Seeking professional help is a difficult decision for you. It takes courage to look deeply into yourself with compassion. To recognize your flaws, you must accept your weaknesses. It takes courage and weakness to say, “I need help.”
Once you’re ready to seek professional help, deciding whether coaching or counseling is right for you can be another challenge. Of course, you want someone who can best serve your needs.
How to know if you need a counselor or coach
Each practitioner brings something unique to their practice.whether you Choose a coach or counselor You need to find someone you can trust and feel safe with, someone you feel comfortable sharing with.
If you’re feeling well and want to get better, coaching may be the way to go, but if you have more serious mental health issues or emotional issues stemming from unresolved trauma, A counselor may be your best choice.
Key Differences Between Coaching and Counseling
Anyone with or without training can start a coaching business. Find out what their training and experience are like from potential coaches. From a few days he may undergo training for a year or more. Coaches often enter the field as a second or third career. This means they enter the field with significant life experience.
Many people think only of sports coaching. Professional coaching is growing rapidly for both personal and professional use.
Some Facts About Coach
1. Coaches must be certified and licensed.
It is safe to be a member of the International Coaching Federation they meet the criteria It is defined by the ICF and includes best practices and ethics.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering clients in a thought-provoking creative process that maximizes their personal and professional potential.”
2. Coach assumes client has the answer
Instead of giving advice, coaches are curious and ask questions, eliciting powerful insights into their clients. Coaches see their clients as holding the answers within themselves. As a coach, I see myself as a midwife helping each client to create their truest selves.
3. Your coach will let you know if you need a therapist or another coach
Good coaches know how to take responsibility for their own problems in order to keep them emotionally, mentally and physically healthy, and avoid passing them on to their clients.
Good coaches listen more than they talk, are curious, and always want to understand their clients better. This requires the ability to ask deep questions and be willing to answer them.
Being non-judgmental helps provide a safe place to learn. A good coach knows how to set aside judgments that block your understanding.
They will help you access the wisdom already within you and will hold you accountable by challenging you to continue the difficult task with compassion.
A reputable coach will let you know if the person is not right for you and will recommend that you see another coach, counselor, or psychiatrist.
4. Coaching takes about 10 sessions to see significant changes
It takes a certain amount of self-awareness to benefit from coaching. If you’re looking for someone to provide you with a safe space to explore what’s getting in your way in life, then you’ll benefit from a coach to give you the freedom to do what you do.
In the coaching world, most practitioners agree that it takes at least 10 hours to start noticing a difference.
Be honest with yourself. Are you ready to face your shadow side? If you are not ready to do so now, start with a counselor and then try a coach.
Counselor Facts
This group includes counselors, usually trained as social workers or psychologists. Most locations require you to register through a licensing agency. In Canada, it is done through provincial organizations.
1. Licenses require specific degrees and training.
To qualify as a social worker, you must have at least an undergraduate or graduate degree. A psychologist should have at least a graduate degree. Both of these types of counselors oversight of the governing body.
Counselors often have more training than coaches, but not always.
2. Counseling is based on a specific methodology
Counseling/psychotherapy is the skillful and constructive use of relationships to promote self-awareness, emotional acceptance and growth, and to enhance individual skills.
The overall purpose is to provide opportunities for people to engage in living with hope and joy. Relationships vary according to their needs, but they can be related to childhood problems, tackling and solving specific problems, decision-making, coping with crises, developing personal insight and knowledge, overcoming feelings of inner turmoil, or related to improving relationships with others.
Good counselors use some of the same tools as coaches. However, counselors are specially trained to work with people dealing with mental illness.
3. Qualities of a good counselor:
Good counselors have good communication skills through active listening: a healthy self-awareness of themselves, good communication skills in asking the right questions, the ability to observe non-verbal behavior, patience, empathy, and confidentiality. must have respect for
You will find that coaches and counselors need many of the same skills. But coaches are there to help you access the wisdom you already have, and counselors are your ability to help those who have difficulty accessing their inner world or who are living with mental illness. You will notice that it has
Counselors may share shared information only with the client’s consent.
4. Counseling has some prerequisites
You have to want to ask for help. You are fed up with how your life is going. I’m afraid you have a mental illness. Life is getting out of hand, but you are ready to deal with the problem. Change is gradual, so it also requires determination and perseverance.
After all, you have to work. A counselor cannot cure you. you have no flaws. But old habits and inner conversations keep getting in the way.
If you have financial concerns and have access to a counselor through your benefits plan, this might be a good place to start. Most counselors can receive compensation through the ADP program offered by their employer.
Trust your intuition.
Meet with different coaches and counselors to find the right person. Ask how we can support you. Check pricing and see if you are licensed or certified. If you know someone you trust who has gotten help over the past few years, see if they have any advice.
Find a professional to start this journey and keep it going long enough to see a change in your life.
When you do that work, your future you will thank you for choosing to make significant changes in your life.
Rowland LegI am an author, certified spiritual life coach, and Enneagram teacher. He helps people connect with their inner selves and find alignment with their highest purpose and values.
This article was originally published at: REL consultant blog. Reprinted with permission of the author.
