Coaching helps you achieve your personal, career, academic or life goals. These goals may include gaining self-confidence, losing weight, switching careers, getting a promotion, building better relationships and many more (see below). Anyone can benefit from coaching because it keeps you motivated, provides accountability and support, keeps you focused on action plans, and identifies your strengths, options, and strategies.
What is the Difference Between Counseling and Coaching?
Many clients do not need counseling and do not have a mental health diagnosis. Therefore, it may not be necessary to explore past hurts, issues and behaviors. Coaching, on the other hand, is for everyone and focuses on the present and the future. Frankly, some people are just more comfortable with coaching than mental health counseling. However, the advantage to having a licensed mental health counselor as your coach is that we are trained to diagnosis disorders such as depression, generalized anxiety, ADHD, social phobias, PTSD, personality disorders, and many other issues that may hinder one’s abilities to reach his/her goals.
Counseling does not use advice giving, requesting, or suggesting. However, coaches do advise, recommend and suggest. Coaching shifts complaints into goals without interpreting the meaning or origin of them as therapy does. Counseling is more thought-based and emotion-based where coaching is performance-based.
Counseling and coaching both consist of:
- Effective communication
- Time management
- Managing stress
- Breaking habits
- Parenting issues
What is the Difference Between Counseling and Coaching?
Many clients do not need counseling and do not have a mental health diagnosis. Therefore, it may not be necessary to explore past hurts, issues and behaviors. Coaching, on the other hand, is for everyone and focuses on the present and the future. Frankly, some people are just more comfortable with coaching than mental health counseling. However, the advantage to having a licensed mental health counselor as your coach is that we are trained to diagnosis disorders such as depression, generalized anxiety, ADHD, social phobias, PTSD, personality disorders, and many other issues that may hinder one’s abilities to reach his/her goals.
Counseling does not use advice giving, requesting, or suggesting. However, coaches do advise, recommend and suggest. Coaching shifts complaints into goals without interpreting the meaning or origin of them as therapy does. Counseling is more thought-based and emotion-based where coaching is performance-based.
Counseling and coaching both consist of:
- Setting and reaching goals
- Discovering clients’ skills, knowledge, experience and values
- Being client-centered (letting client direct the process)
- Addressing potentially destructive behaviors