What is Coaching?
Coaching is a process that creates an environment for growth and effective action, helping clients to achieve their potential as leaders in their personal and professional lives. Through the coaching process, individuals learn how to use and build upon their strengths, remove barriers to success, acquire needed skills and knowledge, and implement a plan to achieve their goals.

Types of Coaching

• Life Coaching helps clients make specific improvements in their personal life. Some examples would be:
  • Improving health and fitness
  • Overcoming a fear that his holding you back from achieving your full potential
  • Finding a healthy balance between the demands of work and home
  • Improving academic performance
  • or any number of other goals that are important to you
• Relationship Coaching is intended to improve the quality of personal relationships. This service is appropriate when:
  • You have found yourself making the same relationship mistakes over and over and are ready to do something different.
  • You are in a committed intimate relationship and you want to move it to a deeper, more fulfilling level
  • or you are simply committed to having better relationships in general.
• Parenting Coaching is appropriate for parents of any age who recognize that their actions will have a lasting impact on their children's lives, and so wish to refine their parenting skills. Unlike parenting education classes, parenting coaches work with you directly to identify those areas in your parenting style that are working well and those that may not yet be working as effectively as you would prefer. Your coach understands that you want to be the best parent you can be, and is there to provide feedback along the way.
• Divorce Consulting can be a very effective tool in times when families are in transition because of divorce, break-up, or other family law matter. Parents may end their relationship with each other, but that usually does not end the parents' relationship with their children. Your Consultant can help provide clarity when the strong emotions of break-up sometimes cloud judgment. Splitting up is hard on everyone, and your consultant can help guide you away from doing more harm to your children than is absolutely necessary. When you truly have your children's best interest at heart, this is the program for you. More Info

How is Coaching Different from Psychotherapy?
Traditionally, psychotherapy is used to help people treat emotional or behavioral disorders that commonly have their roots in the past or in medical conditions. Through supportive therapy, mental health counseling and psychotherapy help clients make changes in their lives to minimize or eliminate the impact of those disorders or of a negative past.

In contrast, coaching invites the client to focus squarely on the future. Your coach will be interested in where you are in life now as it relates to where you want to be. The past will be of interest only to the extent of identifying past strategies that have and have not worked in helping you achieve your goals. Your coach will expect you to take a very active role in implementing any plans created, and to provide regular updates on the outcomes. Some people find it helpful to think of their coach as someone who is in their corner offering support, recommendations from a neutral point of view on ways to improve performance, and as a source of encouragement when progress seems slow.

The Benefits of Coaching
Coaching offers you the unique opportunity to consult regularly with someone whose job is to work with you toward goals you think are important in your personal or professional life. By working with a professional specifically trained to help you construct goals and implement a plan to get to them, you are likely to enjoy significant benefits from your efforts, increased satisfaction, and improved relationships/leadership skills.

How Much does Coaching Cost?
Your cost depends on the type, frequency, and mode (face-to- face, Internet, or telephone) of coaching services. In some cases, weekly, face-to-face meetings will be most appropriate. In other cases, a telephone conversation twice a month might be right. Some people prefer a pay-as-you-go system, where the client pays for each session as it occurs. For others, a pre-paid monthly package might be more suitable. On average, coaching costs between $90 and $125 per hour. Bexar Family Solutions charges $90 per hour, with discounts available for pre-paid blocks of time.