What is Coaching?
I’m often asked, how is Coaching different than Therapy, Consulting and Mentoring?
Before you choose who, and what you want to focus on, decide what you need:
- Do you need help processing something hard from your past?
- Do you need someone to help you get unstuck and make progress towards achieving your goals?
- Do you need someone to help you discover how to communicate more effectively?
- Do you need a partner to co-create with you as you explore the next move in your career?
- Do you need to have someone show you how to do something or teach you a new skill?
Coaching (Walk With Me)
Coaching (Walk With Me) is focused on the present moment. It is a discipline designed to support you on your journey. You hire a personal trainer to help you train your body so that you can lose weight, you can work with a coach in a similar partnership to evoke new ways of thinking, being and feeling. A coach’s value is in their ability to listen, process and facilitate the conversation. Remember, you’re in the driver’s seat. The coach is sitting next to you in the passenger seat holding the map, guiding, listening and inducing new insights. The coach is focused on co-creating a plan of action so that you can overcome obstacles or road blocks that might be getting in the way.
Mentors (Guide Me)
Mentors (Guide Me) are people who have extensive expertise in a particular area where they can give their mentee tools, tips and strategies to help them achieve their goals. The key difference between coaching and mentoring is that mentors provide guidance and knowledge through the lens of the mentor, based on what has worked for them in the past. A coach asks questions to uncover the tools and strategies that achieve results, through the lens of the client.
Consultants (Show Me)
Consultants (Show Me) are specialized in their field of work and can share their knowledge and learning by showing clients what to do. Ultimately, we typically tap consultants who have a very specific knowledge in an area of our lives or business, and they can show us what needs to be done to reach our goals.
Therapy (Heal Me)
Therapy (Heal Me) focuses on healing your past wounds and traumas. Licensed therapists are skilled at helping you process your past by seeking to discover what roadblocks or traumas might be preventing you from being successful in the present moment.
Set yourself free
Once you’ve decided what you need, ensure that you select someone you feel safe with. It’s important that throughout the process you feel safe enough that you can have open dialogue that is based on trust and will ultimately get you the outcomes you’re looking for. Coaches are different from other professions and disciplines by their approach. Coaches who are accredited through the ICF (International Coach Federation) view clients as whole, resourceful and capable. The coach is there to walk with you on the journey by holding a safe space for you to fully express yourself and discover the possibilities that are best for you, ultimately leading to your own personal growth and transformation.