Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between coaching, mentoring and counselling?

Coaching, mentoring and counselling are three quite distinct fields. 

Carol Wilson and Gladeana McMahon (2006) describe counselling as being “focussed on helping people with emotional distress which stops them being able to function as well as they would like”.  Counselling is a talking therapy with loci in the present, future and past to address distress and psychological disturbance.  It is typically delivered either over a short or long time span by trained practitioners who work with people to enhance their wellbeing. In general terms the models use draw on psychodynamic, humanistic or cognitive behavioural models. The former draws out unconscious motivations to enable beneficial change whilst the humanistic model focuses more on connecting an individual to their unique traits and cognitive behavioural models encourage a skillset to effect a change in unhelpful thinking and behavioural patterns.

Mentoring, meanwhile, is described by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (2011) as a developmental process that embraces and empowers skill transfer from an experienced individual to a less experienced person.  As such a mentor will impart their experiences and knowledge to scaffold the learning of the mentee.  The locus of mentoring is based in the future with the mentor supporting another person to gain these skills and knowledge in order to progress. Unlike a coach, the mentor can give advice to enhance the transfer of skills and information. Central to the mentoring ethos is the idea of sharing information to guide another in order to create a positive impact on that person’s professional life. 

In comparison, coaching is solution focussed with a view to move the coachee forward.  It is a goal orientated activity that identifies the object of “desire” (Wilson and McMahon, 2006) and through coaching sets out to achieve it. Although counselling may sometimes achieve this, it doesn’t always with the difference being that counselling sets out to fix a problem.  Furthermore, coaching is coachee-led.  It encourages autonomy and is not predicated on the coach leading, judging, advising or generally influencing the coachee.  Importantly, the coachee navigates their own destiny with the coach facilitating and supporting him/her to unlock potential.  Whilst the cognitive-behavioural model of coaching is said to be pscyho-educational by nature, the coachee enters into an arena of self-directed learning with the coach helping them to uncover information that may be out of reach on their own. 

Importantly, the driver in the coaching context is to enhance performance.  This differs subtly from mentoring by virtue that whilst mentoring is designed to improve performance through advice and guidance, coaching considers psychological issues to affect this end.  Moreover, the coach does not need to be experienced in the same field as the coachee as would the mentor be for the coach’s position is to enable a coachee to become their own advisor as their own knowledge and skills are uncovered.

To summarise, then, the mentor shares advice and guidance, the counsellor aims to fix the client and the coach encourages and supports the coachee to manage their own life and destiny.

Who do you help?

We specialise in coaching people who need help with their health and well being most notably those who have long term conditions. Specifically we help people with cardiovascular and neurological conditions and co-morbid mild mental ill-health. We also support carers and family members.

Can I bring a friend?

If you feel comfortable with a friend present, then this can be facilitated. However, to get the most out of your coaching, you need to be in control of the process so please bear that in mind. Carers are welcome too.

Are you regulated?

We are regulated by strict ethical guidlines set out by the British Psychological Society. This code ensures that we have a value system that is honest, integral, open and transparent. It means that when working professionally with a client, Talk with Gini sticks to the coat with a commitment to delivering a service that may reasonably be expected. Talk with Gini always sticks within the law and adheres to the strictest level of confidentiality. The only exception to this would be where information needs to be released as required by the law or whereby there is danger to self or others. On signing up to Talk with Gini, you will receive a clear agreement about confidentiality, ethical conduct as well as data protection legislation.