Unlock personal & professional growth with therapeutic coaching. Expert Abigail Vickery shares insights on Dental All Stars.
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About Abigail Vickery
Abigail Vickery is a John Maxwell Certified Life Coach, certified DISC trainer and President of Align Life Coaching. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a master’s degree and clinical license in social work, and credentials in school counseling. She has worked within the field of mental health for nearly two decades. She now brings her clinical background to the field of professional performance coaching. Her areas of expertise are lifestyle design, professional and personal vision, healthy relationships, challenging parenting issues, and servant leadership coaching.
About Eric Vickery
Eric holds a degree in business administration and brings a strong business and systems approach to his consulting. His initiation into the field of dentistry was in the area of office management. He managed dental practices for over ten years and has been consulting over 250 offices nationwide since 2001.
About Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
0:01
This is dental AllStars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing management and training. Here’s your host, Alex Nottingham.
0:11
Welcome to dental AllStars. Our topic today is therapeutic coaching and our guest is Abigail Vickery. Abigail is a licensed clinical social worker, and a credentialed school counselor. She is a certified John Maxwell coach and disc trainer. She is also trained in Clifton Strengths. Abigail has been in the field of mental health for over two decades. Please welcome Abigail. Hello. And we also have Eric Vickery, our president of coaching with us. And for those astute listeners, they’re like, they have the same name. So you’re related husband and wife. Is
0:56
that how it goes? Not brother and sister,
no brother and sister, husband and wife, a power couple Power team. We all know Eric Vickery for so many years on the podcast, my podcast, co host and big figurehead at all star, but it was nice to meet Abby. Abigail live. We were at our event.
0:19
Yeah, she’s definitely coached me up over the years, Alex to get me to a place where I’m actually presentable. So yeah, behind every man, successful man is a strong woman. So she’s so just that to a tee. Yeah.
1:32
She’s very impressive. So I don’t want to embarrass you too much there, Abby. So tell us. Tell us about therapeutic coaching, you have a really nice background in in therapy. What is therapeutic coaching? Abigail?
1:48
That’s a wonderful question. So I have been a therapist for a really long time. And I am new to coaching. And at first I’ll be totally honest, I, I really felt nervous about the blend of the two. And when Eric and I went through the Maxwell certification program, I was not convinced that I was cut out to be, you know, a coach, aside from my background in therapy. And so as I learned more about it, and got into it, and started with clients, I recognized that it really is a beautiful marriage between the two. So therapeutic coaching is really coaching at a level where one of the things that I tell my clients at the beginning is we have to go backwards in order to go forwards often. And especially if there are some blockages and some things that are in the way that aren’t allowing you to get the most out of a coaching experience or just in general are standing in the way of your life goals, then therapeutic coaching is something that can really serve people well.
2:59
How does therapeutic coaching differ from traditional therapy? Yeah, tell me about that.
3:08
Yeah, so that was really my biggest learning curve. Because as a therapist, I am used to going through a full assessment process and a treatment planning process. And, and also diagnosing, and that is not anything that we get into in therapeutic coaching, those are the main differences. So there is no diagnosis, there is no formal assessment, per se, although in therapeutic coaching, I have my own assessment that I want to do to be able to get to know clients for sure. But it isn’t a traditional mental health assessment. And there isn’t any diagnosing. And you know, those types of things, I would say that we do our own type of treatment planning, because that really aligns with the client’s goals. So, you know, coaching in and of itself is very goal driven, very solution focused, which is why it was not as big of a jump for me as I really thought it was going to be. In order to do coaching. I felt like they were things that were very far apart from each other and they’re in they’re really not. So
4:18
and I have to throw this in there because I was like talking to Eric, I’m like, he’s a life coach. We’re going to talk about life coaching and she was like, No, tell me another differentiator. How is life coaching different than therapeutic coaching?
4:35
Yeah, that’s a good question. You’re throwing out such good questions, Alex. So I, I have a little bit of a allergic reaction, if you will, to life coaching and not because I don’t agree with that. I think it’s wonderful, and it absolutely has its place. I think that the reason why I have a response to it is because really, anybody can be a life coach. It’s a very fluffy word. And so it is also true that people can say that they do therapeutic coaching. And they might not necessarily have a mental health black background or a clinical background. And I think because I worked really hard for a lot of years, and it’s just it’s, it’s a, it’s a difference, because it is what we think of in terms of what life coaching is, and what it actually is, is different. And so it’s important to me to communicate clearly and effectively, about, you know, what therapeutic coaching is. And I think life coaching is a lot like, you know, business coaching as well, in that you can focus on what your life goals are, and the trajectory of that and moving forward along those goals to get there. And it doesn’t necessarily encompass going backwards and exploring what some of those areas are, that might be tripping you up that are getting you in the way from reaching your goals. Yeah,
6:06
yeah. Can I jump in Alex real quick. So lag measures lead measures, that’s a term that we use in our KPI coaching, and we’re looking at last month’s numbers to predict what’s coming and how to fix things. And coaching is about always moving forward. I think therapeutic coaching is when you think about a team member, could be the dentist, could be the dentist and the wife work together could be a team member who comes in, and they come into work every day. And there’s a heaviness about them, there’s a distraction within them, there’s something holding them back in their professional life. There’s something in the past that I’m not going to deal with as a coach, whether it’s life coach or business coach, that therapy or therapeutic coaching, can actually dive into and seek a cure for that. And we implement coaching hacks. This is you know, being a 10. Right, or having confidence or using the permission statement or whatever it is great call process will oftentimes people can’t implement those coaching hacks, because there’s a barrier to them, accepting that coaching, based upon something that’s lagging something in the past that coaches don’t deal with, we need a therapeutic coach to intercede. Does that make sense?
7:24
Totally. What does the process look like? For therapeutic coaching? Tell us about this.
7:30
So one of the biggest questions that I get about process is, you know, people are used to with coaching it not necessarily being a weekly event, and I do zoom calls with my clients. And usually initially, just to kind of walk you through the process, there’s an inquiry call where I can answer you know, any questions much like right now about what is therapeutic coaching? And is it something that fits my needs, and that’s a free call. And then once a client decides that, okay, this is something that I really want to engage with, we really try to set up a schedule that is at least weekly to start if not every other week, because we really want to set goals and you know, get to know one another and build that relationship and rapport. And then work towards those those goals quickly. And so it’s usually at least weekly. And sometimes if schedule doesn’t allow, it can be every other week. And then in terms of how long that relationship lasts, it really just depends on the goals and the client. I always tell my clients that I am available to them forever. Once you’re mine, you’re mine. And so if you know a couple years later, you’re like, Hey, I just need a check in or you know, something like that, then I am absolutely willing to do that. So it and I think the other piece that’s important is because I hold the clinical license in the state of California. Therapeutic coaching has really opened up a lot of opportunities for me to see clients across state lines, because operating under my clinical license, I can’t do that. But as a therapeutic coach, because I’m credentialed, I can do that. And so clients, you know, sign our waiver saying that, okay, I know you’re not operating under your clinical license, and it allows me to be able to see clients across the country instead of just hearing California.
9:29
Abby, who would be a good candidate for therapeutic coaching.
9:35
I love that question. So really, when you think about you know, either referring somebody if you’re thinking of somebody or it’s it’s you yourself, it is somebody who is really feeling like whatever is going on whatever their their goals are, professionally or personally, that they are unable to reach those goals because of unresolved things from their past or even their, their present, you know, whether it be something with them relationally, or whatever it might be things that are unresolved in terms of grief or trauma. Those are people that are, you know, they have goals, and they have a purpose for their lives, and they’re unable to really break through and be who they want to be, whether it be professionally or personally, because of those things that have not been dealt with. And that’s where therapeutic coaching can go deeper than, you know, what you would consider a life coaching or business coaching to be able to do.
10:37
What about in dentistry? Because we’re talking, we’re a dental podcast, do you only work with people in dentistry, or anybody can benefit from therapeutic coaching?
10:48
So anybody can absolutely and right now I have clients and in a couple of different fields, and I do therapeutic marital coaching as well. And so, yeah.
11:04
So do you work with your spouse? Right? Think about this, if you work with your spouse right now, you know, oftentimes we’ll see the dentist, male or female, married to the office manager, someone who runs things, and you’ve got team members running to one of the other. And that creates this challenge that you get at home, you’re talking over dinner, and you’re going wait, what’s going on here? Why? Why are they going to you talking about this, it could create a dynamic that interferes with your marriage that interferes with your relationship. And that’s where just a simple example where you can get on on zoom with Abby weekly, bi weekly, and really work on how do we create healthy boundaries. So that work doesn’t interfere with our life.
11:49
Another thing that’s come up too, in terms of the dental field has been when, when there are those inner practice employees in our practice, that are really struggling with some mental health issues. And we’ve had a couple of times where doctors have reached out and said, Hey, I know that my employee is navigating through this, and they don’t necessarily have the right resources, they’re not tied into any sort of supports. And can we just have a conversation about how to navigate that? And, you know, what are some ways that I can talk to them about concerns that I have? And these are things that are showing up at work, obviously, because we are whole beings, right? We bring you know who we are at home into our workplace. And so having doctors be able to reach out and just say, How do I navigate this is another really good support as well.
12:38
Quote, you mentioned marriage and marriage, a business coaching, and therapeutic coaching. How does that work together as a resource for a dental office? And can you give me an example of a client, obviously, protecting their identity, so we can see how this works?
12:55
I’ll start, I love it. And it’s not very tangible, I will say this, but I love it, when the dentist will say to me, I see something different in that person, because they may not even know they’re in therapeutic coaching, that can be a very, very private thing. Doesn’t have to be, but it can be very private, where that dentist, the owner didn’t even know that something’s going on there. And that team members live, but they know that we offer therapeutic coaching, they reach out to Abby separately and go through some things. And what I mean, you see employee retention, right? Because they feel like they can actually go to work. We use the law, the lid from John Maxwell a lot. And wherever you create your invisible lid, will will determine how high your success will go. Right. So I can’t have growth, I’m not going to grow, if I’m constantly tied to an anchor my past. And so there’s breakthrough. There’s breakthrough in implementation, there’s joy, there’s happiness, it can change. Now, it will be subtle, and it will be maybe over time, it won’t be just a snap of the fingers. But it is something that from my perspective, what I see from a team or from an owner is, wow, I’m noticing a difference in them. That to me, creates team teamwork team building. Now we can implement now and get some growth from my side of it.
14:17
No, I agree. And I think the other piece of it too is, you know, in terms of when when clients are working with me if they are, and we have this if they are at an office that Eric is consulting with, there is no it is completely confidential. And they know that from the outset. And so there there have been times where I have said, Hey, this is something that I think would be really helpful for your doctor to know or for Eric to know that type of thing. And then we negotiate that and it’s always up to them. But it’s a wonderful service to be able to support them and guide them and help them reach to their goals, and that exactly like Eric said, that helps them be better employees. So it’s a win win for sure.
15:08
I find that if you don’t have a solid foundation, it’s hard to lay more business skills and more content. And Abby we’ve met before the event just friendly and it was fun seeing you at the event and spending some time talking about therapeutic coaching. You have such a wonderful energy, so calm, so loving and opening, that it’s, it’s really therapeutic. And you know, me, I study a lot of philosophy and therapy techniques, and you’re so educated and familiar, and it’s really reassuring. And I wholeheartedly recommend you talking about kind of next next steps for those that are listening. You know, reach out to to us at all star dental Academy and many ways you can email Heather at all star dental Academy, Eric Abby at all star dental Academy, any one of us it will get to us. And we can set you up for a complimentary inquiry call with Abby to see if therapeutic coaching is something helpful for you, whether you are in dentistry or not. It’s a service that we are providing. So it’s gonna put that out there for everybody. Abby, thank you so much for joining us and Eric Vickery as well. And remember to follow us on Apple podcast, Spotify and YouTube. You get the episodes as they are released and share with your friends. And until next time, go out there and be an all star
16:44
we hope you enjoyed this episode of dental all stars, visit us online at all star dental academy.com
