Coaching vs Counseling

Philosophy

Coaching Philosophy	Counseling Philosophy
Look forward	Look backward
Motivating	De-energizing
Move you to the future	Take you back to your past
Positive attitude	Low-key
Set you free	Hold your hand
Find out what talents you have	Figure out what is missing in you
Focus on what is working	Fix what is broken
Work with your very best	Deal with your worst fear
Discover what you have	Reveal what you don’t have
Bring out the best of your personality traits	Examine your pathological behaviors
Sharpen your functional behaviors	Deal with your dysfunctional behaviors
Excel in your natural talents	Overcome your handicaps
Cruise on with your nature	Struggle upstream to correct your deficits
Empower your independent character	Foster dependency on professional caregivers
Work on the here-and-now	Attempt to change your past
Dump your baggage – it is a non-issue	Examine your baggage – it is a big issue
Live your life and be happy	Feel your pain and sorrow
Tap into your strengths and potentials	Explore your wounds and miseries
Guide your own paths to success	Revisit the lost paths that led you astray
Create a clear vision for your future	Live in your past and dwell on it
Promote positive attitude to achieve positive results	Dwell on sources of your negative attitudes that need fixing

Views of Clients

Empowering Coaching View of Clients	Traditional Counseling View of Clients
You are whole and complete	Something is missing in you
You don’t have any problems	You have some major deficiencies
You have the brain	You don’t have the brain to put it together
You are the person who knows yourself the best	Counselor knows more than you do
You are responsible for your life to achieve the best	Counselor has all the solutions for you

Effectiveness

Effectiveness of Coaching	Effectiveness of Counseling
Motivating and inspiring	Be in touch with your fear, anger & sadness
Positive and empowering	Hold your hand as a life-support system
Help you see your strengths & potentials	Help you see your deficiencies & dysfunctions
See results in one or two sessions	Long-term counseling is your only hope
Return visit to inform the coach of your success	Revisit periodically to discuss old baggage and relapses