One question comes up more than any other when I mention coaching "What is it?" Closely followed by "Is it like therapy?"

The problem is that coaching has accumulated many descriptions over time, and even the field itself hasn’t always been consistent in how it defines it. Ellinger et al. (2008) identified 37 different definitions of coaching. It is not surprising therefore, that people are unclear about what they are entering into or if it’s right for them.

That lack of clarity creates a genuine access problem. If someone decides not to explore coaching simply because they don’t understand what it is, that feels like one person too many.

When I first encountered coaching I couldn’t believe I had never heard of it before. I became so taken with it that I briefly considered making it my life’s work to rebrand the entire industry. Perhaps it simply needed a new name, or a different communications approach, something to demystify it so more people could find it.

Some years later I realised the name wasn’t going to change anytime soon. But the access problem still bothered me. It was sitting with that problem that led me to build Hatch.

Coaching is an evolving discipline. Over time it has drawn on several related fields including psychology, counselling and organisational development, disciplines that study how people think, change and grow. Earlier forms of coaching were often more directive. A coach might have been someone senior in their field who combined experience with coaching skills to help someone progress towards a goal. That approach gained traction in corporate environments, particularly in the US, before the field began to define itself more precisely. What was previously called coaching is now more commonly recognised as mentoring.

Professional coaching today tends to operate differently.
A trained coach listens more than they speak. They reflect back what they hear, challenge assumptions, and create the conditions for someone to encounter their own thinking differently. Underpinning this is a simple belief: that the client already has the answers they need, and the coach’s role is to help them reach them.

This is what non-directive coaching means in practice, and it is where much of the most powerful work happens.

The major professional bodies for coaching, including the ICF, EMCC and AC operate to provide accreditation routes for coaches, focused on certain core competencies. The body I trained with was the ICF, which holds a view of the client as creative, resourceful and whole. In other words, the client is not missing something. They already possess what they need to move forward.

In practical terms, professional coaching is a structured conversation between you and someone trained to help you understand where you are now and where you want to go. The coach does not advise or direct. They ask questions, listen closely and support you to think more clearly about your own position.

When I first trained as a coach, I struggled with the idea of not advising. Two decades working in communications and consulting had given me a long list of hard-won lessons and I was keen to pass them on, ideally saving people from some of the black holes I had fallen into myself.

It took time to realise that this instinct, however well-intentioned, was often a disservice within a coaching conversation.

The shift came when I experienced non-directive coaching myself. I began to understand that true service is not steering someone away from the black holes. It is being present with them as they navigate toward and around the holes on their own terms. That kind of accompaniment, free of judgement and rooted in a genuine belief in someone’s capability, can be quietly transformative.

Often the power of coaching lies in what the coach does not do during a session. Just having someone listen can be life-changing.

Nancy Kline writes about this beautifully in ‘Time To Think’, in which she explains the power of stopping to hear yourself while someone is listening. It is remarkable where the mind goes when it has the time and space to do so, and even more so when someone accompanies you there. Julie Starr describes coaching in a similar way, as helping someone have a better conversation with themselves. When insight comes from that internal place, people tend to feel much more ownership of what follows.

Any clearer yet?
If not, it can sometimes help to look briefly at what coaching is not.

Is it mentoring?
Mentoring often draws on similar techniques such as listening, questioning and reflection, but the mentor shares perspective from their own experience. A coach does not direct or advise. This is based on a simple premise: if the idea is yours, you are far more likely to make it work. Many people will choose a coach who understands their sector, not for guidance, but for the empathy and contextual awareness it brings. One of the early pioneers of developmental coaching and mentoring, David Clutterbuck sums it up: mentoring builds knowledge through guidance, while coaching develops self-efficacy through reflection.

Is it therapy? 
Coaching can involve some therapeutic skills, but therapy generally works with the past, exploring patterns and their origins. Coaching begins in the present and moves toward the future, acknowledging the past without diagnosing or treating it.

Is it remedial? Coaching is sometimes positioned this way within organisations because it is linked to performance improvement. Research by Grant, Green and Rynsaardt (2010) found that coaching supports wellbeing and resilience, which in turn improves goal attainment. Often self-confidence shifts before performance does.