This is my experience of coaching vs. consulting as someone who never took business class but is a certified coach.
Which is better for you depends on what you’re looking for. Sometimes I need coaching. Sometimes I need consulting. Oftentimes I need both.
Coaching:
-You are the source of wisdom in the session
-Sessions feel slow and healing
-The facilitator asks specific questions to get you to your own ideas/inner truth
-You work through success barriers usually related to your past (get through past to get to future)
-Very helpful for any area of life
Consulting:
-The facilitator is the main source of wisdom
-Sessions feel quick
-The facilitator gives advice and action plans
-The facilitator provides strategies that have worked for others
-Very helpful for business
Coaches help me get through shit I don’t like about myself so I can stop letting those parts ru(i)n my life. They help me transform unhelpful and rude beliefs I carry about myself which hold me back from where I want to go in life. To me, there’s nothing like it. I’m a client for life.
The coaching industry isn’t regulated, so anyone can call him/herself a coach whether 4 certifications or 0 have been completed. I think it’s wonderful that people can just start a business helping other humans, but what you pay for in coach certification, other than tons of practice, is learning the actual coaching process.
When I hire a coach, I expect the coaching process. I’ve found that coaches who aren’t certified are basically insightful consultants and spend more time telling you what they think would work for you rather than spend time helping you uncover your own advice.
Coaching should provide guidance on how to help you navigate your life based on your truths, not on strategies that have simply worked on other people and the person you hired.
I’ve learned that the more time I spend in other people’s rule books and suggestions, the less time I spend creating my own rule book and avoid letting my entire life and business just click.
There’s a great time and place for advice giving and consulting, but I don’t think it’s what a coaching container should be for more than 90% of the time.
With so many coaches out there and so many unsatisfied coaching clients, I think it’s time we regulate this vastly-growing part of the personal development industry so that fewer and fewer people feel like they didn’t get the experience and growth they paid for.