One way to think about the difference between coaching and counseling is that coaching is in the main is present- and future-focused, about achieving such goals, rather than addressing psychological disorders or past trauma. Positive before negative.
- Researchers in the field of Positive Psychology have looked at the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that create lasting happiness, and Coaching implements that research.
- It focuses on the strengths that a person has rather than problems or weaknesses.
- It focuses on what the person can do rather than what the person cannot do.
- It forwards the view that human beings are basically healthy and good rather than ill or conflicted, and so the task is to help people find their way to their natural, innate strength and goodness, rather than to focus mainly on problems and negative emotions.
A wealth of research shows that being strength-based and strength-focused is a very effective means for helping people achieve their goals—which, when connected to their values and deepest sense of meaning, leads to a fulfilling experience of life. The research also explores how successful people operate—how they define goals and then achieve them.
Put simply: coaching is focused on what works.
Finally, positive psychology, in various ways, provides a way into implementing commitment. A coach provides feedback and accountability for the client, but this is in service of a learning process in which the client discovers how to create rituals and habits that serve his or her deepest values. Once these habits are in place, change happens as surely as compound interest accruing on a loan.
Life is almost overwhelmingly distracting, and interventions like committing to a daily gratitude prayer or some other practice—what in Buddhism is called “mind training”—is, according to my mind and experience, necessary if we are to have any chance at creating lasting well-being.
Does this fit with your experience as well?