
Not helpless, but wanting help
Who does Personal Consulting help? There’s no single type of person who comes to see me, but there are some common elements.
If there has been one constant in my varied work over the years, it’s my amazement at how much people will put up with. Often suffering in silence, they’ll chug through life, KNOWING that something needs to change, but unwilling or unable to take the first step. Often this was because they were caught in a trap of their own making, a kind of false logic that simply confirmed their doubts and uncertainties, rather than revealing opportunities and solutions.
There is no client ‘profile’ among those who come to me for personal consulting. People have come from all walks of life, all social circumstances, all ages, races, and gender. They were all people who wanted change, and who hoped that it could happen (why else seek help?), but there is no typical client.
For the most part, my Personal Consulting clients have been fully functioning, rational and intelligent adults. Some were unemployed, others were very successful; in conventional terms, they had ‘made it’ with lifestyles that were envied by peers and colleagues.
Yet, it’s fair to say, most had come to me with a ‘problem’ that was not new or even recent. Sometimes they had suffered with it for months or even years. Something had finally decided them to act to get professional personal consulting help. “Why now?” I would ask them. The answer was always that some trigger event, often a crisis, had pushed them to consider seeking me out.
In answer to the question “Who does Personal Consulting help?” If there is a common denominator it is that my clients are people who, for a variety of reasons, have recognised that:
a) something about lives, or themselves, needs to change, and
b), they need to make it happen now.
They are not helpless, but they are wise enough to know that getting professional help can turn important decisions into fulfilling actions.
See also: Brief Therapy and Coaching – Anywhere