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How coaching differs to counselling, therapy and mentoring

Coaching, as a distinct form of professional practice with defined core principles that can be applied to support researcher development, differs to other ways of working. Some differences are identified below.

Of course the boundaries can be blurred. For example, psychotherapy and counselling come in many shapes and forms and can be more action oriented in ways that align with coaching approaches. Some coaching approaches draw more directly on, for example, therapeutic approaches such as psycho-dynamic theory. It can also be said that psychotherapy and counselling focus more on the past, coaching on the future and mentoring on the present.

Counselling

Coaching

Client in distressed and disabling state. Tends to place an emphasis on non-judgemental listening, with no commitment necessarily to action

Client is resourceful, creative and whole. Aims to pose challenging, powerful questions that hold the client accountable to their learning and actions

Psychotherapy

Coaching

Client in distressed and disabling state. Tends to involve the therapist 'analysing' the client and looking to the past, trying to understand 'why?'

Client is resourceful, creative and whole. Does not tend to analyse or look to answer 'why' questions. The emphasis is more asking 'what' questions: What is at stake? What do you want to happen? What are you going to do?

Mentoring

Coaching

Mentee seeking professional guidance from expert. Tends to be done by someone who is more experienced in the field (e.g. a senior colleague) and who can offer expert advice and guidance within the particular field

Client is the expert and is naturally resourceful, creative and whole. Is more focused on provoking self-awareness through the application of coaching skills and does not require the coach to be an expert in the field (indeed some argue this can hinder enabling opportunities for client's deep learning)

Case study

The University of Swansea coaching programme found that a key issue was managing participants expectations about the difference between coaching and mentoring. They described how a mentor is usually more experienced and qualified than a ‘mentee'. Often a senior person in the organisation who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities. By contrast, coaching was aimed at specific issues/areas as identified by the coachee. It is essentially a non-directive form of development, focusing on improving performance and developing/enhancing individuals' skills, working on the premise that clients are self-aware, or can achieve self-awareness.

Useful information on mentoring

Several UK higher education institutions do run or have run mentoring schemes.  See Vitae's Database of Practice for information about schemes run by UK institutions and the Impact and Evaluation Group report showing the impact of these schemes.

Every other Thursday

Mentoring Heroes