Counseling? Wellness Coaching? Consultation?

How do I choose?

 

How To Choose Between

Counseling and Wellness Coaching

 

Counseling is about uncovering and recovering, while coaching is about discovering. Advanced Mind/Body Solutions can help you with either area, or both. And, yes, there can be some "cross-over."

 

A good way to view the foundational differences between therapy and coaching is to think of two cars driving along a sandy, wave washed shoreline. One car hits a log and bends an axle, sinking deep into the sand. The other car swerves to keep from hitting the log, but in doing so also sinks in the sand. For the first car, the only hope is a tow truck and a trip to the repair shop. It is out of shape and cannot go further. This is a therapy patient. The second car merely needs a push, a little traction under its wheels, and it continues its race across the sand. This is the coaching client.

 

Coaching, unlike therapy, spends little time on one's past, except for brief “visits”; then the focus is on developing the future. This philosophical shift has taken root in a generation that rejects the idea of sickness and seeks instead wellness, wholeness and purposeful living. Both psychological research and application are useful in coaching.

 

Masterful coaches do utilize skill sets from solution-oriented therapy approaches, cognitive and behavioral psychology and recent advances in positive psychology. That does not make coaching the same as psychotherapy. A good golf instructor will use some of the same techniques and principles of motivation and learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In brief…

 

Counseling:  Deals with identifiable dysfunctions in a person.

Wellness Coaching:  Deals with a healthy client desiring a better situation.

 

Counseling:  Deals with the present with an emphasis on past origins.

Wellness Coaching:  Deals with the present with a focus on the future.

 

Counseling:  Has an expert professional – client relationship (therapist has the answers)

Wellness Coaching:  Has a co-creative equal partnership (Coach helps the client discover his own answers)

 

Counseling: The therapist diagnoses, then provides professional expertise and guidance to provide a path to healing

Wellness Coaching:  The coach stands together with the client and helps identify the challenges, then partners to turn challenges into victories, holding the client accountable to reach desired goals.        

 

*Adapted from an article in Choice Magazine volume 2 issue 1     

 

 

Feel free to be in touch to explore these options,
and choose the best one for you:

 

Contact: Advanced Mind/Body Solutions