Professional Coaching & Social Work: Understanding and Setting Ethical and Other Boundaries
By Sue Coyle
It is not unlikely for an individual to need guidance throughout their career. After all, a young person is expected to make first career decisions at about age 18. There are ideally 50 more years of working beyond that, including education and/or training, and that time will likely be filled with opportunities, setbacks, transitions and more.
Some will seek assistance from friends and family when faced with decisions large and small, while others may rely on professors, colleagues and mentors. However, other resources—like professional coaching—also can help individuals set, work toward and achieve their goals.
As a field, professional coaching has grown dramatically in the past several years. According to the 2023 International Coaching Federation Global Coaching Study, there was a 54% increase in global coaching practitioners between 2019 and 2022, with a 12% increase in global revenue. Individuals and organizations alike are keen to receive expert guidance as they navigate next steps.
Social workers are not immune to the allure of professional coaching, both as clients and future coaches. In fact, there are a number of MSW professional coaches throughout the United States. Popularity does not mean coaching is a perfect fit for social workers, however, or for social work in general. While there are similarities between the two professions, some question the ethics of professional coaching as a career path for social workers, and say it’s necessary for them to gain full understanding of the coaching profession.
What is Professional Coaching?
Professional coaching can take many forms, depending on the coach, the client and the focus. “It’s complicated,” says Liz Lasky, PhD, LCSW, founder and CEO of The Coach Training Program for Helping Professionals and lizlasky.com, when asked to define coaching. “If you were to ask someone the definition of social work, you’d get a different response [from each person],” she says. Lasky notes that some of the differences between the two profession stem from a lack of regulation in coaching, but she points to the International Coaching Federation’s (ICF) definition for her own.
The ICF describes coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.”
Coaches may focus on personal or professional goals and may further narrow their scope based on profession or field of expertise. For example, many professional coaches with a background in social work or therapy specifically coach other helping professionals, such as those looking to launch a private practice.
Alternatively, Marthea L. Pitts, MSW, the lead consultant at The MSW Coach, who is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, specializes in helping social workers interested in macro social work. She says she realized when she switched from clinical to macro there was great opportunity in this corner of social work but that her colleagues were struggling to find jobs.
“There is a huge gap when it comes to higher education and the career readiness preparation of students. It’s not specifically because of a gap in social work degree programs. It’s a gap in higher education as a whole. Students as a whole, [including social workers], they are not getting the necessary early conversations about career planning and how to navigate the job market, because we know the job market can be very volatile. It changes frequently,” Pitts explains.
The format of coaching, much like the focus, may depend on the professional coach, but common themes include identifying goals, as well as strengths, and helping the individual find clarity not only about what they want to do but what they can realistically achieve in the short and long-term.
“My main pitch for coaching is: ‘You know what you are seeking right now. Let me help you get some barriers out of your way and identify a few tools that you might need to just really enjoy and be a powerhouse in this thing that you’re working on,” explains Ali Jost, LICSW, a therapist trainer and coach based in Washington, D.C.
The coaching may follow a curriculum and be set to a specific timeframe or may have a different structure. It can take place in individual and group sessions, as well as in-person and virtual. It is the latter format that Lasky says drove an increase in interest for coaching from social workers and the profession of social work.
“It didn’t happen until 2020,” she says. “I would submit articles all the time (about virtual sessions), and they would get sent back to me saying this is nonsense. But in 2020, people were working from home (because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and they wanted to be able to cross state lines and international lines, too. I’m able to do that with coaching.”
This likely will become a reality for the social work profession as well, as work progresses on an Interstate Licensure Compact, a legal contract between two or more states/territories that would enable social workers to practice in each other’s jurisdictions, giving members of the profession more license mobility. The Council of State Governments is overseeing development of the compact and the Association of Social Work Boards is the lead. NASW and the Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA) are partners. NASW has been advocating for the compact, and 22 states had passed compact legislation as of July. Learn more at socialworkers.org/compact.
Coaching vs. Social Work
It is no surprise that the interest in coaching that Lasky describes comes from social workers and other helping professionals. The overlap between the two can make the transition from more traditional social work positions to coaching seem logical. For example, both social work and professional coaching often work to develop long- and short-term goals as a way to progress forward and achieve an individual’s definition of success.
Marilyn Edelson, LICSW, CPCC, who is based in Massachusetts, offers both coaching and counseling. “Both are strengths-based approaches and focused on making a difference for others,” she says. I had a good laugh when one of the two principals at a small marketing firm called me their ‘business doctor’ and when members of a team of 10 found out my background, and independent of each other began emailing me about their non-work-related issues. I guess that’s where my social work compassion and authenticity came through.”
Even though some social work principles align with those in professional coaching, all of the coaches interviewed stress that coaching and therapy (as well as other aspects of social work) are very different and should remain separate.
“One of the biggest pieces is that there is no healing component in coaching,” Lasky says. “When you traditionally have someone come in for therapy, there’s some healing component there. We don’t have that in coaching, and the minute you cross that barrier, you’re in a therapy realm. Coaching really should be happening in the present and future only. Therapy does that as well, but therapy (also) does rely on the past.”
Edelson agrees. “I am very clear now that if someone wants help with a professional or business concern in the absence of a trauma, that is appropriate for coaching. If it is a problem of coping, symptoms or specific disorders, that is appropriate for therapy. And I don’t mix the two with the same client.”
Ethical Considerations
Edelson details these differences on her website to help offset any confusion a future client may have. However, the potential for crossover—from coaching to counseling—is where some see ethical concerns beginning. If a professional coach, particularly one with an MSW, starts veering into non-coaching territory, they are no longer offering the service advertised and are providing services they should not be offering in that setting—even if they are trained and experienced in doing so.
Lasky says the key to avoiding this potential ethical issue is to be clear in what coaching is and is not. That means not only defining coaching clearly to the client, but also to themselves. A coach with the wrong mindset is not prepared to provide effective and ethical services.
“I think it’s honestly a mindset issue,” says Lasky. “Especially in our profession.”
When she teaches in MSW programs, Lasky says students will ask for help with a case, and begin by saying, “the presenting problem is … .” “We’re used to being problem-focused as social workers,” she adds. “In coaching, it’s a different mindset shift. You don’t need to be sick to get better. You can just get better.”
If either the coach or the client feels like there are elements beyond coaching present in a session, “Refer out,” says Lasky. “The minute you cross and blur those lines, that’s when it becomes unethical.”
Harleny Vasquez, LMSW, SIFI, CEO and founder of yourEVOLVEDmind in New Jersey, recommends detailing the boundaries in contracts with clients, as she does. Her contract makes clear that, “Even though I’m a licensed social worker, I’m not practicing under that license (as a coach). In coaching, sometimes feelings come up. But I’m not going to do a (therapy) session. I will encourage them to seek support. That’s the reason why I make sure I do put that in my contract.”
The potential crossover from coach to therapist isn’t the only ethical concern. Edelson, who wrote the NASW Press book “Values-based Coaching: A Guide for Social Workers and Other Human Service Professionals” in 2010, says those who oppose social workers as professional coaches also are focused on money. Professional coaches have the potential to make much more than the average social worker in the United States.
“It stems from billing,” Edelson says. “ … I will often have people contact me for coaching and then they want to bill it to their insurance. That’s a no.”
Coaching is private pay with the average hourly rate of $244, according to Lumia, a life coaching certification program. However, the average annual salary for a coach is $67,800 in North America. Such an annual pay rate is close to, if not commensurate with, salaries for therapists and some other helping professionals.
Lasky says there is nothing wrong with a social worker looking for opportunities to increase their income. “I joke that I missed the day of social work school where everybody took a vow of poverty,” she says. “Not one bad thing happens when a social worker makes more money. Money is a neutral resource. I make more money; I give more money. I don’t see the incongruence there. I think that we have a lot of mindset work to do as a profession around the money.”
Where Lasky does see the potential for ethical concerns is when a social worker becomes a professional coach without the proper training or experience. “For all of those people who are social workers who are calling themselves a coach or are saying they provide coaching services, and they have no coach training, they might be in violation of our code,” she warns, pointing to the NASW Code of Ethics.
One of the values highlighted within the Code of Ethics is competence: “Social workers practice with their areas of competence and develop and enhance their professional expertise. Social workers continually strive to increase the professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice. Social workers should aspire to contribute to the knowledge base of the profession.”
To be in keeping with the Code of Ethics, a social worker/coach must be well-trained and knowledgeable in the area of coaching and continually striving to learn more. That is the case even when the social worker-turned-coach is no longer offering more traditional social work services, if they continue to identify with their degree. This is true not just in terms of competence, but for all sections of the NASW Code of Ethics.
“[As a coach], there are some ethics that I do feel released from, but because I’m a clinical social worker, I never am truly released from it,” says Jost.
Looking to Coaching
For social workers who feel that coaching is in line with their ethics as a social worker and would like to pursue it as a career or part of a career, Edelson and Lasky recommend seeking out all the resources available. Meet with a coach, preferably one with a similar background, and work with the ICF to fully understand the profession. It is only with a complete grasp of professional coaching that a social worker can determine if this is the right choice for them—professionally and ethically.
Pitts recommends identifying a niche and zeroing in on it. “Get really good at one thing,” she advises. “Social workers that come from case management backgrounds, we are trained to be everything to everyone at all times. However, when you’re shifting to the marketplace, it’s about your expertise on one thing. Repeat it over and over and over again, until you are ready to make it into a business.” For example, this could mean deciding to coach certain professionals or being a career coach with a focus on resume building.
Being a professional coach is not just about the coaching, says Jost, particularly when a social worker starts their own business. “I think if they want to do professional coaching, they probably are going to have to enjoy a bit of sales and marketing themselves. A therapist is an established career and an established marketplace that pays for the work. With coaching, you have to be interested in selling yourself. The more you know your niche, the better.”
In the end, a social worker should do what feels right for themselves, based on their own goals and understanding of their profession. “Whether you’re a career coach or not, there’s a lot of noise in this field in general,” says Vasquez. “There’s a lot of bashing about social workers can’t do this, social workers can’t do that. But social work is what you make it.”
Sue Coyle, MSW, is a freelance writer and social worker in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Resources
International Coaching Federation
Lumia
NASW Code of Ethics
NASW Legal Defense Fund
NASW Press
NASW Leadership Ladders—Career Coaching