|Coach | Copywriter | Speaker |
You have dreams for your future. You want to make progress, but sometimes you feel stuck. And a million ideas are coming at you.
Consultants offer expertise and advice. Counselors diagnose. Pastors try to get you “plugged in” to the church’s programs. Sometimes friends listen, briefly. They might even say, “You got this.” How much help is that?
But you don’t always need advice, expertise, therapy, information, or inspirational platitudes.
Sometimes you need a different kind of help. Sometimes you need a focused conversation that lets you set the agenda, talk without interruption, and process your goals and desires out loud. Sometimes you need coaching.
As a coach, I listen attentively and ask nonjudgmental questions to help you grow in awareness of your resources, opportunities, and obstacles.
With greater awareness, you gain the confidence to make better decisions and build closer relationships.
What is coaching, and how does it differ from counseling and consulting?
While consulting tends to be about expertise and advice, and counseling tends to be about the diagnosis and treatment of emotional disorders, coaching is a partnership where I help you clarify your life vision by listening and asking questions in order to help you become more aware of your personal resources and the obstacles that thwart your progress and motivation.
While coaching is not counseling, it can do a lot to minimize anxiety, frustration, and depression. Why? Sometimes, emotional difficulties are rooted in a lack of practical action and vision. And being listened to when you are honest helps you feel less isolated and pessimistic.
Coaching has some overlap with the art of spiritual direction, which is not actually humanly directed—the Holy Spirit directs, while a human spiritual director asks questions and explores the ways in which the Spirit may be giving guidance.
Consulting does not have much of a place in coaching unless the client requests some specific information related to the goals discussed in the coaching session. For example, a coach might offer knowledge or resources if a client asked for tips on writing a personal narrative or building a website.