Standard Psychotherapy -

In standard counseling the therapist often helps a patient uncover underlying causes of problems in the hope that this insight as to why the patient is “broken” will help them to change and heal their “illness.” This is the model that calls the person a patient rather than a client or fellow human being The patient is sick, and the therapist helps them to get well. This is why counseling offered via insurance requires an enormous number of questions to indicate that the patient is progressing as they go through treatment.

In standard psychotherapy there will often be attempts to help a person uncover their options and choose a course of action.  If the person takes the chosen course of action, sometimes change occurs. Ordinary counseling often neglects to take into account how difficult it is for people to change when the change will impact their family, their work and the larger whole of their life.  Standard counseling often offers no additional resources or skills for facilitating change, assuming that if the client is motivated, they will make the change happen themselves when they are ready. It is also a reason for the therapist to keep recommending more  sessions. When the patient does not do what the therapist recommends, the therapist quickly labels the patient as resistant. This also means you will need more sessions.

While therapists claim that they do not influence their patients, they often provide tremendous pressure for patients to change in a way the therapist thinks is the best course of action. Often the therapist is completely unaware of the things they are doing to pressure and influence the patient to do what they want them to do, and they will deny using any kind of influence on their patient. To the trained observer, a multitude of influence techniques are present despite the therapist not being aware of them.

Standard Coaching -

In standard coaching, the coach helps an individual set goals for different domains of their life and asks the client how they can improve by one notch or more in the different domains or areas of their life. The client then develops a plan to make small steps to achieve their goals. Often in coaching a simple combination of supportive checking-in plus having a person pay for the encouragement results in change. While this is a horrible oversimplification, it is not far from the truth. Very often coaching is effective in getting people (notice they are not called patients) to change. Often because every meeting with the coach costs the person some money. This greatly increases the person's motivation to make the change. It also is focused on making specific changes that the person has chosen for themselves thus the plan for change has come from that person - not the coach The coach simply questions the person about what change they want to make and then reminds them of their own prescribed plan and explores what resources they may need or what blocks they have. This can be very effective way of helping people change.