The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." A coach is a collaborative partner, not a hired expert. A coach is not a consultant, mentor, counselor, or adviser because he or she is non-directive. We say [...]

Counselors and therapists are, like consultants, hired for their expertise. They have specialized training in such things as healthy communication, good parenting, effective social skills, mental/emotional & spiritual health, and the like. They are skilled in uncovering underlying reasons for dysfunction and debilitating conditions such as depression, anxiety, and other mood and thought disorders. Coaching [...]

Consultants are hired because of their expertise in a given area. They provide information and give direction and advice to clients. By contrast, coaches do not necessarily have expertise in an area in which a client wants to grow. Their role, instead, is to ask powerful, probing questions which enable clients to discover their own [...]

As with consultants, counselors, and mentors, a discipler has considerable experience from which to draw in helping persons make desired change. A Christian who disciples is mature in the faith and is able to impart that faith to others - to instruct them in the tenets of our faith, its moral code, spiritual disciplines of [...]

People seek a coach because they want growth. The work is not problem-focused, per se. There should be no particular dysfunctions or diagnostic issues that need healing - that is the work of therapy and counseling. Coaching clients have specific goals/dreams/visions toward which they feel drawn, and they desire to discern these more clearly and [...]