What is Personal Consultancy?
What is Personal Consultancy?
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The concept of formally integrating counselling and coaching into a dynamic, evidence-based model was founded and developed by Dr Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks. Their Personal Consultancy model brings together the reparative aspects of counselling and psychotherapy with the generative and progressive aspects of coaching.
By incorporating this into a four-stage model known as Personal Consultancy, it ensures that once comprehensive therapeutic work has been undertaken at depth, we then work together collaboratively to establish a new and emerging pattern. The goal is to ensure that your transformation in therapy is both meaningful and, critically, sustainable for the long term.
Where Did It Come From?
The integration of counselling and coaching disciplines can be traced back to the 1980s, with Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg's development of Solution Focused Therapy (SFT), nowadays often referred to as Brief Solution Focused Therapy (BSFT). It was Thomas Leonard who is formally attributed as the founder of professional life coaching, which also began during that same decade.
You might have heard practitioners refer to themselves as Coach Therapists, or describe what they offer as Therapeutic Coaching. In practice, these approaches are broadly similar to what I deliver at TKC, but they lack the robustness and evidence base of Personal Consultancy. It is this comprehensive, holistic model that I am formally trained in. It's a model I have used with clients, witnessing rapid and profound transformation in their therapeutic journeys.
What Makes It Different?
Personal Consultancy recognises the uniqueness of individuals, whilst leaning on evidence-based interventions to ensure the therapeutic work achieves lasting and meaningful change. It is, as the name suggests, a consultation of you, exploring your personal and unique understanding of the world.
This means that interventions and therapy are tailored specifically to you, integrating only the techniques and methods which target what you might be struggling with. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here.
In the words of Dr Popovic: "There are many approaches to counselling and psychotherapy, such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), often the first line approach offered in the NHS, alongside Person-Centred therapy and Psychodynamic therapy. Integrative Practitioners combine some elements of these and other approaches in their practice. Personal Consultants also add coaching elements into the mix.”
“It is a very effective approach because it helps clients explore their inner world, address their inner conflicts and barriers to change, and also make tangible, concrete changes in their lives and achieve their goals. In other words, we help clients go into depth to build good foundations, and then build a house for their inner selves, or a bridge to others, above the surface."
The Four Stages of Personal Consultancy
The process is perhaps best summarised as a shared journey. You will always remain in charge and decide, in collaboration with your practitioner, where to go, how far, and at what pace. A minimum of six 50-minute sessions are required to move through all four stages, though ideally at least 12 are needed to achieve sustainable, lasting change:
Authentic Listening At this first stage, you have the opportunity to talk about whatever is on your mind and express your feelings in a safe, supportive, and confidential environment. Most clients find this deeply beneficial, and if this is all you want, we can remain here. Some clients, however, want to go further.
Rebalancing This stage is about inner work. It involves locating and addressing the inner barriers and conflicts that prevent you from getting where you want to be, and achieving greater internal balance and harmony. This stage lays the foundations, but if you want to make tangible, visible changes in your life, you may want to move on.
Generating Here the focus shifts from talking to doing. This stage is about making concrete changes and achieving your aspirations and goals, moving from insight into action.
Supporting We all know that sustaining change is often a greater challenge than making it. This final stage is about making the change last, embedding new ways of being into everyday life.
A Helpful Way to Think About It
Think of the integration of counselling and coaching as a tandem bicycle. There are two riders on the bike.
At the rear sits the person who receives counselling. This teaches them to pedal efficiently and gives them renewed energy and vitality. They can pedal by themselves, but they're unable to steer, so it's hard work and difficult to move in any one clear direction.
At the front sits the person who receives coaching. This also improves their pedalling, but crucially, they're in charge of steering and set the direction of travel. The real magic happens when both riders learn to pedal together, creating maximum power and synergy. Having the combined integration of both disciplines is what significantly propels the bike forward.
Another way of thinking about it is this. Your counselling and coaching journey can be thought of as a railway track. The left rail is your counselling journey, and the right rail is your coaching journey. You need both rails for the train to run smoothly and move forwards. The sleepers between the rails represent your journey and progress, as your life moves forwards. At TKC we collaboratively lay the rails and the sleepers together, so that you get to choose your own path and direction of travel.
Ready to Try Personal Consultancy at TKC?
If any of this resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. The first step is a free, no-obligation 15-minute consultation — a chance to ask questions, get a feel for how we might work together, and decide if TKC feels like the right fit for you.
Book your free 15-minute consultation
This article contains content reproduced with kind permission from Dr Nash Popovic,
The concept of formally integrating counselling and coaching into a dynamic, evidence-based model was founded and developed by Dr Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks. Their Personal Consultancy model brings together the reparative aspects of counselling and psychotherapy with the generative and progressive aspects of coaching.
By incorporating this into a four-stage model known as Personal Consultancy, it ensures that once comprehensive therapeutic work has been undertaken at depth, we then work together collaboratively to establish a new and emerging pattern. The goal is to ensure that your transformation in therapy is both meaningful and, critically, sustainable for the long term.
Where Did It Come From?
The integration of counselling and coaching disciplines can be traced back to the 1980s, with Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg's development of Solution Focused Therapy (SFT), nowadays often referred to as Brief Solution Focused Therapy (BSFT). It was Thomas Leonard who is formally attributed as the founder of professional life coaching, which also began during that same decade.
You might have heard practitioners refer to themselves as Coach Therapists, or describe what they offer as Therapeutic Coaching. In practice, these approaches are broadly similar to what I deliver at TKC, but they lack the robustness and evidence base of Personal Consultancy. It is this comprehensive, holistic model that I am formally trained in. It's a model I have used with clients, witnessing rapid and profound transformation in their therapeutic journeys.
What Makes It Different?
Personal Consultancy recognises the uniqueness of individuals, whilst leaning on evidence-based interventions to ensure the therapeutic work achieves lasting and meaningful change. It is, as the name suggests, a consultation of you, exploring your personal and unique understanding of the world.
This means that interventions and therapy are tailored specifically to you, integrating only the techniques and methods which target what you might be struggling with. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here.
In the words of Dr Popovic: "There are many approaches to counselling and psychotherapy, such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), often the first line approach offered in the NHS, alongside Person-Centred therapy and Psychodynamic therapy. Integrative Practitioners combine some elements of these and other approaches in their practice. Personal Consultants also add coaching elements into the mix.”
“It is a very effective approach because it helps clients explore their inner world, address their inner conflicts and barriers to change, and also make tangible, concrete changes in their lives and achieve their goals. In other words, we help clients go into depth to build good foundations, and then build a house for their inner selves, or a bridge to others, above the surface."
The Four Stages of Personal Consultancy
The process is perhaps best summarised as a shared journey. You will always remain in charge and decide, in collaboration with your practitioner, where to go, how far, and at what pace. A minimum of six 50-minute sessions are required to move through all four stages, though ideally at least 12 are needed to achieve sustainable, lasting change:
Authentic Listening At this first stage, you have the opportunity to talk about whatever is on your mind and express your feelings in a safe, supportive, and confidential environment. Most clients find this deeply beneficial, and if this is all you want, we can remain here. Some clients, however, want to go further.
Rebalancing This stage is about inner work. It involves locating and addressing the inner barriers and conflicts that prevent you from getting where you want to be, and achieving greater internal balance and harmony. This stage lays the foundations, but if you want to make tangible, visible changes in your life, you may want to move on.
Generating Here the focus shifts from talking to doing. This stage is about making concrete changes and achieving your aspirations and goals, moving from insight into action.
Supporting We all know that sustaining change is often a greater challenge than making it. This final stage is about making the change last, embedding new ways of being into everyday life.
A Helpful Way to Think About It
Think of the integration of counselling and coaching as a tandem bicycle. There are two riders on the bike.
At the rear sits the person who receives counselling. This teaches them to pedal efficiently and gives them renewed energy and vitality. They can pedal by themselves, but they're unable to steer, so it's hard work and difficult to move in any one clear direction.
At the front sits the person who receives coaching. This also improves their pedalling, but crucially, they're in charge of steering and set the direction of travel. The real magic happens when both riders learn to pedal together, creating maximum power and synergy. Having the combined integration of both disciplines is what significantly propels the bike forward.
Another way of thinking about it is this. Your counselling and coaching journey can be thought of as a railway track. The left rail is your counselling journey, and the right rail is your coaching journey. You need both rails for the train to run smoothly and move forwards. The sleepers between the rails represent your journey and progress, as your life moves forwards. At TKC we collaboratively lay the rails and the sleepers together, so that you get to choose your own path and direction of travel.
Ready to Try Personal Consultancy at TKC?
If any of this resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. The first step is a free, no-obligation 15-minute consultation — a chance to ask questions, get a feel for how we might work together, and decide if TKC feels like the right fit for you.
Book your free 15-minute consultation
This article contains content reproduced with kind permission from Dr Nash Popovic,
RYAN KARTER
About the Author
Ryan Karter, MBACP, MSc, MA, BA (Hons) is a registered integrative counsellor and coach, and the founder of The Karter Consultancy, an integrative counselling and coaching practice based in Richmond, South West London.
Ryan has over 17 years of experience in youth, family and community work, with more than two years of specialist clinical experience working as a counsellor at Addiction Support and Care Agency (ASCA) in Richmond, where he supported clients and those affected by alcohol and substance misuse. Alongside his private therapy practice, Ryan is also a qualified Youth and Community Worker, holding a second Master's degree in the field. He currently works as an outreach youth and community worker, supporting children and young people with complex and additional needs.
Through his Master's research, Ryan developed his own therapeutic model, Male Informed Integrative Practice (MIIP), a specialist approach designed for men who may be reluctant to engage with traditional therapy. He is a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
