Coaching Verses Counseling

Whenever asked the question, "isn't coaching just like counseling"?, my reply will generally be about the distinction between the two. I have come to realize that in back of the question is sometimes a need for clarification because many times a person has been through the counseling/therapy process and is looking for something diffferent. As other coaches have remarked to me, that if a new client is in need of counseling we make that recommendation as well. Some people are in the place to need to understand why and how their life got to be where it is. Problems from the past have a way of staying in step with present and future lives. Thank God for the training counselors have to assist their clients in traveling back through time to identify issues which have created the very conflict people are in. No one needs to have the responsibility of carrying around burdens from the past with them. Coaches however, work in the future in a time we have yet to live. We help create success plans for tomorrow and redefine what new decisions or goals can be developed for having a fuller, richer, happier, healthier and balanced life. We also develop a very confidential bond with our clients because we want them to discover what new methods of living are going to be the most effective and rewarding for them. We begin immediately to give our clients control over their lives. We are able to present many ways of seeing a situation through a different lens for success. Never do we take the position of telling a client "what" to do as opposed to showing them many ways of "how" they can choose differently to achieve their goal oriented results. The sole purpose of coaching is to focus on the needs of the client. This is a "Personal Improvement Process."