How to Coach Yourself and Others Popular Models for Coaching | Page 186

judges and evaluates this image he has of himself as a bore and this valuing will be reflected in his self-esteem. The confident woman may have a high self-esteem and the man who sees himself as a bore may have a low self-esteem, presuming that strength/confidence are highly valued and that being boring is not. One reason why Rogers rejected interpretation was that he believed that, although symptoms did arise from past experience, it was more useful for the coachee to focus on the present and future than on the past. Rather than just liberating coachees from there past, as psychodynamic therapists aim to do, Rogerians hope to help their coachees to achieve personal growth and eventually to self-actualize. Coaching relationship Carl Rogers saw therapists or coaches as equal partners with their coachees rather than as experts. Within this relationship. the coachee is responsible for improving his or her life, not the coach or therapist. This is a deliberate change from both psychoanalysis and behavioural therapies where the patient is diagnosed and treated by a doctor. Instead, the coachee consciously and rationally decides for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it. Rogers strongly believed that therapists and coaches should be warm, genuine and understanding and more like a friend who listens and encourages on an equal level. He suggested that coachees would be better helped if they were encouraged to focus on their current subjective understanding rather than on some unconscious motive or someone else's interpretation of the situation. 188