DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COACH AND COUNSELOR, MENTORING, PSYCHOLOGIST, PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND OTHER HELPING PROFESSIONALS

We dedicate this article to a necessary in-depth analysis of the differences among helping professionals, in particular coaches, counselors, mentors, psychologists and psychotherapists as well as others.

The work of a coach

Generally, a coach is hired by a client, and this can be an individual or a team (i.e. a company). The customer therefore may or may not be a part of an organisation, but in either case, their objective is improved awareness and enhanced effectiveness of behaviours either on a personal or corporate level.

A coach’s work is mainly oriented towards the future and the present, facilitating the identification of goals to clarify what is sought to be achieved, and supports the client along the way. In their training, coaches have certainly learned psychology, in some cases also earning a specific degree, but more to further refine the fundamentals of how a person’s mind works rather than work as a psychologist.

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines a coach as “an expert in the process of facilitation but not necessarily in the subject of interest of the client” because they do not provide advice or suggestions. Consequently, its approach is not consultative in nature.

A coach is distinct from the following professionals.

Consultant

A consultant is an expert called to analyse a situation and give opinions or technical advice based on their professional experience. The consultant receives a fee for their professional knowledge which is transferred to others, providing one or more solutions to specific problems for which they must understand the context to be able to offer a most fitting plan of action.

Trainer

A trainer generally provides advice based on their experience and knowledge and is similar to a mentor. The difference between the two methodologies is that mentoring develops in a less formal way and is usually a one-to-one relationship, or in small groups, while training is carried out in a more structured way in large groups. Training also includes the direct teaching of notions, while mentoring is focused on resource development in a broader sense.

Mentor

A mentor is someone with outstanding professional experience who supports someone with less experience so they can improve their working skills. A mentor is therefore a “wise and trustworthy” guide who, through their successful experience, is able to support young resources in facing the challenges they encounter along the way. The mentor exemplifies expertise in their field and acts as a teacher, sharing their knowledge in an instructive way.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COACHING AND MENTORING

Just as for various “helping” professional figures, coaching and mentoring have things in common but also have differences that need to be further clarified, especially in a business context, where theories are still few, and the frame of reference is not well defined.

Mentoring is specifically tailored to a professional context and is generally developed over a longer period of time, with a long-term vision, while coaching deals with short-term issues and objectives and can also be expressed in a personal life context.

But going back to what we said at the beginning, because mentoring provides specific information, experience and knowledge, it cannot be considered a coaching method, even though it can be implemented in a coaching-oriented way.

Generally speaking, a coach is usually a professional who works outside the organization, unlike the mentor. It has largely been proven that when used in a complementary way, mentoring and coaching increase the effectiveness of operations and the probability of goal achievement, as compared to cases where the two roles are more frequently overlapped.

The following table from the article “Multiple Faces of Coaching” shows how a coach’s role can be adapted and integrated into the corporate context for both mentoring and managerial aspects. (Joo et al. 2012.)

Types and Characteristics	Manager Coach	Executive Coach	Mentor
Goal of intervention	Development and learning Improved performance Retention	Self-awareness Learning Change in behaviour Improved performance	Socialization Managerial development Grasp of corporate policy
Characteristic of the support professional	Manager/Internal Supervisor No coaching experience	External Professional Credentials not subject to regulation	Senior Manager usually internal and two levels higher No mentoring experience
Professionals for whom it is intended	Employees	Mainly executive and high-level managers	Low level employees with high potential
Process	Loosely structured	Systematic and structured	Structured
Focus	Relationships Communication	Problem and on emerging issues	People and process Mutual benefits
Duration	Ongoing	Short term	Long term

PERSONAL SUPPORT FIGURES

As to personal support figures, they can be classified into two categories: counselor and psychologist/psychotherapist.

COACHING AND COUNSELING, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

The difference between a coach and counselor is subtle – at first glance. Although they both have prerequisites and techniques, the two figures are in fact very different from each other: a counselor mainly works with the client’s internal issues like emotions, perceptions, emotional imbalance, dysfunctional events. Moreover, the counselor usually does not emphasize what a client should do and how they should do it.

PSYCHOLOGIST

A psychologist is a graduate in Psychology who has become licensed after taking a state examination, and who offers various services depending on the specific context in which their services are required: at work, at school, in a hospital setting…
A psychologist can carry out performance evaluations, manage and read tests, provide consulting and support to their patients in difficult times.

PSYCHOTHERAPIST

A psychotherapist is a psychologist who, after further specialization, can work with traumas, pathologies and mental disorders. Psychotherapists’ patients are often confronted with an inability to lead a normal life.

Unlike counselors, clients of psychotherapists usually face a limited time of difficulty or imbalance and need temporary support to reach clarity and reorganize their lives, and do not undergo a long process to heal or solve the psychological problem. The following table summarizes and compares the above-mentioned figures.

COMPARISON OF SPECIFIC CHACTERISTICS AMONG HELPING PROFESSIONALS

Helping professional	Focus on time	Provides contents	Works on a goal	Works only with client	Gives advice	Works on the individual	Expert in the client’s field of work	Therapeutic Intervention
Coach	Present, future	No	External	Yes	No	No	No	No
Consultant	Past, present, future	Yes	External	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Psychotherapist	Past	Yes	Internal	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Counselor	Past, present	No	Interno	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Mentor	Present, future	Yes	External	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Trainer	–	Yes	External	No	Yes	No	–	No

CONTACT US

The two main areas we address in coaching are leadership transition and strategic thinking.
A coach helped me build a path that suits my individual traits, identifying challenges for change, work plans, a constant assessment of results and a method to achieve them in a spontaneous and natural way.
Coaching is an investment in ourselves. It opens us up to new perspectives and breaks through boundaries, removing obstacles and facilitating inclusion. It is therefore essential to be committed, before starting the process, to have clear ideas and devote quality time to the process. Coaches, in turn, must be excellent leaders to obtain good results. In my case, thanks to Marcella, it worked.

E.S.

Coaching with Marcella Accorinti began in the usual way, working on specific professional goals.
Marcella’s professionalism, together with her humanity and talent, created the space for my personal journey, which gradually became more important than my initial professional goal.
The work I did with Marcella turned out to be a multi-year experience that today still accompanies me today in my thoughts and choices.

M.S.

Thanks to the journey undertaken at Mindevelopment with Marcella Accorinti, and which involved the entire front line of the company, both individually and as a team, we have managed to achieve incredible results, both in terms of communication and of collaboration and inclusion.
These behavioural changes have transformed an already well-matched team into a group of people ready to discuss any issue in a transparent manner, respecting the specialists, but also listening to the less experienced on the subject, enriching the level of discussion.
A side effect was the increase in the sense of irony at learning how to “laugh at ourselves” lowered the communication barriers as well.

S.E.

The coaching experience, through real and very often painful and difficult passages, made me understand how it is possible to change and achieve great results at work.
I experimented with approaches and behaviours that weren’t instinctive or natural for me. Doing this with a coach who listens to you and provides feedback in a transparent, sincere and sometimes even ‘ruthless’ way, has given me the strength to ‘try’ and often ‘succeed’.
Without coaching I would not have tried these things, and it would never even have occurred to me to look at my managerial style from a different angle.

A.P.

I started a coaching journey with Marcella thinking that it would be very confrontational. But her coaching has proven to be a true personal and professional empowerment tool.
Over time, a relationship of trust was forged with my coach that exceeded all expectations, and has allowed for increasingly clear and transparent discussion during coaching sessions.
I never expected to start such a profound process of change in terms of behaviour and communication, and now I can apply coaching techniques even in the absence of the Coach

A.S.

The company helmed by Dr. Marcella Accorinti stands out in an original way, both in its diagnostic and operational phases. In our case, there was a dual objective: one, improving our soft managerial skills (e.g. the ability to delegate), and two, strengthen the abilities of the first and second level team members. The great ability to listen and the vast experience of Dr. Accorinti and her associates were met with extremely positive feedback from the managers and made it possible to successfully achieve our set goals. Here the distinction lies in a ‘tailored’ approach to the needs of individual managers, without ever losing the overall cohesion of the project. In short, ours was a particularly positive experience that we recommend to any company interested in the enhancement of their human capital.

V.M.

I had the opportunity to embark on an executive coaching course with Marcella Accorinti as part of a company project. Marcella’s experience and professionalism are highly distinctive and her ability to understand and lead you “to the heart of the matter” are astonishing.
With careful skill, she trained me to exploit my potential, provide focus to my professional career and my expectations for the overall growth of the company.
This will forever remain a point of reference on my professional path. Thank you Marcella!!

P.D.L.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COACH AND COUNSELOR, MENTORING, PSYCHOLOGIST, PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND OTHER HELPING PROFESSIONALS