There are several differences between coaching and therapy. One major difference is the level of education or licensing requirements. Coaches aren’t held to any state regulatory board requirements, educational requirements, or required to be licensed in the states their clients reside in. Whereas, therapists are required to have a masters level education, go through supervision for a set number of hours dependent on the state they get licensed in, get approval by their states regulatory board for licensing, and be licensed in the state that their clients reside in. Some states do have some requirements for coaching but Colorado, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas do not. If you are going to work with a coach, you may want to ask what level of training they have gone through. While I’m not able to use my therapy skills on you while coaching, I do have a level of training that does show competence to work with others on their future goals.
Therapists work with clients on their past and healing things such as childhood trauma, past relationships/patterns, and life experiences that may be keeping them trapped in unhelpful/unhealthy patterns. They are trying to help people process through the hard, gain an understanding of it, the ways they respond to it and look at how they can do things differently. Therapists want their clients to get to a place of feeling better so that they can make strides towards moving forward.
Coaches work with their clients on self development, goal setting, and steps to move forward with clients hopes for the future. Coaches are able to push their clients more because their clients aren’t coming to them in a place of needing to heal, they are coming from a place of wanting to grow. Instead of being in a place of wanting to “feel better”, coaches are helping their clients “do better”.
If we would work together in a coaching capacity, our first session would be an initial assessment to make sure that coaching vs. therapy is right for you. You would complete different paperwork from the therapy paperwork I use in my therapy practice, and we would continue to make sure that coaching vs. therapy is the best fit for you. If we feel we need to go back to therapy/to therapy if we started with coaching; we will discuss this, make sure all the paperwork is complete, and there is an understanding of what that change will look like. If you are living in a state that I am not licensed in, I will not be able to move into therapy with you and we will need to help you find a therapist that is licensed in your state.
If coaching feels like it would be a fit for you, please reach out to me and we will make sure with an initial appointment (in coaching).