What is the difference between coaching and other disciplines?

 

Coaching vs. Consultancy, Mentoring, Therapy

Some clients request coaching when they actually are asking for consultancy or mentoring. The following explanation will help you to see the distinction.

The main difference between coaching and all the three other disciplines is that through my coaching you we will enter a process where not I but you, as the client, will provide yourself with your own insights, strategies and action. You might think ''if I am the one providing the insights why would I need a coach?" If you really think this way than first read the explanation of "What is coaching?"

I can help you by giving you advice, by giving you my opinion or by giving you examples of similar situations, I might even tell you what you should do. Doing this would be fine for a consultant or mentor.

As a coach I will refrain from the above. I will not give you my ideas on any matter. By asking 'powerful questions' and by using coaching techniques I will make you discover your own path to follow in life.

Because most people are used to being given advice many of my clients ask me to play the role of consultant. Although I can be hired as a consultant on specific issues my experience is that most clients are positively surprised after their first coaching-session. It is a real life-changer for most people, including myself.

We cannot underestimate the role consultancy plays in modern society, nor do I want to. When you hire a consultant you hire that person his or her expertise on a subject, think of setting up a company or a consultant helping you to market a new product in China. As a coach I will get the expert knowledge about you from yourself by letting you shed a different light on your problems and goals thereby enabling you to be your own consultant. By hiring a coach you hire yourself as a consultant, I will just make sure you will be the best consultant for yourself you can find!

Besides coach I am a helicopter pilot, I often have passengers in my helicopter who got their flight as a surprise gift. After a briefing by the ground-crew or by myself they board the helicopter telling me they are nervous. At the end of our flight when approaching the landing site nearly all these passengers tell me to fly on because it is such a fantastic experience! This is why it is a good idea to book a sample-session and see for yourself how different coaching is and what it can mean for you. Just as explaining how a helicopter flight feels is not even near to what it is to experience it.

 

Coaching vs. Therapy

When I wrote on this subject I got a lot of feedback and it made me realize that term `therapy` is used as loosely as coaching! What I mean with therapy on this website: a result oriented therapy with the main focus on healing.

As a coach I acknowledge you as the expert of your own life and affirm that (deep down) you know what you want and what not, that you are complete. Healing is not necessary here.

My coaching is not result-driven.... This does not mean that we do not want results from our coaching session of course. It does mean that I do not diagnose you after which we work together on the basis of this diagnosis. During our coaching sessions I will let you diagnose yourself, I facilitate you in getting insights which you will use to set goals and perform actions to improve your live.

Coaching is for mentally healthy people wanting to know what they want, what drives them, how to device strategies and setting goals which will be reached by their actions.

Although coaching is not therapy, both disciplines can neatly work together.

Any questions or remarks? You can reach me on the contact page.