Psychedelic-assisted Coaching, Part IV ($)

Hypnosis shares the psychedelic space.

“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.”
― Terence Mckenna

In part I and part II of this series, I distinguished therapy from coaching. In part III I reviewed dangers and opportunities. I expected to conclude here, in part IV, but I have not.

Following the Money

In coaching school we’re taught to look to the future and to avoid what counselors do, which is to look into the past. This distinction is a bit cheap but it’s the defining juncture that separates the two professions. This is the legacy that pulls these professions apart.

Coaching and counseling are different because of the different mindsets of their customers: the struggling patient and the budding entrepreneur. Two counseling professions have been created to satisfy two different markets.

People have many similarities but their expectations amplify their differences. These two groups perceive themselves as heading in opposite directions: one is dealing with their past while the other is focused on their future.

Beneath these intentions is the reality that the past is a memory, the future is a fantasy, and both illusions define us in the present. You can no more exist without a past than you can exist without a future. Not only are both necessary, but they are distorted reflections of each other. It’s the sloppy marketing jingle that counseling engages the past while coaching engages the future that cheapens the two fields to an embarrassing level.

What counseling client could expect to resolve their past issues without considering how those issues effect their future? What entrepreneurially minded person could expect to better navigate the future if they are not going to start by considering who they’ve grown to be?

The real reason for the past versus future distinction is the difference in consumer demand, the shortage of providers, the time it takes to train for both past and future, and the attraction of money. “Follow the money,” we’re told in matters of politics and economics. The same goes for counseling and coaching.

As physicists we were not taught about money. Science was all about truth, reality, and knowledge. This is another professional fallacy that links preconceptions taught in the past with limitations imposed on the future. Most of the research done today is funded by industry (Pinto, 2020), and we know what industries follow.

If you want to advance in physics, just as if you want to advance in counseling or coaching, you’d better understand the money, where it comes from, where it’s going, and why. The same pretty much applies to whatever profession you’re in.