Beyond the Buzzwords: Your Guide to Understanding Coaching, Consulting, and Therapy

When you're investing in your growth, choosing the right support makes all the difference. As your coach, I want you to understand exactly how we'll work together – and how coaching differs from other professional support.

Think of personal development like a journey through time: some paths lead to healing the past, others to solving present challenges, and others to creating your future. Each path has its own guide: therapists, consultants, and coaches.

Writer's note: I’ve hired and worked with many coaches, consultants, and therapists - each modality has helped me tremendously and I endorse credible, competent professionals in each lane. In order to create clear distinctions, I am writing this piece in an overly simplistic and reductionist way. The goal by the end is for you to not only understand what coaching is but also know what it isn't.

Three Guides for Your Journey

Let me share a simple story that illuminates these differences:

A person falls into a deep hole and can't get out. Three professionals walk by:

• The therapist climbs down and asks, "How did you end up here? Let's explore your feelings about being in this hole."
• The consultant peers in and offers, "I can design the perfect ladder to get you out – I've helped others in similar holes."
• The coach looks down and asks, "You're in a hole. What are you going to do about it?"

Each response reveals the unique value – and limitations – of each approach.

You can see a visual depiction of these three distinctions below.

Source: Coutu and Kauffman, HBR 2009

Understanding Each Path

Therapy

• Focuses on: Your past to present
• The therapist is the expert
• Helps you answer: Why?
• Moves you from under-functioning to functioning
• Specializes in healing and processing past experiences

Consulting

• Focuses on: Your present to near future
• The consultant is the expert
• Helps you answer: How?
• Provides specific solutions based on expertise
• Transfers knowledge from their experience to your situation

Coaching

• Focuses on: Your present to future
• You are the expert of your life
• Helps you answer: What?
• Partners with you to create breakthroughs
• Draws out your wisdom and capabilities

Why Coaching?

Think of coaching like a journey in a stagecoach (that's actually where the term comes from). As your coach, I'm not driving – you are. I'm in the passenger seat helping you:

• See the road ahead more clearly
• Identify more direct paths and avoid dead ends
• Challenge you to take better routes
• Stay focused on your destination

Silicon Valley's legendary coach Bill Campbell said it best: "A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be."

I believe that no one needs a coach - people at all points in their journey seek coaching because they (1) believe there is a better - more efficient, more effective, more creative, or more fun - way to accomplish their goal and (2) they want partnership on the journey.

My Commitment to You

As your coach, I promise to:

• Relate to you as whole and complete – not as a problem to be fixed
• Stand for your greatness, especially when you can't see it yourself
• Partner with you to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be
• Challenge you to think bigger and differently
• Keep you focused on creating your future rather than fixing your past

Other Resources for New Clients:

• Anatomy of a Coaching Session: Your Guide to What Happens When
• Creating Your Coaching Request: A Guide to Deeper Conversations