People seek help because they have crisis, troubles, doubts, difficulties, frustrations or concerns. Those clients do not come with these problems but with problem situations wherein they were not able to manage them properly. There are several helping professions that help the troubled person to manage them more effectively and to take advantage of new possibilities in life. Here, an attempt is made to enumerate those professions like therapy, counseling, consulting & mentoring and how far they are different from the field of coaching.

What is therapy?

Therapy is the attempted remediation of a health problem usually following a diagnosis. In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word treatment. A therapeutic effect is a consequence of a medical treatment of any kind, the results of which are judged to be desirable and beneficial. The most commonly employed therapy models include: Solution focused therapy, Transactional analysis, Neuro linguistic programming, Constructivist therapy and Psychodynamic therapy.

Major Differences between therapy and coaching

• Therapists tend to focus on the resolution of old pains and old issues whereas coaches acknowledge their historical impact but do not explore these in-depth.
  
• Therapists tend to deal with dysfunction, either vague or specific; whereas coaching moves a functional person on to greater success and refers coachees for clinical issues.
  
• Therapy tends to focus on past related feelings, whereas coaching is about setting goals and forward action.
  
• Therapy explores resistance and negative transference whereas coaching attempts to rephrase complaints into goals.
  
• Therapy is about progress whereas coaching is about performance.

What is counseling?

Counseling focuses on exploring both, personal and professional issues and problems of the client through discussion, to increase understanding and develop greater self-awareness. The aim is to lead a client towards self-directed actions to achieve goals.

Most often it is remedial, person-to-person, and a non-directive intervention that takes care of the holistic health of the individual. Counseling in a clinical context helps people manage distressing issues of life stemming from the past or present which require healing solutions that may be aligned with psycho-pharmacological treatment. Thus, it is therapeutic in nature.

Major Differences between counseling and coaching

Counseling looks for causes behind the problem or performance deficit, whereas coaching emphasizes new competencies.

Counseling generally involves minimal assessment whereas the coaching model interfaces with learning and development tools (Eg. 360o feedback) and behaviorally diagnostic assessment tools introduced at the beginning of the coaching engagement.

Counseling focuses on exploring reactive problems and behaviors, whereas coaching is proactive and looks to recognize and prevent problems before they arise.

What is consulting?

Management consultants hail from a variety of professional backgrounds, such as training and development specialists, HR specialists. The primary aim of a consultant is to work at an organizational level and off late more consultants report that their clients are requesting individual one-on-one work. Though there are some differences between coaching and consulting, both professions share many similarities. All coaches can be consultants whereas, not all consultants are coaches.

• Major Differences between consulting and coaching
  
• Consultant's services are information-based whereas coaching revolves around relationships.
  
• Consultants are frequently expected to provide answers whereas coaches evoke answers from the coachee.
  
• Consultants tend to prescribe canned or commercial solution whereas coaching is more personalized and concerned with the individual's needs, values and goals.
  
• Consultants generally focus on work aspects whereas coaching is more holistic and considers others aspects of an individual's life.
  
• Consultants tend to deal with specific problems whereas coaches are more forward looking and always ready to create and take advantage of opportunities.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is usually described as "the helping relationship between a senior and junior member of an organization directed towards the advancement and support of the junior member" It is a long-term relationship (either formal or informal) associated with the provision of support and guidance and 'passing on of wisdom'. From a skills perspective, mentoring is one of the skills that a coach must possess and utilize when needed. Mentoring and Coaching share the same platform in terms of the process.

Major Differences between Mentoring and coaching

• Mentoring process is critical in the socialization phase for a new entrant in the organization whereas coaching process occurs in the context of work environment for effective performance.
  
• Mentoring encourages an informal relationship whereas coaching is a formal contractual relationship.
  
• The emphasis of mentoring is reflection and guidance whereas coaching develops specific skills & learning.
  
• Mentoring passes on wisdom, whereas coaching emphasizes on personal change via self-awareness and reflection.
  
• In mentoring, solutions are offered whereas in coaching solutions are explored and discovered.
  
• Mentoring is a part of coaching whereas coaching incorporates more of counseling.
  
• Mentoring focuses on inspirational role-modeling whereas coaching focuses on measurable performance improvement.