Why Would You Want To Use Coaches?
What Is It That Coaches Do That Lawyers Don't?
So--How Do Coaches Actually Do This?
This Would Seem To Help The Client, But How Does It Help The Lawyer?
Can't One Coach Work As Well As Two?
Divorce Coach and Child Specialist
Dr. Norman Henrik Christiansen
175 Main Street
Easthampton, MA 01027
norman.christiansen@comcast.net
413-822-3221 or 413-527-8308
Navigate Our Family Law Services: Collaborative Law - Mediation - Divorce Coaching - Child Specialists -Financial Planning
The following are frequently asked questions about involving licensed, trained mental health professionals as coaches in a collaborative process...
Why Would You Want To Use Coaches?
The following are frequently asked questions about involving licensed, trained mental health professionals as coaches in a collaborative process.
What is it that coaches do that lawyers don't?
Coaches have specific training on addressing intense emotional issues that often create impasses or unnecessary emotional and financial costs in settling disputes. A coach, for example, can work with a client to help in managing his or her emotions in order to think more clearly—learn how to respond instead of react and generally feel more confident about participating in a negotiated process. Lawyers appreciate having clients become more cooperative and self aware in contested situations, and clients who have worked with coaches often leave such situations feeling more positive about their own participation as well as the outcome.
So - how do coaches actually do this?
Coaches will utilize many skills that they have learned throughout their practices in working with clients under stress. Just helping clients learn how to manage their own stress reactions can make a big difference. Coaches can also help clients in developing new skills such as understanding how their own thinking interferes with their effectiveness. They can help clients create new belief systems or schema to be able to address challenging situations more effectively. In so doing, clients are able to see other points of view; even those of the "opposing party", thus helping them engage more constructively in negotiations. Teaching negotiations and communication skills and techniques and learning how to strategize to maximize one's own strengths helps individuals achieve their goals without sacrificing their self-esteem.
This would seem to help the client, but how does it help the lawyer?
Coaches not only work with clients so they can "show up" and be the best they can be in actual negotiations, but they work closely with lawyers to help them understand what works best for their clients. Coaches can spell out specific techniques that lawyers can use as well as dynamics between clients that can interfere with a successful outcome. By helping clients change these unsuccessful dynamics and working with the lawyers to reinforce these new behaviors, coaches help both clients and lawyers in collaborative work.
Can't one coach work as well as two?
Many mental health professionals are trained as mediators and family and couples therapists and can add value to the collaborative process. However, having a coach for each client gives the coach opportunities that he/she does not have in a mediated process to take the time needed to work individually with each client. A coach can provide the support and empathy that allows clients to be willing to change their behavior; to be willing to try new skills and behaviors they might not otherwise try. In four-way meetings with clients, coaches can utilize the relationship
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