SINGAPORE — Looking to improve himself professionally in order to do better at work, a consultancy professional who only wants to be identified as Edwin sought out the help of a career coach.
However, after 10 sessions costing about S$9,000, he realised that the person was not giving advice to improve the areas he had identified but was instead “digging a bigger hole” in his life with the questions asked.
Ms Mary Teo, 30, has attended three life coaching programmes comprising 10 sessions each with a coaching organisation here, spending around S$9,000 in total. These include holding intensive boot camps where participants get locked in a venue for a few hours on end to complete exercises, and compelling their clients to commit to the organisation and raise funds for it.
Regulation, public education and an emphasis on “ethical” coaching are key to mitigate the risks of such harms, they added.The International Coaching Federation — a global organisation that does certifications in coaching — defines the practice as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential”.
“In every session, there is also a live practicum where you have to coach on the spot and be observed and be critiqued after that,” she said, adding that she will be attaining other certifications related to her specialisation in the coming months. “Not all self-help programmes are helpful. Some feel helpful at first but evolve into something potentially harmful,” she wrote in a post last week.Speaking to TODAY on Thursday , she said that her posts were sparked by her own bad personal experiences as a trainee before she got herself certified in coaching and facilitation.
“These camps motivate you by breaking you first. They leave you very vulnerable first. And then it's the rah rah rah rah sort of momentum,” she said. While the individual enrolled in the organisation with career-related improvements in mind, the organisation also offers programmes targeted at youths, couples and families.
“They spend less time with family, they don’t have enough time to spend with their friends and so on.”Sometimes the kind of work or activities the organisations urge their clients to do also seem to be for its own financial benefit. Dr Tan of The Therapy Room noted that while it is natural for organisations to look for income to fund its services, how their key performance indicators is framed could be indicative of their priorities.
“If someone approaches you and says ‘I can help you to solve your life problems’, that's actually quite an appealing thing to want to invest money in,” he said.
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