COACHING OR COUNSELING?

Many people who meet with a professional for what is normally called “personal counseling” are expecting something different than what they get. Sometimes they are looking for quick solutions to life problems. That doesn’t happen. Sometimes they are hoping the counselor can direct them in such a way that they see the future more clearly. That doesn’t happen very often. But to be fair, that is not the main role of the counselor. In fact, while the best counselors invest many years taking courses and developing the skill to help people, their expertise is in helping people sort out, understand and clean up the past as much as possible. It shocks many to find out that they take very little training in helping people find a better path for the future.

Life Coaching is very different. It is much more future oriented. The role of the Life Coach is to help you identify and lead the life you need to lead in the future. Life Coaches help people crash through barriers and in a measure give them the tools to start their life again. In contrast, some people invest $30,000-$100,000 to go back to school to learn a new career. And for many it is worth it. But for just as many they find that once they get done, their new education didn’t give them what they wanted. They simply didn’t know that a few thousand dollars invested in working with a Life Coach could have saved them all that money, time and grief.

When people are not sure they are ready to do the work and make the decisions related to their future because they are much burdened about their past and present, some counseling is in order. If you need to deal with the past, you may need some professional counseling before you move too deeply into the coaching process. Some professional counselors also do coaching. And many coaches have a background in counseling.

The following chart will help you understand the distinction between Life Coaching and Personal Counseling.