What is the difference between mentoring and counselling

Professional coaching provides individuals with a constructive, confidential space to explore different approaches to the challenges they are facing. It enables individuals to create practical solutions and be held accountable to taking the steps needed to make positive changes to achieve their goals. Coaching often works to address potential obstacles or challenges before they have happened, and can be a great way to avoid personal or professional issues spiralling into issues that could take longer to fix with in-depth counselling or therapy.

One of the main reasons that coaching can overlap with counselling at times is that coaching professionals will not simply work on a topic and explore that and only that. Coaches are trained to work with a person to ultimately help them to achieve the goals they want to achieve, which includes their own personal and mental challenges that may have been creating obstacles in to achieving those goals.

Many professional coaches are trained to deal with moderate forms of mental incapacity, providing they are not extreme or debilitating in nature.

Therefore, working closely with a trained coach will not only help to achieve your goals and objectives in a strategic way, but it will help to uncover the reasons you may not have been able to achieve those goals in the past, all through customised sessions designed for you and your needs.

Counsellors are highly trained to deal with psychological issues and problems an individual has, and they can help with a myriad of mental health challenges from depression to anxiety, to work-related stress. A counsellor is specialised in being able to help people to gain a better understanding of deep-rooted beliefs which can underpin our thoughts and feelings, and help to uncover ways to address these effectively.

Counsellors may give you techniques to deal with the problem, however, they will not tell you what to do about certain issues and there is no set timeline to deal with the challenges that may be encountered. Counselling will often take place where the individual has reached a point where they are in crisis or they are struggling to cope with their day-to-day life.

Counselling will explore the very depths of the problem to uncover why it has happened in the first place, and help the individual determine how to resolve or manage the condition going forward. Trained counsellors are equipped to deal with most forms of mental incapacity and distress, including extreme and debilitating conditions, including the effects of trauma and diagnosed psychological conditions, with scientific models to underpin their chosen therapeutic approaches.

For example, one of her mentees, Rachel, is struggling to cope with the sudden loss of her husband to a car accident. Neha wisely encourages Rachel to seek additional support from a grief counselor. Similarly, another of her mentees, Helen, is looking for ways to find better work-life balance as a working mother.

Neha encourages Helen to work with a professional coach who can dedicate more time in making sure Helen is able to implement the changes in her life she really needs for her well-being. By knowing when to share her own experiences and advice, and when to refer her mentees to other professionals, Neha is able to create a positive impact on her mentees lives at various levels.

There are certain overlaps between coaching, counseling, and mentoring. However, there are also important differences. They are each uniquely flexible, and powerful, human connections for personal and professional growth. Unlock your best self with mental fitness routines with Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Follow us. By Yashi Srivastava.

March 25, - 18 min read. Share this article. Jump to section Coaching, counseling, and mentoring: a comparison The benefits of coaching, counseling, and mentoring When to use coaching, counseling, and mentoring 3 practical examples of coaching, counseling, and mentoring Final thoughts on coaching, counseling, and mentoring.

Thank you for your interest in BetterUp. Coaching Counseling Mentoring Time-frame Several months to a year, or longer. Typically long-term, but can vary. Typically long term; may last up to several years. Nature of relationship Formal and structured. Formal and structured. More informal and open ended. Focus Personal and professional growth. Healing past trauma or emotional distress. Professional growth. Temporal orientation Present and future.

Typically past and present. Present and future. Cost Paid. Usually unpaid. Credentials Certification and credentialing is highly encouraged. I hope this article has been useful. Life Coach Directory is not responsible for the articles published by members. The views expressed are those of the member who wrote the article.

Naomi works with people to discover and overcome the barriers that hold people back from achieving their goals. These barriers often feed low confidence, imposter syndrome and perfectionism, especially in the workplace. She is a former East of England Businesswoman Entrepreneur of the Year winner and is sensitive, friendly and practical. For the most accurate results, please enter a full postcode.

All coaches are verified professionals. I was recently listening to the Rich Roll Podcast 1 with guest Guru Singh talking about instinct, impulse When someone mentions shadow work, what comes to mind?

The chances are it sounds a bit scary Well call me We use cookies to provide and improve our services. Related: Career Coach vs. Life Coach: What's the Difference? Depending on which process you are implementing, leaders can have different relationships with their team members.

If they are mentoring someone, they may have a more informal and friendly relationship, where they talk about work and life updates. While a mentor and mentee is usually a one-on-one relationship, a coach may support multiple employees at a time.

Therefore, coaches' relationships with their team members may be more casual and group-oriented. Since counselors work with patients in a therapeutic setting, there may be more boundaries in place to protect both parties.

This means that the relationship between a counselor and the person they are counseling may be more formal and professional. However, counselors are still friendly with their patients to ensure patients feel comfortable and safe sharing their thoughts and feelings. The timelines of mentoring, coaching and counseling can vary based on their purposes. An experienced professional may mentor a junior employee until the junior employee has enough advanced skills and years of experience that they don't need help anymore.

However, since many mentorships can evolve into friendships over time, some can last the entire lifetimes of those taking part in them. Coaching, in contrast, is short-term in nature, as it is only necessary to help people achieve certain goals. Once a person has achieved a goal, they are typically done with that coaching module.

However, employees can take part in many coaching programs over time to continue to build their skills. The timeline of counseling is typically longer than coaching, but it usually depends on the preferences of the person taking part in it. Some people take part in counseling their entire lives, while others only seek it for help with specific situations. The activities a leader may implement to practice mentoring, coaching and counseling can differ.

Mentors may chat with their mentees over coffee, attend business conferences with them or contact them regularly to check in.

Counselors typically meet with their patients weekly and may encourage the following activities to help them identify and process emotions:. Coaches may encourage their team members to complete more lively activities to gain motivation and confidence to complete tasks. These can include:.

Creating goals: Coaches may prompt team members to develop and visualize goals for success. Usually, these goals are SMART goals, meaning they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.

Fostering gratitude: Thinking about reasons to feel grateful can be a coaching technique that fosters positive emotions and well-being. Coaches can also encourage employees to think about reasons they are proud of themselves to enhance self-esteem and improve productivity. Developing optimism: Coaches often seek to inspire the people they coach by encouraging them to develop optimism for the future. For example, employees might think about a time when they were unsuccessful in achieving a goal but how they still learned something new from the experience.

Identifying strengths: Coaches typically try to get the people they coach to understand they can make their dreams into reality.