Coaching, Consulting & Counseling - Oh my!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the V Spot. I want to highlight the primary differences between coaching, consulting, and counseling in this episode of the V Spot because I get a lot of questions about, well, what's the difference and why would I want to work with this person as opposed to that person? And I think there's tremendous value in spotlighting what makes the three modalities different and close with why intentional healing and wellness is very unique and specialized given the experience with all three. So let's first look at coaching. Coaching is a collaborative partnership between a coach and a client. And during the process, the coach uses questions to support a client in arriving at their own answers and discovering things about themselves that support them from going from where they are now to where they are looking to go. Okay, so it's a process that uses questions to support the client in arriving at their own answers to go from where they are in the moment to where they are looking to go next. So whatever their goals may be. Okay, so that's coaching. Consulting is about advising and providing information with a particular— in a particular area of expertise. Okay, so it's, it's different than coaching because coaching you're you're— the coach is supporting the client with questions. Consulting is more about advising and providing suggestions about strategies. You know, try this, try that, you may want to do it this way. So it's about providing answers. Okay, that's consulting. Counseling is a therapeutic process that looks to the past to support a client in gaining an understanding and supporting them with processing, healing as it pertains to life experiences. And so counseling is all about looking back for answers, for understanding, for insight, to make connections. Okay, so I'm going to sort of go through the three of them again. In coaching, you You're focused on where you are now and where you're looking to go next. And the process uses questions to support a client in arriving at their own answers so that they can make the changes and do the thing to, um, you know, create change. Now, this question comes up often: does the past come up in coaching sessions? And the answer, um, I'm not going to say always, but often enough the answer is yes. The past will come up in sessions, coaching sessions, because as a skilled coach is going to be asking questions that will have a client, you know, really doing introspective work around their processes and how they're navigating things and some roadblocks and challenges and struggles and their perspectives and viewpoints and all the things. And oftentimes in that process, past experiences or beliefs or feelings emerge and come to the surface. And so coaching has a very healing nature to it because as those beliefs are coming to the surface and as a client is realizing and connecting the dots and making certain correlations with themselves and their process, there's a lot of aha that happens. And oftentimes it involves a healing component, right? Because if you're in a session and you are able to identify, oh wow, I never realized that I have always done that out of fear of disappointing others. I'm using this as an example. And therefore I, you know, navigated life in a particular capacity you know, unwilling to put myself in situations that maybe would have me disappoint other people or whatever. And when you're having this moment of realization, there's a cathartic aspect to it. There's a healing nature to that because it often connects the dots to patterns and behaviors and beliefs that you didn't even realize you had. And so, um, Without a shadow of a doubt, healing occurs in quality coaching sessions because with the support of a coach, you're able to have realizations and connect the dots in your own life in such a way that healing occurs, you know. And so it's so powerful because once you're able to identify a particular pattern or a particular belief that you possess that you didn't even realize you had, or once you are able to shine the light on a roadblock that is very much present standing between you and your dreams and you didn't even know it to be there, right? Because oftentimes stuff is in our like blind spot. There's a healing component to the coaching process because past realizations from past patterns come up. So That is the essence of coaching. And in consulting work, it's the advisement. It's suggestion-based. It's, for lack of better words, advice in terms of, you hear— a consultant hears a situation, a problem, a whole scenario, and based on a particular area of expertise, they're able to offer suggestion and feedback and input about— you may want to try this, this might be an approach to take, why don't you put that into place. And so answers are provided. Okay, and so in my case, my training, you know, my master's is in therapeutic intervention. I spent 14 years working as a school psychologist for the Department of Education, and I have 14 years experience of consulting work, right? Because what would happen is parents, staff, kids would come to the table with a variety of situations and problems and issues and scenarios that were going on. And there was a problem-solving component to it, or my best attempt to problem solve. And so oftentimes what was occurring was consulting, where it's hearing a variety of things and then providing strategy, suggestion, intervention, input accordingly. And then there's counseling. And so for those of you who know or may not know, during the pandemic, I went back to get some credits to get licensed as a mental health counselor because I wanted to be able to have a private practice should I decide to go that route in the future. And counseling was the, the last, like, piece, if you will, to the puzzle in terms of solidifying this aspect of my training, you know. And so counseling is all about being with the clients and holding safe space for them to explore, you know, where they're like, what they're feeling and where it might be coming from. When was the first time they experienced it? You know, what have they noticed about themselves pertaining to certain patterns, feelings, thoughts, worries, you know, all of the things, experiences. And so it's very much about looking back., you know, looking back for answers and to make connections and to sort of discover how things came to be. It's about looking at the why. And so with that, intentional healing and wellness is highly specialized and unique in that my training is, uh, over 20 years combined experience in the three modalities: coaching, consulting, and counseling. And, um, my work is a hybrid model by nature. So I'm not— the work, if you choose to work with me on a one-to-one basis, I'm not providing counseling services, right? It's— I'm providing coaching services that is absolutely infused with my consulting and counseling experience, right? So should something come up in a coaching session where the past comes to the surface, I'm trained, um, you know, equipped with strategies and supports that can be plugged into place and suggested from the consulting, you know, method to, um, support you, right? But it's not about— it's not, it's not a counseling session. But I'm super proud, I'm excited, I'm grateful, and, um, I feel so blessed that my training is very intensive and comes from these three different, you know, like pillars, if you will, because it puts me in a prime position to hear what's going on and have three different vantage points to be able to support you in going where you're looking to go, right? And so I will often say to my coaching clients, given my training in therapeutic intervention, there might— an antenna may go up when we're in coaching sessions, and I might recommend, if you don't already have counseling in place, that you plug that into place as a support, right? Because I'm trained to hear certain, certain things. And so from a very cohesive comprehensive approach, I'm able to really offer a unique level of support. And so I wanted to share that out because I get a lot of questions about what is the difference, you know, would I want to seek out a consultant to do this type of work, would I want to seek out a counselor, when should I seek out a coach. And I thought it would be beneficial to highlight the fact that coaching is very much about using questions to help you at arriving at your own answers. It's about now, it's about looking forward. Consulting is about advising and providing suggestion based on a particular area of expertise. And counseling is about looking back for answers to make connections and to support the healing process and to support maximum daily functioning, you know, by way of emotional wellness. And intentional healing and wellness is trained in all of the areas. And so I'm super excited because the work that I do with clients is very much like a— it really is like an accelerator, right? Because there's the capacity to come at whatever the problem or goal is from various angles. And so I feel like clients really get, um, so much value because they're, they're being— the sessions and the work and the process is infused with so much. And so it's not uncommon for clients to feel like it's an all-in-one sort of, you know, a lot of, a lot of headway, a lot of action, a lot of new ground is taken by way of the process because of how much, um, how rich the, the process is. And so, if you are interested in determining if we can work together on a one-to-one basis, you hit me up. There's, there's an application for, for one-to-one coaching. Not everyone is a good fit, and so it's important that we check into where are you now, where are you looking to go before we determine if, if we're a good pair. If you are interested in bringing intentional healing and wellness into your organization or into your school to provide support to your teams, to your students, um, reach out to me and let's talk about what that could look like. Because again, given the coaching, consulting, and counseling experience, there's a variety of ways that I am supporting organizations and school communities at this current time. So with that being said, I want to say thank you for being with me in this particular episode of the V Spot. If you have any questions, want to learn any additional information, want to see how you can take this work and map it on in your life, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Coaching, consulting, and counseling hybrid model of service. 20-plus years experience if you combine all of the modalities, and I'm excited and grateful to be in position to be able to support you with where you are, where you're looking to go, and when need be, hold safe space for you as to where you've been. And so, um, don't wait for 2023 to get moving on your goals and your dreams. Right, life waits for no one, and life is now. So hit me up and get a head start on the new year, and let's do this thing. All right, everybody, until next time. To be continued.