How Coaching Is Different From Other Helping Professions

A woman being coached at work.

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The term ‘coaching’ gets thrown around in the corporate world frequently, but what exactly is coaching and how is it different from other helping professions? Is a coach the same as a therapist, a consultant or a mentor? While each of these professionals helps others, their roles are very different. Empower yourself to understand and best utilize the profession most appropriate for you and your future. 

Coaching is a personal one-on-one experience that strives to improve an individual's performance and goals by focusing on the client’s past and present experiences to train, support and guide their future success and empowerment. In this relationship, the client is the expert who openly shares his or her life experience with a coach in a safe space. Through the coach’s guidance and inquiry, clients will interpret their situation and discover actionable insights. A coach will challenge and push clients to move out of their comfort zones and into the necessary direction of their stated goals. 

Often coaches and mentors are viewed as the same profession. However, they are quite different. A mentor advises. A mentor holds a shared experience with a mentee, such as working at the same company or within the same industry. Typically, the mentee is less experienced or younger. A mentor will help their mentee by providing them with seasoned expertise, advice, and guidance. This relationship costs nothing and will help steer the mentee in the right direction to positively influence future decisions, career trajectory and professional growth. Search for a mentor if you are seeking knowledge, expertise and a trusted ally. 

While a coach helps clients discover their own answers, a consultant holds the answers. A consultant provides expert analysis, recommendations and solution-oriented goals to clients. Consultants are professionals that fix, troubleshoot, strategize and improve performance and morale. They interpret information and prescribe an action plan that directly impacts a client’s future. Employ a consultant if you need an advisor to help see where your business is lacking and the solutions to address these issues. 

Coaching can at times resemble talk therapy since a coach can touch on your past experiences. However, a coach’s primary focus is to help you set and achieve your future goals, not to focus on past trauma. Therapy is a safe environment, free of judgment, where a licensed mental health professional places sole attention on your past, present and future. There tends to be a focus on healing or integrating old emotional wounds. A therapist can diagnose disorders, and prescribe and facilitate treatment accordingly. Consider therapy as an option for healing or to address mental health issues. 

Whether you need a coach, therapist, consultant or a mentor, each of these helping vocations may be essential at different times in your life. Determining which one will serve you best now is the first step to achieving your life goals.