Who is a Life Coach, Psychologist, Mentor, Coach and what is their difference?

It is amazing how many people today offer their services in the field of psychological assistance to people-mentoring, trainings, coaching sessions, and so on, that many have already stopped sorting out who is who. And the most important thing is that many people even think that all these people are doing the same thing. No, this is absolutely not the case. Therefore, in this article I want to tell you about the differences between a psychologist, a life coach, a coach and a mentor.

So, let's get started.

Coaches work with your goals, desires, limitations, with your resource and potential that you do not use. It is with a coach that you can formalize your goal - its scale, actions, real desires, where, how and what you need to do. In other words, formalize your dream into a concrete action plan. A life Coach collates information about where you are now and where you want to be, and what limits you. The coach always figures out the desired position in life. The coach creates a space in which a person can dream, visualize, in other words, give free rein to their creativity. Coaching is about looking at the future from the present.

Psychologist -looks for the causes and traumas of your past: where did your complexes come from, who caused you psychological harm, why is your head full of porridge, where are the prohibitions and clamps coming from, and also looks for the cause of anxiety, panic attacks, jamming and poor sleep. In general, a psychologist is an analysis of your past experience and its impact on the present, especially your emotional experience.

Let's add a little visual comparison of working with a coach and with a psychologist:

The coach works with your present and future. A psychologist works with your past and present.

The coach works with current tasks. A psychologist works with past problems.

The coach asks WHAT YOU WANT - WHAT TASK we are facing. The psychologist asks YOU HOW YOU FEEL and tries to find the cause of this uncomfortable state from your past traumas, which affected your current complexes.

Now let's look at the coach and mentor.

A trainer develops certain skills as an instructor. For example, a sales coach or driving instructor. The coach does not teach you life in general, the coach trains your specific skills, performance techniques, and only that.

Mentoring / Mentor - teaching from a person who has already achieved great success, in particular public. Mentoring is learning by example. For example, a successful hockey player leads another person by the hand in all their footsteps. What school should I go to, what applications should I write, what techniques should I teach, what amount of money is needed, what clothes are needed, and so on. A person already has connections, skills, experience of their victories, knowledge and he uses all this in mentoring.

A literal example for all 4 types of profession is the situation with skates :

Mentor - will tell you in which store and which company to buy, how much it will cost and how it will affect the overall budget, what will be the future costs associated with these skates, what size is better to take and why, how to sharpen, what socks to wear under the skates so that they do not slip, and so on.

Coach -will teach you the technique of ice skating. It is not his responsibility to tell you exactly which skates should be purchased, at what price, brand, store, and so on.

Psychologist -will ask “Why are you afraid to skate, have you had any injuries in the past related to skating or other sports? ”

The coach will ask you why you need to learn how to skate. What is your motivation for this action? As long as the person answers , he will already feel for himself, and whether he needs it or not. The coach will find out whether people follow their own instincts or social appeals. The coach's task is to pull out a person's personal goals from within.

AWS certification

PMP Certification

I hope I was able to tell you verbatim about the difference between a psychologist, coach, coach and mentor. I am sure that now you will know exactly what each specialist is responsible for and contact the one who can solve your problem.