Both coaching and therapy are intended to help clients achieve deep change. 

There is some potential overlap. For example, both coaching and cognitive behavioral therapy help people to change beliefs and behaviors that get in their way, and often address stress management. However, these approaches are based on different paradigms and practitioners receive different training, with therapists having to meet strict credentialing requirements.

Coaching is focused on the present and future. We start with where you are now, clarify where you want go, and then experiment with ways for you to achieve your goals. Our momentum is forward. We spend minimal time on the past except to identify patterns that serve you well and patterns that don’t serve you well, even if they did previously. We build on the former and experiment with how to change the latter. 

As you can see, this is a very practical, hands-on approach. I emphasize to my clients that they should have a valuable takeaway from every session. It could be something they will do, something they will observe about themselves or others, something to research or contemplate. I frequently check with each client about how well our coaching is serving them, and strongly encourage feedback. If something is not working optimally, then we need to address that head-on. This is a central aspect of creating the necessary confidence and trust for successful coaching. 

Some elements in coaching would apply equally to therapy. There are some notable distinctions between coaching and therapy:

1. The therapeutic process often involves digging deep into an issue for an extended time. Thus, therapy won’t necessarily have the same concrete focus as coaching, or generate specific takeaways from each session.

2. Sometimes therapy needs to focus on the past. It can be crucial to revisit past events, experiences and emotions, rather than staying with the present and future as coaching does. 

3.  Therapy should be the priority when someone is struggling with trauma or other conditions that have great emotional power and may interfere with the ability to move forward in coaching. Coaches are trained to be alert to this distinction and are ethically bound to recommend therapy to clients when such difficulties arise. 

Depending on a client’s needs and resources, it may be best to pause coaching while pursuing therapy. At other times, a client may find that therapy and coaching complement each other. In these situations, coaching can help to achieve changes for which the client is ready, while therapy addresses underlying issues that require deeper resolution.

There is some overlap between these services but also clear, important distinctions:

1.  Coaches help clients to find their own answers, rather than providing the answers. Coach and client focus on strengthening the client’s ability to tap their own knowledge and intuition and access all available resources in a holistic way. In contrast, consultants and mentors provide direct answers and guidance.

2.  An experienced coach can work with a client in virtually any field; the coach is the expert on the coaching process and the client is the expert on their subject matter. This is another contrast with consultants and mentors, who offer deep expertise and experience in the client’s field. That said, sometimes clients in specialized professions may prefer to work with coaches who have similar experience in the same subject areas and concentrate their coaching in those areas.  

3. Coaching focuses on helping the client to develop/clarify goals, find ways to achieve their goals, and make “course corrections” as needed during this process. Consulting and mentoring may also help in this way, but consultants are expected to provide specific answers to clearly defined matters (however broad), whereas mentors offer expert guidance and advice to support their mentees’ development through a broader, more informal relationship. 

4. In coaching, clients learn how to apply the strategies they have learned proactively across multiple areas of their lives, so they can incorporate aspects of the coaching process into their lives even after they have finished coaching. This may sometimes occur in consulting or mentoring, but it is not necessarily a central aspect of the work.