Counselling? Coaching? Are they the same? 輔導和教練的迷思

講起輔導，你們每一個人都可能曾經成為一個輔導者。例如是你有些朋友不開心，可能是分手以後致電給你，那你就會說:"讓我替你做個輔導吧!" 但究竟你是否清楚輔導是什麼呢? 筆者發覺有不少人將輔導和coaching(指的是現在很流行，經常上電視的人生教練)混淆。筆者大學主修輔導與諮商，所以撰文說明一下兩者的不同，看看你所做的是輔導者還是人生教練。
P.S. 感覺教練的意思充滿歧義，因此在此文用英文coach/coaching

All of you has become counsellor before. For instance, you have some friends felt unhappy, maybe calling you in light of the end of relationship. Then you will say, “Let me be your counsellor!” Actually, do you really understand what is counselling? I have discovered that quite a number of people confuse between counselling and coaching. I studied Guidance and Counselling in Undergraduate. Therefore, I write to talk about the difference, let you see whether you are a counsellor or a coach.

1. 時間性 Timing

輔導和coaching在時間的入手是相反的。 我們輔導是希望能夠幫人從過去的傷痛中復原，走出過去的陰霾。而Coaching則是向著未來看，希望客人可以從中成長，找出要改善的地方，在將來做得更好。例如客人因為分手感到十分傷感和困惱。如果你是一個輔導者，那你應該致力將他帶走過去的傷痛。他有機會因以前分手對愛情失去了信心，很怕再接觸。那輔導者的責任是讓他走出因愛情失敗所產生的負面想法。如果你是一個人生教練，那你該做的就是教他如何吸引異性，引導他找一個新的伴侶，給一些實質建議他改善。 顯而易見，大家focus的時間性是相反的。

The focus of timing of counselling and coaching strikes a stark contrast. Counselling aims at helping people recover from the agony in the past. Coaching focus on how to be a better person in the future, finding the deficiency and improve. For instance, the client felt depressed and agonized. If you are a counsellor, you should aim to bring the client out of the sadness. Client has the chance of losing confidence because of the end of relationship, thus afraid to intersect again. The onus of counsellor is to make the client detach the negative thought triggered by the failure of love relationship. If you are a coach, what you do is to teach the client do what. Teach the client how to start a better relationship, provide some concrete suggestion to improve. Undoubtedly, the foci of timing of two role are opposite.

2.方向性 Direction

兩者在幫助客人的方向不同。Coaching會注重如何在人生中更上一層樓，向前踏步。可以說是看重外在的，替你分析現在的時勢。 輔導則是較著重心靈上的發展，例如是自己的處緒處理，與人相處和心理狀態等，是比較著重內在的。要注意的是輔導內包含不少的心理學，因此比起coaching在處理一些心理問題例如是抑鬱等，會較為擅長。Coaching可能只留於留意觀念上的捆綁，未必能詹容易視察客人的一些特殊障礙，例如是自閉症等。
The two role have different direction in helping their clients. Coaching will focus how to help you rank higher in your life, step forward. You can say that they focus on external more, analyze and work according the current situation. Counselling will focus more on internal and mental, for example the emotion management, interaction and mental status etc. It focus more on internal. What you need to notice is counselling includes a lot psychology. Therefore. counselling shows its advantage in handling some mental problem, for example depression. While coaching can only view on the binding of mind, but may not easily diagnose some special symptoms.

3.誰是權威? Who is the authority?

究竟誰是最大呢? 在現今的經濟社會看來，有錢就是皇道吧! 客人是最大的。 但這不能套用於coaching。如果你有參加一些體育隊伍，你的教練可能會很惡很權威。他喜歡就可以罵你，為你作決定 (例如在一隊中擔任什麼位置)，而你必須要服從。而輔導則主張透過鼓勵，讓客人感受到你的同情心和理解，從而扶持他走出難關。 相比起coaching，說話也會客氣些。Coaching 支持激將法（反向支持），而輔導重視正向支持。所以兩者感覺就是軟性和硬性之分。
Same as the subtopic, who is the authority. In the modern economy-lead society, wealth dominates all. However, it may not be applicable to coaching. If you participate some sport teams, your coach may be very strict and harsh. Coach can scold whenever he/she like, and you must strictly follow. While counselling advocates encouragement. Let the client feel your empathy and understanding, in order to gain the trust of client, help the client to overcome the challenge. Counsellor speaks more courteously than coaching, as coaching supports negative reinforcement, but counselling supports positive reinforcement.

4.解決問題 Problem solving
在這方面輔導和coaching也是大相逕庭。輔導是幫你去找出問題，然後去討論一下如何解決問題。但請注意，輔導是不會幫你做決定的，保持客人的自主性，讓你自己作出決定該如何去解決問題。輔導注重心靈上的扶持，令客人能夠自己解決問題。 Coaching則是會替你去幫你為困難去訂立一些目標，並會幫你度身訂造實質作戰計劃。 所以你可能會覺得輔導沒有那麼實際，因為如果你有困難想找解決方法，你可能會發現輔導人員說的即時幫不了你或是不明顯，甚至是廢話。
Counselling helps to you find out what is the question from the description of client, and then discuss how to solve the problem. But please be noted that, counselling won’t influence or help the client to do the decision, because of maintaining the autonomy of everybody life. Counselling focus on the mental support, rebuild their heart and let them have confidence and ability in alleviating the problem themselves. Coaching will help the client to set some aims and solutions based on the difficulty they encountered. The fighting plan will be tailor-made. Some may think that counselling is not as realistic as coaching, because if you want someone to find the solution for you to surmount the adversity, what counsellor cannot help you instantly or not in a clear way.

你有機會去提供輔導或coaching的服務，但也有機會接受這些服務，那我該選擇哪一樣服務呢?
You may not only have chance to provide counselling or coaching service, but also receive the service. Then, which one should I choose

Actually, It depends on your needs. If you feel very confusing with an independent incident, expect others to render some feasible suggestion for you to achieve the aim, or related to the field of career, coaching may be more suitable. However, if you feel very depressed, maybe with no reason or think everything ruined, have a low self-esteem, feel do not understand yourself, then counselling is more suitable. If you find the wrong target, time is wasted for both side. Besides, there are some people hold two posts concurrently. Psychological coach is a common example, which integrates the two approaches.
那當然很看你的需要啦！如果你就著一件事件感到十分困擾，想別人給你有些可行的建議去達成目標，又或者是關於一些工作的範疇，可能coaching會較合適你。但如果你是感到情緒很低落，感到自己的心理有障礙，覺得不明白自己和自我形象低落，那輔導會比較合適呢。如果找錯對象，就會浪費雙方時間呢。當然，坊間有些人兼任兩個角色，例如是正向心理學教練 (psychological coach) 那他們就融入了兩者。

另外，註冊輔導員是有牌要考的。相比起coach，輔導人員的要求和規範會高得多。遲點會出更多輔導與SEN的文章，請大家密切留意。
Registered counsellor required license or need fulfillment of some courses. Compared with coaching, requirement of counselling is much higher. I will write more articles related to counselling and SEN, please support me.