How to choose between Counselling or Coaching

When you start your self-development journey, the first step is usually deciding between counselling or coaching. To know which one is right for you at this moment, I’ve put together a short guide talking about the benefits of both.

Whether you choose counselling or coaching, both will provide you with the support you need. The most important factor to consider in both is your rapport with the therapist. If you don’t have good rapport i.e. if you don’t like your therapist, the process won’t work. Trust is a huge factor in this work so be mindful of your choices.

Why is it difficult to choose between a counsellor or coach?

The starting point for many on a mental wellbeing journey is usually a counsellor and I highly recommend this especially if you are aware of past traumas.

If you are looking to make real changes in your life, your career, health or relationships and can create a specific goal, then coaching will be better for you.

The hardest part you’ll find in deciding between a counsellor or coach is that coaching isn’t regulated and counselling falls under so many categories.

You’ll also find that many counsellors are also also coaches and vice-versa because the two therapies work really well together. However, this is only true if you really need the two.

Choosing between a good counsellor and a good coach

Although it won’t be the easiest decision to make between a counsellor or a coach, you can use the following points to help you decide which therapist will be best for you.

CHOOSING A COUNSELLOR

• Make sure you like the counsellor. This is based on your gut feelings, your intuition.
• Have them explain what the path may look like especially in terms of time. Whilst they can’t give you an exact answer, they have enough experience to give you a guideline.
• Ensure you understand the type of counsellor they are and what is within their remit. Both counsellors and coaches can’t give you advice or tell you what to do.

CHOOSING A COACH

• As coaching isn’t regulated like counselling, it’s important to do your research. The pandemic has allowed many people without any experience especially in safe-guarding to become coaches. They hit you with so much despair in their marketing that you feel pressured to hire them. Don’t. You know if something feels right, so pay close attention to your gut instincts.
• In addendum to the above point, when choosing a coach, as well as looking at qualifications, also consider their life experience. Although coaching, like counselling can be done without needing experience in a particular area of life, it can be helpful to resonate with the coach as this builds trust better and gives you more confidence in the coaches’ ability.
• Understand that coaching is not advice. Some coaches use directive and non-directive coaching techniques. I use both in my practice in these two ways. 1) When a client is new to the coaching process, the open questions often don’t land. They have no idea how to open up to a different perspective yet. So they need guidance to see how they can do it. 2) Once the client has achieved a more developed mindset, I move to non-directive coaching so that they can begin to be empowered by taking control of their lives.
• A coach can also be immensely supportive. In my practice, it’s imperative to me that my clients are able to contact me as ‘life happens.’ The coaching sessions are structured to a certain extent but life will happen outside of the sessions as that’s when you’re applying your learnings. This level of support is invaluable and has been the game-changer in every client’s journey with me.

What do you want from counselling or coaching?

People tend to forget that when approaching a counsellor or coach, you need to know what you want to get out of the experience. It’s not just about healing past trauma, limiting beliefs and taking action. You need to know what outcome you want and work towards that goal in your journey.

If you’re feeling stuck and conflicted between choosing a counsellor or coach, then book one of their free calls with them. In this call you’ll get to know them, get a feel for them and can ask all of your questions. You can keep buying self-help books but I can tell you this, it will not help you. The biggest success of one-on-one therapy is your relationship with the impartial therapist who is all about you achieving your goals. No book can do that for you.

💡 Top Tip

This is a very simple summary of knowing which path is going to be the best one for you.

A counsellor will help you reflect on your past, raise your awareness and encourage you to understand yourself better. Depending on the type of counselling theory they use, they will assist you to stand on your own two feet in order to break-free from your traumas.

A coach will guide you to where you want to go in your life. They will help you achieve what you want from your life. They may go into the past to get some context for your map of the world but they won’t dwell there. Coaching is about forward motion every single time.

If you’re struggling to decide whether you need counselling or coaching, please book in a 1 hour free call with me to find out which will be most helpful. I am a discerning coach and only work with those that are coachable. If I think counselling will be better for you, I’ll tell you. I’m ethical.

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