptoms but also on the problems that cause them, which is the most important thing if we want solutions that will last over time. For that reason it is necessary to make a good diagnosis since it is the base of all the treatment, then techniques adjusted to that concrete matter are applied, always guided by those that are most appropriate to the style of personality of that client and to its life in individual.

Obviously within a treatment we also have to work on goals that are not the disorder, since we act with people, who have many vital plots that have to be properly adjusted and improved to achieve a good balance and satisfaction.

Coaching is more about obtaining objectives in different areas, with different strategies than those we use in psychotherapy, but on many occasions we have to work on the psychological part as well because anxieties, fears, emotions, peculiarities, insecurities, personality styles that prevent us from being able to do well in time and effectively the steps to achieve those objectives, So if we don’t control all those points, we are going to get blown up and limit the achievement of those goals in an adequate way, it is going to take longer to obtain them, we are going to have a greater number of failures and the successes will be fewer and of a smaller magnitude as a result of the interferences produced.

We should also avoid making mistakes in the process, that is, not seeing that some coaching goals that our clients ask us for, means reinforcing a pathology, that the possible achievement of these goals harms the person more than it helps him, so we must assess whether they are good or bad goals on a psychological level, act with prudence and care, because if you can not be helping them to achieve something that is detrimental to their welfare.

If we get someone with dependency to recover a bad couple quite toxic, or someone with orthorexia to control their diet more obsessively, we are doing them a disservice, since we are encouraging them something that should be reduced or eliminated depending on the case.

Are the two tools often used together?

Yes, we usually use psychotherapy and coaching tools together, because we work with people and the whole of them, which includes a psychic part and a vital part that are difficult to separate. Working with people’s lives and minds is something very complex, which implies a lot of responsibility; therefore, it is necessary to have a multidisciplinary vision and be quite careful to always achieve the best for the client, without any negative secondary consequences in the short, medium and long term.

It is usual to work with different databases in a practically synchronous way or with a systematized alternation, except in cases where the haste to remove the primary discomfort, requires to focus almost totally during a short time, only in eliminating it over any other consideration of secondary goals no matter how good they may seem, or how complementary and desired they may be for the client.

In your professional experience, is it more complex to detect the causes of a person’s discomfort, or the motivations and goals that serve to promote their own well-being?

It depends on the complexity of a pathology, on the goals and also on the knowledge that person has about himself, about psychotherapy and coaching, and of course about the knowledge that the professional has, but in general it is usually more complex, not to detect the causes of the discomfort or the motivations, but to teach people to obtain a good level of happiness in a stable way, that is why it is so important to maintain in both cases.

We must achieve a double function; on the one hand to keep software viruses away from any psychological problem, and on the other to give it good theoretical and practical content, so that it knows how to have a happier life on average over time

What are the main reasons why people seeking coaching services come to your practice?

The main reasons are to achieve things both externally and internally, that is, to obtain goals in work, personal, social relations, play, couples, also to know and achieve things like getting to know each other better, self-esteem, assertiveness, tolerance to frustration, resilience, balance.

But more and more they ask us for more global things, they want to know and handle a compendium of matters from outside and inside, that’s why we usually work from a wide dimension, in which both aspects are exercised, since they are almost always linked, some things influence the others.

For example, a person with higher self-esteem and confidence will better achieve his or her goals, but also, if we teach him or her good knowledge to work and obtain the desired goals, when he or she reaches them, his or her personal safety and self-esteem improve.

What are the most common reasons why people ask to be treated in psychotherapy?

There are many different topics to come, but the main ones are, first of all, all the topics related to anxiety, mood and problems.

In second place, those related to vital parameters; the food problems that are increasing in their different varieties, sleep, since we sleep less and less and with worse quality, and everything related to the discomfort in personal relationships, both couple, family, friendly and work, and the sexual problems that people seem to have decided to deal with and not to resign themselves to them.

How can coaching be used to improve the functioning of companies and organizations in general?

Companies are people who interact with each other with a specific knowledge base according to the role they play in the company. You have to know how to manage yourself, whether as a boss, as a colleague or as an employee, without this causing you discomfort for different reasons, without this affecting you individually or as a group, for your own good and also for the good of the company or organization.

If a person does not feel well, or a group has strains, or an organization has horizontal or vertical interaction problems, things get bad for everyone normally and emotional, anxiety, psychosomatic or other problems arise, and also the individual and global profitability decreases with what that can mean for people and organizations.

In companies we basically have two roles, one labor in the performance of our work, and the other relational, since we interact with others both to work and produce but also to relate personally in a non-productive way.

It is important to take care of both in order to control individual and general levels of satisfaction and profitability, because they are important for everyone in both areas.

And how does coaching apply to goals that have to do with personal life, beyond work? Are they very different from those used in organizational contexts?

First we evaluate which goals are good or bad for the client as we have mentioned before, then we see which ones are viable and which ones are not, then those that are priority and secondary, and then those that are more profitable in the medium and long term which is what is important.

If we go short we usually end up paying more in all concepts, they are selling us the immediate and easy obtaining of the good stuff without costs, including the big stuff, but it is a falsehood. We have to be aware that the efforts and reinforcements in life are always proportionate so as not to disappoint and frustrate us.

They do not differ excessively because they have a common basis on many occasions, but it is clear that they work in both cases with different content and also with objectives that are different in one case and in the other. It is true that when people feel good on a personal and professional level, they obtain their personal and professional goals better, they persevere more and they fall down much less, bringing benefits at all levels.