Now let me tell you the backstage secrets of coaching, with politics to match...Back in 1989 Austria passed a law on psychological counselling. Not everyone liked it, and ever since then psychologists, coaches and psychotherapists have had a bone to pick with it. The mission of the law, as I already described in the article "Requirements for a psychologist in Austria", is a noble one: to put an end to the botch-job attitude of "whoever puts the white coat on first is the psychologist". But...

How the feud began

Five years later, in 1994, the "Association of Supervisors" was founded in Austria (ÖVS - Österreichische Vereinigung für Supervision und Coaching, let us call it the Association for short), a private body meant to improve the quality of supervision. For those who do not live on the psychological Olympus, let me explain: supervision is personal therapy for counsellors. Say a therapist feels like sleeping with a client — and the supervisor goes "tut-tut!".

The Association hired lawyers and, through their interpretation, declared that supervision is a free trade that anyone may practise. Well, naturally, only those "anyone" who are members of the Association))). That was the start of a thirty-year "feud" between licensed counsellors and the Association's people.

The paradox is that the attacks were aimed above all at the licensed counsellors. In real life the attacks take the form of devaluation and look, for example, like this:

"Lebens- und Sozialberater in Austria have nothing in common with the profession of a psychologist or a psychotherapist. That is more the level of a social worker!""be careful: in Vienna some Russian-speaking colleagues are very fond of filing anonymous complaints about colleagues who present themselves in public in a way that does not match their status.""They are not psychologists (no university degree)." From the congratulations sent to the author of this article on receiving his licence for psychological counselling in Austria

And so two castes took shape in Austria:

• the private structure of the Association, operating in a legal grey area, laying claim to university-level quality of supervision, and
• the lawful state structure of the Economic Chamber with practical training, whose supervision was nevertheless devalued and, paradoxically, was not let into social institutions.

The feud went on for a long time, and so did the economic chamber's attempts to legalise the supervisors peacefully. The Association's members were offered, for instance, a lawful counselling licence by way of "credit transfer", with all due honour paid to their high educational standards. But keeping the hostile status quo was evidently worth more.

And here you will probably ask me: "Hey, my good sir, what is all this supervision — where is the COACHING???" Patience, keep calm, it is coming... Reading is what tempers the will, after all....

The cold war

By 2015 the economic chamber had had enough of this game. It hired the law firm Wolf Theiss (those who know the world of corporate capitalism will appreciate the choice))) for a legal opinion confirming that supervision is not a free trade and requires a licence for psychological counselling. The Ministry of Finance backed that opinion.

The Association did not give up and came out with an idea: all right, let us assume that supervision is a licensed trade — but only half a licence is needed for it. The economic chamber pointed out that to become a supervisor you also have to be able to counsel. Which means you need the full set of skills, both in counselling and in supervision.

The Association did not give up and played a knight's move. Namely, it added the magic word "coaching" to its statutes. For those who know the word coaching only from memes: it is a catch-all term that covers everything ever stuffed into psychology — family coaching, crisis coaching, sexual coaching... That was how the Association set out to bring the whole field of psychological counselling under itself. The Economic Chamber's jaw dropped at such cheek...

Right, that is enough!

In 2018 the economic chamber brought up the heavy artillery: administrative prosecution. The unit for combating unlicensed operators (Pfuscherbekämpfungsreferat) together with the Association for Protection against Unfair Competition (Schutzverband gegen unlauteren Wettbewerb) counted 800 coaches and supervisors under the Association's wing, branded them "unlicensed operators who do not observe the law" and started fining them through the Finance Police (Finanzpolizei). Legislative dispatches followed, saying:

Membership of a private body such as the Association is not in itself proof of the skills and knowledge that the law requires for psychological counselling. Supervision and coaching are possible where full proof of fitness for the profession of psychological counsellor is provided
the author

Those willing to give in were also made an offer: to have their knowledge and skills confirmed through a nostrification procedure and thus obtain an official permit to counsel. That is the curious story that came together with the help of the chair of the Vienna department for personal counselling at the economic chamber. If you know German, do have a listen!

What can you do?

Fancy joining this game of toy tanks? Then here are the tools you have:

• Check a "psychologist" or a "coach" in the GISA database (www.gisa.gv.at/abfrage): is there a permit for supervision or for counselling?
• Ring the Economic Chamber on 01/514 50 and ask about the licence
• Found your "target"? Drop a line to pfuscher@wkw.at