Where Organized Sports Meet The Therapist’s Couch

I noticed the above poster the last time I was in Boston. I took a picture of it because it seemed so anachronistic.  Ethnic intermarriage and therapy jokes?  Didn’t that type of neurosis-driven humor die out after Woody Allen’s career peaked?  Therapy and multicultural families have gone mainstream.  Actually, in the case of therapy, it has gone  right through being a portrayed in pop culture as a de rigueur standing engagement on par with dropping off dry cleaning  and back around to being considered a specialized service for those in true (however, we define true) need.  I could get sidetracked with a whole discussion of the replacement of talk therapy with anti-depressants doled out by GPs, but A) I have no personal experience with the subject and B) it’s not particularly germane to today’s point.

And returning to that, I thought of Steve Solomon and his one-man show last week when a coworker and I were discussing career coaches. I remarked that the idea of a “career coach,” just like the “life coaching” profession I spoofed  in this post, didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago. Its birth and evolution ties in nicely with the  lack of institutional respect among  Gen Yers that I mused about a few week ago. If we aren’t putting our faith in authority figures (clergy, teachers, political leaders) who, if anyone, are we looking to for guidance on how to figure out careers/relationships/being productive members of society? Our (approaching retirement age) parents whose notions of personal and work  success (hands up everyone who’s had the suggestion of law school thrust upon them as a career panacea) is possibly far removed from ours?  Peers who are just as clueless as we are?  And surely we’re too old to take a cue from celebs? Who are we left with?  Enter the personal svengali for hire.

Our desire for someone to tell us where to stand and when to smile coupled with our disillusionment with traditional role models and voices of wisdom has created an opening for a new crop of gurus, coaches and talking heads to spring up. And they’re only too happy to take our cash while teaching us about visualizing success and identifying our mental barriers to abundance. It’s a seductive proposition. Therapy for those of us who feel our problems aren’t significant enough (and those of us still repressing them. Mustn’t forget those folks.) to merit an MD,  mixed with a little bit of tough love sports mentoring, a dose of new age spirituality and topped off with the unconditional (we are paying for it, so it damn well better be unconditional) support we may not be getting from other relationships in our lives. Is it bourgeois self-indulgence (working three part-time jobs to keep a roof over your head leaves precious little time for pricey navel gazing) or is it filling/identifying a legitimate market need born of the quarter-life crisis mentality and Gen Y’s doubts about the long-term currency of the notion of career satisfaction? Or heck, even having a career in the first place.

I’m tempted to take a stab at answering these questions,  if only because  one of my dear readers cheekily suggested that I do a little undercover expose on the life coaching phenomenon as my next edifying endeavor.  Is getting down and dirty with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and/or subjecting various facets of my life to a Likert scale a worthy follow-up to adventures in popping and locking? Hmm…

So, if  you happen to be a life/career coach and A) don’t object to me writing about the process of being coached and B) pinky-swear not to rob me blind or suggest auditing via e-meter, perhaps we should talk?

And if you’re Steve Solomon; sorry, dude. I’m sure you’re a very funny guy.