What is the difference between coaching and counselling?

I belong to several coaching groups and the same question keeps on coming up over and over again. What is coaching? The latest version of that question asks for the difference between 'traditional coaching and counselling'. That question made me think and write this blog.

I deal with the basic differences between coaching and counselling on my website: www.educationalconsultancy.co.uk

Coaching and counselling are entirely different practices and it did not surprise me that the latest person to ask this question lives in Holland, which like the UK, still does not recognise coaching as being something for everyone. Part of my answer to this question follows:

"Counselling: it takes years to achieve a recognised diploma that is verified by the UK Government quality agencies. You can see why people wanting to get into this area of work often choose the coaching root. Also, all (I may be wrong about this) counselling courses are run by Universities, Colleges and other state funded institutions. If a smaller provider in the voluntary sector (say a rape crisis centre) offers a counselling course, they have to be quality checked by an external moderator and run a recognised programme before they get any funding. I externally moderated counselling courses for many years, until last summer in fact. People who ran the courses had to be very rigorous in what they offered and in the work their students' achieved but at least you know that a student with a counselling qualification received the same level and quality of education that any other student in the country following the same course would have achieved - and that gives reassurance to their clients.

Coaching has no such system and most training is carried out by private businesses which judging by the fees they charge their students must be extremely wealthy by now. Some are brilliant, others more about making money than in training coaches. There is so much money out there for people who train and market coaches, you do sometimes wonder who is actually doing the coaching. You never see success /failure rates of schools, or graduate numbers as you would with counselling."

The International Coach Federation "defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential" http://www.coachfederation.org/

So there you are