WHY DO I NEED A RELATIONSHIP COACH?
A coach is someone who can unlock your true potential. Someone who can be help you stay on track. Someone you’ll be accountable to. Someone who can help you get things done.
You can always learn something from your coach. The moment you stop learning, you stop growing in your life and in your relationship.
As coaches, our ultimate motive is to see our couples do well. This is not just in their marriage, but in their families, businesses and/or careers. There are some ancillary goals as well – like freedom, mental peace, productivity, etc. But it’s the growth and health of your relationship that matters the most to a relationship coach.
Even superstars need coaches. The top singers in the world have voice coaches, and the top Olympic athletes have coaches. The top CEOs have business coaches. Coaches help you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
What Are The Differences Between Counseling, Consulting, and Coaching?
Counseling often looks at the past to help you better understand the present. Counselors are trained to diagnose, and tend to look at relationships from more of a medical model where they diagnose and prescribe (give advice).
At One Flesh Ministries we refer addictions, abuse, mental health issues, and depression to counselors who are trained to deal with these un-coachable issues.
Consulting involves solving a specific problem of a couple. By nature, consulting is a one-time activity or assignment.
Coaching (marriage) focuses specifically on helping a couple better understand one another and move to creating agreements about what they will do differently to get different results. Coaching addresses listening to understand, anger, bitterness, forgiveness, resolving conflict, solving problems, dealing with differences, intimacy and moving forward.
Coaching takes you from where you are to where you want to be. Coaches help you determine what will work for you. By nature, coaching is a recurring assignment. Also, coaching is more practical & hands-on than consulting.
Coaching is confidential and coaches only address what you bring up. The couples who see the best results are those who are open and honest. Coaches cannot help you create solutions to issues that are not discussed.
A Christian relationship coach is a spiritually mature friend and accountability partner who gets real with you and points out sin and weakness, while also encouraging your strengths and growth. They help you stay on the path of God’s purpose for you.
Both counseling and coaching provide solutions to get you closer to the life you want to be living. Some say that counselors work on the “why” of the problem, whereas coaching focuses on the “how” to get out of the problem; they also say that counselors will look at the past and coaches will look at the future.
Is Hiring a Relationship Coach Worth It?
Yes, absolutely; but only when you’re willing to put in the required effort. For a coaching assignment to succeed, it’s important that both the coach & the coached have the same level of commitment.
You don’t hire a coach—whether to help you with money, business, relationships, or sports—because you’re stupid.
You hire a coach because they’re not you.
Other people can see things you clearly cannot see.
Your job is twofold:
1 – Don’t run away from the feedback of people who can see your blind spots.
2 – Listen to feedback when you get it. Treat it like gold when it shows up, don’t be defensive.
If you can do that, you may learn to see what you were previously blind to. And that can be incredibly helpful in relationships, business, or life in general.
Can We Benefit from Marriage Coaching?
If you do decide to explore marriage coaching, know that you are not admitting defeat. In fact, you are doing the very opposite: You are prioritizing your relationship and the future of your marriage.