Coaching and mentoring have been studied extensively with specific regard to learning theories; however, there is a lack of coaching and mentoring research that is both grounded in psychological theory and evidence-based in the real world. This paper suggests an innovative framework presenting two distinctive ‘research journeys’, namely, mentoring in informal education settings and coaching in formal education settings. The combined evidence reveals that coaching and mentoring in supporting the learning and development of adolescents involves complex and subtle psychological, social, emotional, cognitive and contextual interactive processes for all participants. The paper proposes a unified psychological model of coaching and mentoring for those involved in supporting the learning and development of adolescents and describes the dynamic processes.