Counselling and Coaching

A counselling client is fed up with feeling stuck and wants to set clear actions to forge forwards. A coaching client starts to question the roots beneath a repeated behaviour or experience.

In these moments, can integrating counselling and coaching be of service?

The way I approach coaching and counselling is very different. I liken the terrain of coaching to hiking through rolling hills and big open fields. We start with the end destination in mind. It may be raining, and we may encounter obstacles (many times people have described colleagues that frankly resemble a bull in a field) but there are footpaths, and we know where we are headed. People often seek out coaching to deal with problems or opportunities at work, such as a redundancy, promotion or return to work. Clients explore where they are now, but most of the work is about what next, where to, how do you get there?

In counselling, we could be in any and every sort of terrain. Maybe the client is in a dark, scary forest at night, feeling like they don’t see a way out. Perhaps they are in an extremely muddy field, frustrated and stuck. Or they could be drifting on a raft at sea, aimless, rudderless, and nauseous. There is no clear path or way out, and the most I can offer is to sit alongside them, so they are not alone.  In time, we can explore the terrain, at a pace that feels safe. I don’t use tried and tested routes out because there are none; the experience is completely unique for the client.

Somewhere in between these starkly different landscapes sits therapeutic coaching. This approach recognises that sometimes, when a counselling client has sat in the forest afraid for some time, they may want a clearer action plan to move forwards. And for that coachee, the bull in a field could be retraumatising and we need to offer deeper empathy.

In the last few years, the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which is the regulated body I am a member of and registered with, have been further exploring how the two methods can work ethically and safely together. Collaboration is critical. Agreeing how we work, setting boundaries, and checking in. We do not start poking at the bull with a stick unless the client expressly wants to. We do not start to action plan until the counselling client explicitly elects to.  

To find out more about how I work, get in touch. Read more about the BACP Coaching and Counselling competencies on their website here.