FutureChurch

Continuing from my last post on transformation I'd like to suggest that are different methods of intervention (or "modalities") when we're talking about a person intervening (professionally) with another person/s. These are: training, consulting, therapy, mentoring, coaching.

Consulting is when I have the skills and am hired to do the job (and there's no imparting of skills/knowledge).
Training is when I can't necessarily do it, but can show other people how to do it (like an international rugby coach who's an excellent coach but hasn't played at international level before).
Mentoring is when I know how to do it, and I show you how to do it, ideally by walking alongside you for a period of time.
Therapy is when some part of you needs healing, and we fix it.
Coaching is the process of answering the question, "What do you want, and how will you get there?"

(Note: these are the definitions I use, and I've heard plenty of others use some of these words interchangeably, so feel free to disagree with my usage).

I've listed some modalities of professional interventions above (if you'd like to add anything to the list please do so in the comments) which I hope makes the following point: when somebody wants to be transformed, it's important to know which modality is appropriate to use.

For instance, asking someone the core coaching question, "What are you going to do about that?" when they've just uncovered a traumatic childhood memory is an inappropriate application of the wrong tool - therapy would be better suited to address that issue.

Or making sure you've trained someone to have the skill of presenting better without addressing their beliefs around their capability when in front of an audience (which a good coach would check) might impart the skill, but do nothing to ensure the person actually ends up presenting!

Which brings me back to the role of G-d in transformation. Assuming that G-d has some influence on the process (i.e. it's not something that lies 100% with us), how might we address the question of faith? Is faith about believing that what we want is in accordance with G-d's will and will therefore come to pass? And what is the relationship between faith and transformation?

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