A great majority of suffering individuals keep suffering without receiving professional help. We will never have enough trained and licensed therapists to help even a small fraction of people in need.

Since Lifetrack is focused entirely on helping individuals get close to their chosen partners in life, there is nothing mysterious that only professionally trained and licensed therapists can comprehend. Teaching people about intimacy and how to find happiness is not the monopoly of any profession.

However, professionally licensed therapists have an advantage in dealing with severe symptoms of distress that can occur during the process of getting close to a partner in life. For that reason, Lifetrack training is offered preferentially to licensed professional therapists until more experience is gained in training Lifetrack therapists.

Concerning helping people achieve closeness and happiness, two fundamental qualifications stand out: The coach knows how to swim, and he or she knows how to teach swimming. The only meaningful credential is how many people the coach has helped successfully. In that sense, some nonprofessional advisors with Lifetrack training might produce results that are as good as or even better than some professionally trained and licensed therapists can achieve.

However, the important caveat is that the very process of getting closer to a partner may provoke defensive reactions that are beyond what nonprofessional advisors can effectively deal with. In those circumstances, prompt referral should be made to professional therapists who are equipped to deal with them.

There is a very important role for professional Lifetrack therapists and nonprofessional Lifetrack advisors in educating the public about health. Giving individuals or groups help in the form of education or seminars -- for the general public as well as for business, academic or other community or groups -- does not require that one be a therapist. The most effective individuals in the educational role are those who are well versed in the theory and can communicate the core concepts of health, applying them to different fields and organizations.