Coaching vs. Therapy
My first experience with Life Coaching was years ago with a woman who was in my BNI group. Her specialization within the Life Coaching space was career coaching. I hired her because I was about 4 years in to private practice and feeling like I was running in place. I worked with her for several months and it made a huge difference in my life and my work. I used to joke with her that our meetings were my “business therapy” sessions because of the impact and difference in outlook I took away from our talks.
Years later I sought the help of a therapist to work out various feelings that I was having that were impacting my life at the time. I had never seen a therapist before. My only context of anything close to it was my experience with coaching. I quickly found out that there was a pretty significant difference between coaching and therapy.
Both provide the space to work through your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviors. The primary difference is that therapy has a heavy focus on your past, while coaching focuses within the here & now as well as the future.
Diving in to your past to gain understanding of everything that led you to how you are today is incredibly important work that I believe everyone should do. It can also drudge up and reveal some very intense emotions and is why it’s only appropriate for a professional trained and licensed in psychotherapy to handle. Coaching works within the present and the future only. We discuss how you are showing up in your life right now. Yes, programming from your past will influence how you react in the present, but coaching helps you to notice how your present thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are serving (or not serving) you today. Working within this space can provide clarity, validation, insight, and more so that you can move forward toward the future that you desire.
Therapy and Life Coaching can compliment each other beautifully. For many people coaching is the extra nudge they needed to help initiate forward momentum. If you have any questions about whether you would benefit from Life Coaching I offer a complimentary 20 minute introductory call. Click the Choose Your Program at the top of the page and choose any of the program offerings to schedule a chat.