Written by Author: Beki Fraser
I’ve always enjoyed watching aerialists perform in the silks. They move so confidently and slide down confidently before climbing right up to the heights they desire. You, like me, might imagine yourself getting stuck and twisted up in all that silk and wondering not only how you found yourself in that position, but also wondering exactly how you might get released so you can move forward. This is how I imagine the overlap among therapy, consulting, and coaching. Imagine you are wound tightly in the silks wondering how to be free. Distinctions among the offerings will help you unwind and find your solution!
Making those distinctions among therapists, coaches and consultants comes up regularly in my conversations. It’s a fair ask as the overlap absolutely exists and if you want some help, it’s important to know who offers the most effective help and support. Things get downright complicated and here are a few critical points about what type of resource is the best for you.
Therapeutic services – require the provider to have education in psychology or counseling followed by licensing in addition to supervised clinical experience. Yes, that’s a bit of an understatement, but the point is specialized and supervised education.
This training prepares a therapist to help you with behavior, mental or emotional pain and problems. They will help you understand yourself and offer strategies for you for resolving those challenges in addition to challenging beliefs, understanding your feelings and other related issues in your life. Often, this relationship is focused on you personally though therapy clearly has ripple effects into how you manage your work life as well!
Consulting services are offered by a subject matter expert who has specific training or deep experience that would benefit you or your organization. Education and credentials are content specific, if require at all.
A consultant enters in and you rely on her for advice, training and recommendations for going forward. Together, you develop a strategy and action plan for your organization to pursue. Your consultants may support that change process side-by-side, through periodic check-ins, or you may choose to execute your plan on your own. In my experience, consulting is primarily a professional endeavor to improve processes, develop people or integrate tools and technologies.
Coaching services are offered for a wide range of stated needs in work, life and organizations. Some are certified through specific coach training programs and others
pursue credentialing. Myself, I chose to attend iPEC for training and have continued to receive training and credentials through ICF. In addition to the 15+ years of HR Partnering that I had in my corporate life, I chose to immerse myself in a coaching mindset. I believe it was worth every dime and every hour I spent. Coach-specific training and credentialing is not required so knowing the background and the training of a coach you would hire is important.
What is coaching and how can it help you? I believe coaching provides objectivity, confidentiality and accountability when you make conscious choice to expand your thinking, value creativity and find ways to be engaged, enthusiastic and successful in your professional (and personal) life. Examples and insights about why someone would hire a coach is available if you want to download an overview of professional opportunities for growth.
How are those aerialist silks feeling now? Once you have the right source of support to help you achieve your goals, it’s amazing how our entire lives start to balance out. We can relax into the confidence of what we choose to accomplish. Whether you are working with a therapist, a consultant or a coach, I would always wish the same for you. I’d wish that you know what you want, are aware of the path before you and consciously choose the steps to achieve it!
Beki Fraser, ACC is the founder of Focus For Growth, LLC, a business and leadership coaching practice. Her purpose is to cultivate confident and conscious choices for those building a business and a career. Her constant curiosity about how things all fit together goes beyond the inner workings of people and into how process works, how systems flow and, generally, how things work – or don’t. Beki is the 2018 President of the ICF Michigan Charter Chapter.