You may be one of those who have wondered about the value of the self-discovery technique implemented by professional psychologists, coaches or trainers, during which the client is urged to find the answer in himself. The technique is a source of confusion that sometimes goes so far as to question its usefulness.

After all, if the question lies in oneself, why should one need any help? Wouldn't it be easier to just get some prefabricated advice and try to follow the steps?

The instinctive human response to a problem is to give advice. Yet, this piece of human sharing is always mirroring the personal experience, values and desires of the one who gives the advice, and not the one who has to use it. This is the reason why advice may become an additional source of confusion and frustration, augmenting rather than minimizing the very problem that it tries to fix.

No change can be done without complete agreement that comes from the one that has to change. No such agreement can be obtained without clearly defining his motivations. Efficient change takes place at the level of a very delicate inner balance.

Psychologists and wellness coaches have the difficult task to abstain from judging and avoid falling into the trap of giving advice. Leading the client through self-discovery is a very difficult tool to grab. Imagine the attorney that, through a well-studied series of questions and answers, leads the witness to an involuntary revealing of inner motivations. Imagine the first stage of wellness coaching a way back to YOUR inner motivations, where you will be able to cut the problem at the very root.

Psychologists and wellness coaches are highly-trained individuals with more than just common knowledge of the human nature, motivation and change dynamics. They use self discovery techniques simply because they work.

So, is a coach going to give you advice? It is safer to call them hints. You'll walk the road, but your coach will plant signs for you at every corner, and make sure you know how to read them or that you will come back and read it again if you take the wrong path.

The wellness coach will not hand you a recipe with things to do adorned with bullets. Rather, he will create the recipe with you, making you taste it repeatedly and measuring its success against definite goals that will be themselves a creation of yourself.

The health coach will not give you advice, but he will make you see that you don't need it. The answer is already there.