Coaching, barbers and wives

Cutting hair is more complicated than you might think, do you remember the barber’s paradox?

If the barber is the person in a town who shaves all those, and only those, who do not shave themselves; then the question is does the barber shave himself?

You get a contradiction here: if he shaves himself then he shaves a person who doesn’t shave himself but if he doesn’t then he does!

Ok back to reality.

Take the test case of a married couple where the husband has recently retired. The husband may be struggling with retirement but not recognise the struggle as such, and therefore not look for help. The problem may spring from his failure to reconstitute meaning in his life since he left work, and certainly a good coach should be able to assist him in this regard.

On the other hand, his wife may see the problem very clearly. If she recommends that he should see a coach about this problem will he listen? In other words, perhaps he needs a gentle prod in order to seek that help. Moreover, this need may be painfully obvious to others but, as so often happens in life, he can’t see it himself.

Back to barbers: can the person who never asks for help in fact help himself?

Perhaps he needs help to get help.