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Since I am both a life coach and a counselor, people often ask me what the difference is between the two. For clarification, I make the following distinctions:
The purpose of coaching is to help the client achieve goals in the context of one's whole life. In a coaching relationship the coach and the client are equal partners with the client being naturally creative, resourceful and whole. The agenda for the session is chosen by the client who takes responsible action on his or her personal vision. Together the coach and client develop a plan and a strategy that accelerate the client’s movement forward towards the established goal. The emphasis in coaching is on the present with an eye to the future and taking incremental steps towards those goals that are aligned with one's values.
In counseling the counselor is almost always considered the expert. Clients generally come to counseling when they are struggling emotionally with an issue. Counseling is about helping the client process, understand and resolve his or her past issues in order to live more fully in the present. Coaching and counseling can work together because while therapy deals with deeper psychological issues, coaching can help keep the client's everyday life on track.
In other words, Counseling is about resolving the past to live more fully in the present while coaching is looking at the present and beyond to opportunities and possibilities in one's future.
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Counseling is about healing; Coaching is about achievement
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Counseling is about understanding; Coaching is about action
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Counseling is about safety; Coaching is about momentum
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Counseling is about progress; Coaching is about performance
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Counseling is about protecting; Coaching is about attracting
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Counseling is about resolving; Coaching is about creating
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Counseling is about getting closure; Coaching is about creating new possibilities
FACT: If a person starts out thinking there is a 10% chance that s/he can achieve a goal then the likelihood of that person meeting the goal increases to 50% when there is a plan of action. The likelihood of a person meeting a goal spikes to 95% when s/he is held accountable for a plan of action to a coach.
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