WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COACHING AND COUNSELLING?
1. Purpose
Coach: Helps individuals improve specific skills or achieve personal or professional goals. Coaching is future-focussed, emphasizing growth, development, and achievement in areas such as career, leadership, relationships, or personal goals.
Counsellor: A counsellor focuses more on helping individuals deal with emotional, psychological, or mental health issues. Often past-oriented, helping people understand and heal from issues like trauma, grief, stress, anxiety, or other mental health challenges.
2. Practice
Coach: Sets actionable goals and develop strategies to achieve them. Focuses on motivation, accountability, and skill-building.
Counsellor: Trained mental health professionals who diagnose and treat emotional and psychological conditions. They work on healing and resolving deeper mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, relationship problems, and trauma.
3. Qualifications
Coach: Unfortunately not needed HOWEVER many do seek qualifications as well as join accredited programmes.
Counsellor: Counsellors are typically professionals with a degree in counselling, psychology, social work, or a related field due to the nature of the issues or illnesses being supported.
4. Approach
Coach: Use motivational strategies, action plans, goal setting, and performance tracking. Focus is on solutions, strengths, and future achievements.
Counsellor: Uses therapeutic techniques such as talk therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), or other methods to address emotional and mental health concerns.
5. Relationship Dynamics
Coach: Collaborative, with a focus on helping the client develop new strategies to achieve specific outcomes. The coach acts as a guide, helping the client reach their OWN potential.
Counsellor: Typically more focused on providing a safe space for the client to explore their emotions and thoughts. Supporting mental health and well-being, often taking a more empathetic and healing-centred approach.
6. Duration of Engagement
Coach: Relationships may be short-term or focused on specific projects or goals, lasting for a set number of sessions (weeks or months).
Counsellor: May be longer-term, depending on the depth of the issues being addressed. The duration of therapy depends on the client's needs and the complexity of their mental health challenges.
Summary
Coach: Future-focused, skill and goal-oriented, usually informal qualifications, works on personal/professional development.
Counsellor: Past and present-focused, healing emotional/psychological issues, requires formal education and licensing, works on mental health and well-being.
Both roles are valuable, but they cater to different client needs and situations.