By: DeeAnna Nagel, LPC, DCC

If you have wondered what all the hype is about online coaching (sometimes referred to as e-coaching) then you are in the right place reading the right stuff!

Coaches have long used the telephone as a method of delivery for coaching services so working via distance is not a new concept. What may be new to some coaches and coaches-in-training is transferring that delivery to other forms of technology in an ethical way.

“Ethical??...” Well, here’s the thing. The conversations we have with our clients are private, confidential and personal. Keeping those conversations secure is important. While the landline phones of decades past were secure (unless you remember the days of “party lines”) mobile phones, online audio, video, email and text chat are not always guaranteed to be secure. Being responsible with our service delivery by using appropriate delivery tools is important.

Our responsibility to client privacy extends to our use of social media so maintaining a professional online presence goes hand-in-hand with keeping our online communications secure.

In 2010, The Institute for Life Coach Training partnered with Online Therapy Institute/Online Coach Institute to create an ethical framework specific to the use of technology in coaching. The Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Coaching was co-copyrighted by ILCT and OTI and was published in TILT Magazine~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology that same year. ILCT and OTI continue to work together to promote the ethical use of technology in coaching.

Is your interest peaked?

Here are three things to do to further prepare yourself for using technology in your work:

1. Read the Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Coaching

2. Join me at the next ILCT Free Teleconference call, June 6, 3013 @ 2pm EST REGISTER

3. Enroll in the Self-Directed course,Introduction to Online Coaching through ILCT

Want more?

If your thirst for information needs further quenching, consider enrolling in one of the many self-directed courses being offered by ILCT and OTI.

DeeAnna Nagel, LPC, DCC is a psychotherapist and coach who co-founded the Online Therapy Institute/Online Coach Institute with Kate Anthony, DPsych, CPC. DeeAnna and Kate are both faculty members of The Institute for Life Coach Training.