Coaching or Counselling?
What Is Mental Health Coaching?
Mental health coaching is a recovery-focused form of support that helps people build emotional intelligence, resilience, self-awareness and practical life skills. Rather than concentrating on what might be “wrong,” coaching supports people to understand how they relate to their thoughts, emotions, behaviours and choices — especially during recovery, life transitions or times of emotional strain.
Mental health coaches walk alongside individuals, strengthening skills such as emotional regulation, setting healthy boundaries, relapse prevention, communication, mindset and daily routines that support long-term wellbeing. While mental health coaching does not involve diagnosis or clinical psychological treatment, it plays a meaningful role in helping people live well and move forward with greater confidence.
How Mental Health Coaching Supports You
Mental health coaching can also include mental health first aid and crisis support when someone is experiencing distress, suicidal thoughts or increased risk of relapse. In these moments, coaching focuses on stabilisation and safety — offering emotional support, grounding and coping strategies, applying first aid principles, and encouraging connection with appropriate services.
Coaching is not a replacement for emergency services or clinical care. Still, it can play an important role in early support, stabilisation, recovery and continuity of care, especially when a person already has trust and rapport with their coach. Ethical practice includes recognising when higher-level support is needed and guiding people toward that support rather than leaving them alone.
The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Recovery
A core focus of mental health coaching is emotional intelligence. This means learning to recognise and understand emotions, regulate responses, express needs clearly, maintain healthy boundaries, respond rather than react, and make values-aligned choices in everyday life. For many people navigating addiction recovery, burnout or significant life changes, the challenge is not just insight but the ability to put that insight into action. Mental health coaching helps people practise these skills in practical ways, so they build emotional stability, confidence and self-trust over time, and can face daily life with more ease and clarity.
How Mental Health Coaching Differs From Counselling and Clinical Psychology
Mental health support is not one-size-fits-all. Different types of support serve different purposes, and understanding these differences helps you choose what fits your needs right now. Psychoeducation, learning about emotions, behaviour patterns, and recovery, is used across coaching, counselling, and psychology. What differs is how this knowledge is applied and the scope within which each profession works.
Mental Health Coaching
Mental health coaching is non-clinical and future-focused. It supports people in developing emotional intelligence, strengthening coping skills, and working toward meaningful personal goals. Coaching does not diagnose or treat mental illness, but it supports growth, stability, and positive change.
Mental health coaches may also provide mental health first aid and support people through periods of psychological distress, while encouraging connection with ongoing or specialist support when needed.
Education and training
Mental health coaches typically complete and maintain training in coaching, mental health support, emotional intelligence, recovery frameworks, or related disciplines. Backgrounds vary and may include lived experience, peer support, or allied health study. Coaching is not a government-regulated profession, which makes clarity about scope and ethical practice especially important.
Counselling
Counselling in Australia is a self-regulated profession, commonly overseen by recognised bodies such as the Australian Counselling Association (ACA).
Counsellors work therapeutically with emotional distress, life challenges, grief, trauma, and ongoing mental health concerns. While they do not diagnose mental illness, counsellors provide structured therapeutic support grounded in ethical frameworks, professional supervision, and ongoing development.
The Australian Government is currently progressing National Standards for Counsellors and Psychotherapists in consultation with peak bodies, including the ACA. These emerging standards aim to improve consistency, safety, and public confidence across the counselling and psychotherapy professions.
Education and training
Registered counsellors typically hold a diploma, bachelor's, or postgraduate qualification in counselling or psychotherapy and meet supervision and continuing professional development requirements set by their professional association.
Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychologists are government-regulated health professionals registered with AHPRA.
They are trained to assess, diagnose, and treat mental illness and psychological disorders using evidence-based therapeutic approaches. Psychological care is essential when symptoms significantly affect daily functioning or when formal diagnosis and clinical treatment are required.
Education and training
Clinical psychologists complete extensive university training, including an undergraduate degree, postgraduate study, and supervised clinical placement. Registration with AHPRA is required to practise.
Mental Health Support Options put simply
Mental Health Coaching
Focuses on recovery, wellbeing and emotional intelligence
Does not diagnose or deliver clinical psychological therapy
Uses psychoeducation, practical skill-building and mental health first aid
Supports people during distress, with appropriate referral
Not government-regulated
Registered Counsellor
Provides therapeutic support for emotional and life challenges
Does not diagnose mental illness
Self-regulated through professional bodies such as the ACA
Work aligns with emerging national standards
Clinical Psychologist
Assesses, diagnoses and treats mental illness and disorders
Government regulated through AHPRA
Provides evidence-based psychological therapy
Which One Might Be Right for You?
You might choose mental health coaching if you want to build emotional intelligence, navigate life changes more confidently, manage stress or reduce relapse risk, or gain practical tools for everyday life.
Counselling may suit you if you want therapeutic support to process emotional pain, grief or trauma.
Clinical Psychology may be the right choice if you suspect a mental illness, need a formal diagnosis, or require clinical treatment.
Choosing support based on your current needs and recovery goals helps you get the right kind of help at the right time.
Ethical Practice and Client Safety
Ethical mental health support starts with clarity, care, and connection. It means being honest about what each type of support can offer, and where its limits are, so people feel informed and supported in their choices.
Mental health coaching plays a vital role in today’s mental health landscape. By focusing on emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and practical coping skills, coaching helps people manage stress, navigate change, and build stability during challenging times. It also means paying close attention to wellbeing and safety, including recognising signs of relapse or emotional crisis. When someone needs more support, ethical practice involves encouraging the proper referrals and working alongside medical or mental health professionals, so no one is left to carry things alone.
Mental health coaching is not a replacement for counselling, clinical psychology, or medical care. It is a supportive, recovery-focused option that helps people strengthen emotional regulation, stability, and self-trust. Understanding the differences between coaching, counselling, and clinical psychology helps people choose the support that best fits their needs, especially in a time when mental health support is needed more than ever.
A gentle reminder: If you are in immediate danger, having persistent suicidal thoughts, or require urgent medical or psychiatric care, contact your local emergency services, present to the nearest emergency department, or reach out to a crisis support service such as Lifeline.