counseling vs subject matter

counseling and subject matter both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
counseling	Yes	No	No	No
subject matter	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, subject matter is a hypernym of counseling; that is, subject matter is a word with a broader meaning than counseling:

counseling: something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action
subject matter: content communicating a message; what something is about

Other hypernyms of counseling include content, message, substance.

counseling (noun)	subject matter (noun)
something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action	content communicating a message; what something is about