Transactional Analysis Journal

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Therapeutic Coaching
James R. Baugh
Transactional Analysis Journal 1981 11: 300
DOI: 10.1177/036215378101100403

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Techniques
Therapeutic Coaching
James R. Baugh
Abstract
Therapeutic Coaching is a technique
based on the assumption that a client can
be directly trained in internal communica-
tion and problem solving skills. The train-
ing involves "coaching" a dissociated part
of the client to be bis own therapist in
future stressful situations.
Therapeutic coaching is a technique
which integrates elements from Gestalt,
Transactional Analysis, Neurolinguistics,
Behavior Modification, and the Mini
Script. This technique can absorb other
theoretical contributions if the theories
support the position that psychotherapy is
a training procedure.
The therapeutic coaching technique is the
major tool of Solution Training, a problem
solving psychotherapy. The integration of
the above theories and their application to
the coaching technique is outlined in Solu-
tion Training: Overcoming Blocks in
Problem Solving (Baugh, 1980).
Prior to the late 1950's the role of the
psychotherapist was less active, offering
insight and acceptance as agents of change.
Developing in the 60' s and gaining wider
acceptance in the 70's, theories such as
Transactional Analysis added teaching
to acceptance and insight. Behavior
modifiers paid less attention to the atmos-
phere of acceptance, none at all to insight,
and focused on training and specific tech-
niques to change undesirable behavior.
Building on this new base of teaching and
training, Solution Training assumes that a
psychotherapist has the knowledge and
skill to train the client in techniques of self
care which are effective in meeting the
client's needs in a cost effective manner.
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A stumbling block in training is the side
effect of setting up dependency or
resistance in the client. The therapeutic
coaching technique allows direct training
with avoidance of these side effects. The
client, as part of the training, is taught an
internal communication procedure which
deals directly with the client's dependency
or resistances.
The Therapeutic Coaching Technique is
a three chair arrangement in which the
individual being trained is split into two
parts. The person does this to himself in the
natural state in that people all talk to them-
selves in their thoughts. Individuals will
develop an awareness of the problem and
will give themselves advice and may even
argue with that advice. The chairs help the
coach differentiate and train the caretaking
state to operate more effectively.
In one chair, the trainee role plays a
Needful position. Here the individual oper-
ates pretty much as himself feeling his
problem situation. When he switches to the
second chair, he is in a Caretaking position
from which he learns particular skills in
giving himself the necessary Protection,
Positive Self Evaluation, and Problem
Solving messages to take care of his needs.
The third chair is occupied by the psycho-
therapist/coach who coaches and trains the
person to take care of himself in more
effective ways.
The Needful Chair role is heavily influ-
enced by feelings. Operation in the Needful
chair usually means there is a threat to the
client's safety or an unsatisfied need. Our
animal heritage urges human beings to run
or fight when safety is threatened. Social-
ization has modified these impulses into
tendencies either to be reactive to others or
to inhibit our needs and so others will not
disapprove.
Transactional Analysis Journal

Reactive State
If the client is Reactive, he believes that
someone has or will make him feel bad and
he is angry and resentful. He must defend
himself by making the other person feel
even worse than he does and therefore leave
him alone. When he experiences control of
someone else's feelings, he feels powerful
and this feeling covers his own discomfort.
In the Reactive State, the client will engage
in one or more of the following: He will be
defensive, rebellious, resistive, devious, put
down or one up others, or become defiant.
Inhibitive State
In the Inhibitive State, the client will
inhibit her own needs to get approval,
inhibit her behavior to avoid mistakes and
criticism, be sad, or inhibit thinking and be
confused and helpless. In the Inhibitive
State, the client assumes that other people
can make him feel bad if he doesn't curb
his behavior to meet their approval.
However, if he complies with other
people's demands to get their approval, he
expects the approving person will take care
of, do for, make decisions for and there-
fore make him feel good. When approval
or the accompanying "taking care of" is not
present, the client in the Inhibitive position
will be afraid, sad, confused, helpless or
suffer. If he suffers enough, the outsider
may "do for," not out of approval, but out
of a feeling of responsibility or "feeling
sorry for."
Both the Reactive and Inhibitive States
solve only a limited class of life's problems.
Therefore, unsolved problems accumulate.
That is, more and more of the stimuli ex-
posed to the individual have the power to
evoke a feeling of stress. In such cases,
when the person is accumulating rather
than solving problems, he will seek tem-
porary relief. In the Solution Training
system, behaviors resulting in temporary
relief are called Ineffective Maneuvers.
Space prevents developing maneuvers fully.
However, a sample of the maneuvers in the
Reactive State include escape, blame, im-
pulsivity, defiance, threat, and violence. In
the Inhibitive State, hope, daydream,
getting others to make decisions, getting
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THERAPEUTIC COACHING
confused, worry, and suffer and becoming
incapacitated are the most frequent Innef-
fective Maneuvers.
Recognition of these maneuvers are
taught early in the training. The client in
the Caretaker Chair will take care of herself
by confronting and reminding that the
maneuvers are signals of problem and
related stress accumulation.
Caretaker Chair
In the Caretaker Chair the client is
taught to dissociate herself from her exper-
ience in the Problem Chair. The dissocia-
tion does not happen immediately. Even-
tually most clients report thinking and feel-
ing differently when switching to the
Caretaker Chair (research is currently being
done at the Univesity of Mississippi
Medical Center on assessing physiological
differences when the same subject switches
between the two chairs).
In the Caretaker position, the client is
taught skills in three categories, Self Pro-
tection, Self Evaluation, and Problem
Solving.
SELF PROTECTION
Clients already protect themselves with
self advice from their collective memory of
parental and cultural advice and counsel.
Behavior is limited and directed by this
internal advisor. The client is coached to
recognize nonfunctional beliefs, to advise
against stress causing behaviors, and to
shift control from self put down and criti-
cism to recognition of the consequences of
behavior.
SELF EVALUATION
Clients enter psychotherapy with beliefs
about self, particularly self worth. Their
criteria for self acceptance or rejection is
examined. Self expectations are coached to
vary within a "realistic ballpark." As a
parent continues to love their child when
the child behaves in an unacceptable man-
ner, clients are coached to appreciate them-
selves in times of unacceptable perform-
ance, while they search for ways to improve
the performance.
301
JAMES R. BAUGH
PROBLEM SOLVING
Coaching in problem solving skills
include: setting realistic goals, defining
problems in a solvable manner, making
decisions and plans toward goals achieve-
ment and to implement new actions which
have a probability of meeting problem
related needs.
Coaching Chair
The psychotherapist occupies the Coach-
ing Chair. Communication flows between
the Coaching and Caretaking Chairs. The
second communication flows between the
Caretaker and the Needful Chairs. How-
ever, the therapist in the Coaching Chair
never communicates directly with the client
in the Needful Chair. The communication
between the Coach and the Caretaker Chair
is the same as between a supervising psych-
otherapist and his trainee. As the dissocia-
tion progresses, facts can be discussed with
the client in the Caretaker Chair that the
same client would likely reject in face-to-
face counseling.
This set-up is truly a "no lose" situation.
In the Needful Chair, the client is required
only to be himself. In the Caretaker Chair
he will, in the beginning, be told exactly
what to say to himself in the Needful Chair.
Any psychotherapist who knows his craft
will have, after watching his client role play
the two chairs, more data to initiate train-
ing than he has time to use in anyone
session. Therefore, an individual in any of
the three positions can operate successfully
and without excessive demands.
Advantages
Therapeutic Coaching has several inher-
ent advantages over conventional face-to-
face counseling as follows: (I) Foremost is
the opportunity to hear from your client
how he processes the information and
training he has received. Clients early in
training will not listen part of the time and
will ask their coach to repeat. A face-to-
face therapist has no idea how often her
clients are making eye contact, nodding,
and not paying attention. The therapist/
coach has an opportunity to correct any
misunderstandings of communication be-
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tween coach and solver positions. (2)
Learning depends on repetition. The coach-
ing techniques allow for immediate repeti-
tion. For example, if the coach is teaching a
particular nurturing technique, he models
the technique himself and the client in the
Caretaker Chair repeats what has been
modeled - the first repetition. The Coach
corrects any difficulties. Next the Care-
taker Chair models for himself in the Need-
ful Chair - the second repetition. Finally,
the client in the Needful Chair demon-
strates the technique - for the third client
repetition. (3) Information about the client,
after dissociation, can be shared with her
that would be rejected or defended in face-
to-face therapy. (4) Should the client in the
Caretaker Chair become defensive she is
immediately moved back into the Needful
position and becomes defensive with her-
self. The therapist!coach is then an ally to
her Caretaker, helping her deal with her
own defensive self.
Using the Therapeutic Coaching tech-
nique, the client is given Solution Training.
This training has a built-in diagnostic pro-
cedure which assesses the level of distress
the client is experiencing and training
begins at that level. Each training step is a
training to criteria and the training focuses
on that one step until the criteria is met.
(Solution Training manual and tape set
may be obtained from the author at Suite
234, Highland Village, Jackson, MS 39211.)
The book Solution Training is the client's
training manual and may be obtained from
Trans Pubs.)
As the training proceeds there is less need
for input from the therapist/coach. Before
termination, the client carries out the
switching internally and reports to the
therapist any blocks in self caretaking. A
trained client has a "place" located in his
body for his Needful self and a different
place for his Caretaker self, keeping the
dissociation after training.
James R. Baugh, PhD, RM, lives and
works in Jackson, Mississippi.
REFERENCE
Baugh, J .R. Solution training: Overcoming blocks in
problem solving. Pelican Publishers, 1980.
Transactional Analysis Journal