What is the Difference Between Coaching and Therapy?
While psychotherapy and coaching are both very important, they are also very different.
Which one will serve you best? Do you need both?
The answer depends on a range of factors.
Do I Need A Coach or a Therapist?
If you are seeking treatment for a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychotherapy is the way to go.
However, if you are diagnosed with a mental health challenge and receiving psychotherapy, but you also need support in goal-setting or your day-to-day activities and habits in order to achieve your health and wellbeing goals, coaching is definitely the way to go.
And if you feel settled and steady in your mental health but in need of guidance to change your health and life, coaching can be incredibly valuable.
Coaching will help you set your goals, identify obstacles, and work through them to achieve your desired outcomes. Coaches will also help you transform your mentality and lifestyle so that you can reach the next step in your growth and development, whatever that may be for you.
For many people, a combination of coaching and therapy works best. If you are on track with your emotional healing and just need support in moving forward, coaching is usually enough.
What Is A Coach?
A health coach, wellness coach or life coach is a certified professional who can guide you through radical transformations and breakthroughs.
You might seek assistance from a coach with:
- Creating and sticking to a nutrition or fitness plan
- Achieving clarity on your desires, setting goals and milestones
- Achieving clarity on your life purpose, and putting a plan in place
- Coming unstuck from a place of overwhelm and stagnation
- Being led in a structured way through a specific process of personal growth.
Different coaches have different skills and areas of expertise. For instance, there are coaches who specialize in diversity and inclusion, empathy training, workplace health and safety, relationships and intimacy, leadership, speaking, singing… the list is endless!
At Pamela Durant Coaching, we offer Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness Coaching. We guide you through a process of taking both your physical health and your mindset to a new height.
Benefits and Limitations of Coaching and Therapy
In my Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness Coaching packages, I help you set and achieve health and wellbeing goals.
While this is a comprehensive journey that definitely includes and emphasizes your mental health needs and limiting beliefs, coaches are not medically trained psychotherapists and we cannot provide assistance with a mental health disorder like PTSD.
Compared to coaching, therapy has a bigger focus on your past. In psychotherapy, you will work with a professional to identify traumas and past experiences in order to overcome patterns and coping mechanisms that are holding you back from your happiness.
By contrast, coaching focuses more on the future by studying the connection between your present habits and future goals to help you get “unstuck”!
Free Online Health Planning Session
If you would like to learn more about the difference between coaching and therapy to understand what kind of support you need right now, feel free to book a free health planning session to get the answers you need.
Remember, if you do nothing else today but understand what you need to move forward, you’ve already taken your first step in your journey of growth and transformation.
