People ask this question a lot. While various therapies and coaching can be similar because they generally involve conversations designed to take care of the wellbeing of the client, there are several key differences. I actually have a few clients who are having therapy at the same time as seeing me - the difference is the type of conversations that they are having with me versus those that they’re having with their therapist. Both therapy and coaching are valuable for different reasons - the key is knowing the difference and when to seek what.

Coaching is focused on the present and the future, whereas therapy is focused on the past

Broadly speaking, therapies, which include approaches such as psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy, are treatments intended to heal a disorder. Coaching, on the other hand, is about helping people learn to expand the parts of their lives that are working. Or said in another way, coaching is about enabling people to step into possibility. Although someone usually starts coaching because they want something to be different, rather than focusing on how that something came to be, in coaching we focus on how that something is manifesting or ‘showing up’ in the present, in order that the client can be aware of it and change it. It doesn’t mean that in coaching we never reflect back on the past, but generally, we focus on the present and the future. And generally, therapy focuses on the past.

Coaching empowers the client to solve her own problems, whereas therapy offers guidance and direction

Another key difference is that the professionals carrying out therapeutic treatments usually have medical degrees or clinical qualifications behind them. They are experts in their specific fields and as such, offer advice, prescribe drugs or suggest paths of action. Coaches don’t do this. In fact, as an ontological coach, I very specifically don’t consider myself to be an expert. Instead, I regard myself as a learning parter who’s sharing my clients’ journeys with them. I have distinctions that I offer and share with my clients, but I am not a ‘fixer’ or advice-giver. Rather, I’m a partner who listens, offers frameworks and asks questions that may open clients to new or different ways of thinking and acting. This enables clients to creatively work out the best way to take care of what matters to them.

Coaches don’t diagnose, whereas therapists do

Life coaches identify current behavior and thought patterns in their clients, and ask questions to help their clients change those patterns and move forward.

On the other hand, counsellors and other mental health professionals often look to diagnose their clients with conditions that explain why they behave a certain way.

Coaching is about shaping your future to be the way you want it to be, whereas therapy is about understanding your past

If therapy is about, “Why”, then coaching is about, “And now what?” Coaching is designed to propel people forward in a constructive and conscious way. Part of making this happen is in the doing. In other words, there is practical component to coaching that enables clients to change through doing.

If coaching sounds like it might be for you, why not get in touch for a complimentary chemistry session. Together, we can explore things further.