Do you often find yourself wondering or confused about whom to consult when facing an issue? Let’s break down the key difference between guidance and counseling.
For most of us, our first foray into seeking help starts at school. We seek help from the school counselor for any issues we might be facing. This is true for both academics as well as personal problems. Accordingly, this often lays the groundwork for our future readiness to seek external help if necessary.
For the most part, school counselors are doing exceptional work in handling student welfare. Be it in the form of regular workshops, lectures and one-on-one sessions with the students. Here, we need to understand that school counselling is a form of guidance. For the most part, it cannot handle serious concerns within its purview and one may be referred to a counsellor as may be the case. On the other hand, counselling takes into account some major concerns. These can be adjustment issues, life changes, and various other problems that may require some more help in handling them.
What is Guidance?
Guidance is often the first step that one takes when it comes to mental health care. We can see that guidance counselors are the first to spot any behavioural changes in students. They prepare a plan of action to prevent further problems in the individual.
Some important things to look out for in Guidance are:
- Guidance often begins at the school level.
- It is very pervasive and can be in the form of life coaches, school counsellors and career counsellors.
- It is short-term and does not need many sessions.
- It is often not collaborative and involves a domain expert sharing their knowledge.
It is seen that guidance involves knowledge sharing and offering possible solutions to the problem at hand. It often does not involve a collaborative effort to solve the issue at hand. This can be beneficial in the case of individuals who are seeking to-the-point solutions.
What is Counselling?
In stark contrast, counseling involves a team effort. The counsellor does not engage in providing precise solutions or paths to follow for the individual. They join hands with the individual to find different possible solutions to a particular problem.
Key things to keep in mind about Counselling:
- People who want to gain a deeper insight into their problems can go for counselling.
- It is usually a joint effort between the counsellor and the client.
- Counselling can be either directive or non-directive depending on the particular case.
- It is of a longer duration and can require more number of sessions.
Counselling psychologists handle a wide variety of concerns such as adjustment issues, stress related to major life changes, relationship problems, daily life stressors, and the like. They often practice in a particular niche which is hinged on diverse populations as well as various modalities of doing counselling.
Let’s take a more concise look at the key difference between guidance and counselling:
| Guidance | Counselling |
| short term and temporary | long term and more sustainable |
| knowledge sharing | joint problem solving |
| immediate solutions | deeper personal insight |
| directive | non-directive |
Table showing the difference between guidance and counselling
Now that you know the key difference between guidance and counselling, it is important to get the right help at the right time. Reach out today to book your first session and get started on your healing journey!
