“Life Coaching is focused solely on the future, whereas therapy is largely focused on the past”. This is a statement in one of the exercises, which asks for your own response and reflections, in the first Module of the online Advanced Certificate in Life Coaching.
It feels appropriate as we move into another year in our calendar to look at this concept of “past, present and future”.
In his poem “The Wasteland”, T S Eliot writes:
“Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past.....
What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.”
As a tutor, I often find that students struggle particularly with this concept of the past within the person-centred approach. The person-centred approach is certainly not about not talking about the past.
Many therapies, including the person-centered approach do however seek to bring the client into the ‘here and now’ by reflecting how the patterns and behaviours from the past still operate in the present, enabling them to explore their choices about the future.
And of course, there are therapeutic approaches, such as the cognitive behavioural therapies that concentrate on the present and future just as much as coaching techniques.
Both therapy and coaching are about starting from where the client is now in the present and enabling them to find different ways of working or managing issues for their future. It’s about enabling someone to be released from the past to live more fully in the present and move positively towards their future.
There’s an advert on TV in the UK right now from Dior for J’Adore perfume which says: “The past can be beautiful, A memory, A dream. But it’s no place to live. The only way out is up.......”
My wish for those around me with whom I live and work (and myself) is that we learn to understand and embrace our past; that we live our present with insight and knowledge: and that we walk into our future with hope, trust and strength in ourselves and our world.
Happy New Year!
