{"id":849,"date":"2025-10-27T15:38:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/?p=849"},"modified":"2025-10-27T17:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T21:54:26","slug":"different-conversations-coachingand-counseling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/different-conversations-coachingand-counseling\/","title":{"rendered":"Different Conversations: Coaching and Counseling"},"content":{"rendered":"

In both the behavioral health field and the recovery community, I\u2019m often asked to differentiate between clinical (counseling) and non-clinical (coaching) practice.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great question – let’s take a look.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The primary services offered in the former are, of course, clinical.\u00a0 Expectations here are for measurable clinical outcomes from taking meds as prescribed to following a discharge plan; everything we might collate under the rubric of (so-called) \u201cpatient compliance.\u201d\u00a0 Fair enough.<\/p>\n

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In the clinical model, professionals seek to provide medical or psychological healing for patients.\u00a0 Patients are involved in discussions of recommended services in the hope that this expert opinion will be adopted and result in the desired healing.<\/p>\n

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Counselors are primarily concerned with finding and, if possible, resolving the \u201cwhy\u201d behind settled patterns and responses: \u201cwhat happened to you?\u201d\u00a0 This search may take several sessions, even years to establish, interrogate and resolve.\u00a0 In therapeutic relationships, clients make a commitment to this process irrespective of the length of engagement.<\/p>\n

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To reach this healing, counselors will work deeply with the client\u2019s past, revealing unresolved issues or trauma, ingrained defensive patterns and unhelpful operation principles.<\/p>\n

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By contrast, non-clinical conversations proceed from acknowledging the presence of two experts: client and coach.\u00a0 The client is the expert on his own life; the coach is the expert on hers.\u00a0 Thus the basis of mutual respect, and the coach\u2019s role of facilitating the client to reveal preexisting strengths, resources and preferences\u00a0 Through this process, clients build imagination, test options, celebrate resilience and deepen their discernment: \u201cwhat if?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Thus, these non-clinical conversations are purposeful and serve the client\u2019s immediate goal for resolving current or emerging logistical issues and opportunities.\u00a0 Clients work with coaches for as long as they assess this process as useful.\u00a0 Some items may be squared away within a single session.<\/p>\n

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Coaches, therefore, work with a focus on the present and the future, not the past.<\/p>\n

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In summary:<\/p>\n