Does this sound legitimate?

[steve2470]

1. a few answers

1- Your friend might want to get his LCSW license number and look him up on the state licensure site. Just a thought, not mandatory, might ease his or her mind.

2- The coaching thing is a more socially-valued way of saying therapy. It's basically therapy repackaged. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's also nothing wrong with saying therapy or therapist, imho. All kinds of people go to therapy, even well-adjusted people who are going through grieving, a divorce, etc. An obvious point that needs to be stated over and over again.

3- Your friend needs to have a frank chat with the "coach" about his or her goals, and needs to reassess progress at timely intervals. That goes for garden variety therapy as well.

Hope this helps.

Steve