Coaches talk a lot about the difference between coaching and counseling. It makes sense. They are similar enough that defining differences in the industries is necessary. And I certainly think there are significant differences. However, I think that one of the differences is harder to define in real life than we coaches make it out to be.
We say that counselors deal with areas of brokenness or woundedness in their clients, whereas coaches work with people who are basically healthy and functional. In essence I agree with this. But in practical experience I find this distinction to be a very fuzzy line.
Here’s my question for people to comment on: What level of brokenness, pain, or woundedness requires a counselor approach vs. a coaching approach? Or asked another way, how much healing work can a coach be involved in with a client and still be truly coaching (and not counseling)?
I look forward to hearing how you handle this is your coaching business.
Scott Wozniak
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
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7 comments:
Great question! In theory it is easy to define the difference, but in practice, I have experienced also that the line gets fuzzier. From my Career Coach Academy (www.careercoachacademy.com)textbook,"Career Counselors have a large caseload of clients, making the counselor more of a point-person for administering assessments or advising on strategies and resources rather than partnering long-term with the client ot expand his/her vision of what is possible, as well as empower the client through a focus on powerful questioning, mindset, action steps, and results." Look forward to seeing the comments on this question!
My thought is that the level of brokenness or woundedness that may necessitate a counselor vs. a coach would be in situations where that brokenness has caused some pathology in an individual; a situation where they can't get past that brokenness without delving deeper and investigating & processing the root cause.
From what I've heard and read so far about life coaching, I believe the basic philosophy behind coaching, especially from a Christian perspective, could probably do much healing work with an individual while still maintaining that "coaching" perspective. There can be a healing that takes place just from the coach/client relationship in and of itself.
However, if you find as a coach that most of your time is taken with unearthing past hurts instead of helping to attain goals and realize dreams, you've probably crossed over the line.
Good thoughts so far...I'm enjoying this thread. Monica, I think I agree with you, but I do have some questions (for anyone to answer):
1) What kind of root cause issues are pathologies and what are just normal human process? At what point is it processing a pathology vs. processing a core value shift? In essence, what is the definition of pathology (as used here)?
2) I really like the way you put it, "if you find as a coach that most of your time is taken with unearthing past hurts instead of helping to attain goals and realize dreams, you've probably crossed over the line." At the risk of being nitpick-ish, does "most of your time" mean 51%? Is that over several sessions or per conversation?
Enjoying trying to define the intangible,
Scott
Scott,
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you...I was on vacation, starting a new job, getting the kids off to school, etc and just checked the blog today!
As far as "pathology" is concerned, I was referring to core issues that lead to diagnoses we'd usually find in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- which ranges from very mild to severe); or that could easily be defined as something we'd see in the DSM.
To answer your second question regarding time being spent unearthing past hurts versus helping to attain goals, that "percentage" is very subjective. If you're finding yourself emotionally drained after working with someone, that may be a big indicator as to how "deep" their issues may go and whether or not it's turning into more of counseling versus coaching.
Does that help at all?
That’s a good definition of pathology. And it’s an interesting thought about measuring energy-cost rather than time-spent. I think I’d add another factor, and that is the role of the client. One of the core tenents of coaching is that the client is able to take the initiative, set goals, and own responsibility for their own growth. I’d propose that a session becomes more counseling than coaching when the client is unable (or unwilling) to take the lead in driving the growth process. In fact, I think that element (in my mind) may outweigh the factor of what kind of topic we are discussing.
Scott
at the first time we have to know the difriences between coaching and counselling
coaching give us straight instruction step by step and then counselling will give us advice and negotiate to solve the problem.
actually every body have own answer about their quetion, in the counselling prosess the counsellor have to try to confience the counsellee answer
http://couchingvscounselling.blogspot.com/
Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!
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