Counseling, Consulting and Coaching? What’s the difference?

Sometimes the difference between consulting, coaching, and counseling or psychotherapy gets murky, even for those of us in these fields. When we meet, we’ll sort out what makes the most sense for you. I see them all as different levels and severities of stuckness. Let me explain further.

Consulting. Functioning but stuck on something and not sure about where to go from here. We all have situations and struggles that arise in life that aren’t about having a diagnosis or a disorder, bur more about needing support to navigate a complex problem in your world. Perhaps it’s the decision to stay or leave a job, or a weird dynamic at work that you don’t know how to understand and navigate, or a struggle with how to have a brave conversation with a friend. These situations happen all the time and often we have natural supports that we can turn to like family, friends, mentors, or other trusted folks. But as we all know, sometimes these folks are too close to the situation, or might be affected by the decision in a way that makes sorting it all out harder. This is when an outside neutral person can help to unpack the complexity of the situation and help us come to a decision, perspective or action that feels right, even if it’s hard. These situations benefit from consulting rather than psychotherapy - they may involve a single or only a handful of sessions to help you sift through the complexity by identifying your values, emotions, thoughts and choices as you move forward.

Coaching. Functioning but frustrated with your approach to something even though you know where you want to go. There are situations when you are clear about a goal that you want to achieve, but you are having trouble sorting out the how to get there or staying on track. You could use some help breaking it into smaller bites and deciding the sequence of the steps. Along the way we might identify the barriers - actual, emotional or cognitive - that get in your way. Sometimes coaching is about having someone to sort the problem in to smaller bites and steps and then putting them in a sequence. Other times coaching involves developing awareness of how habits are formed and changed. It can be rather fun as well as challenging to learn about yourself and your approach in a coaching relationship. Coaching involves several sessions, a willingness to try different things and a commitment to taking actions between sessions.

Counseling/psychotherapy is needed for deep stuckness that is significantly affecting you functioning in multiple areas of life. This usually indicates the presence of diagnosable disorder - like anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress. This level of stuckness is intense, long-term suffering, and often not under conscious control. For example, if you are suffering from depression, you can’t just decide your way out. These conditions may involve multiple causes that need to be sorted out carefully to be addressed from several angles. Psychotherapy may involve many of the same functions as coaching and consulting but is often longer in duration with has multiple goals and supports integrated into to it. Psychotherapy and counseling are covered by insurances, but coaching and consulting are not.