Coaching vs Therapy

What’s the difference?

Coaching and therapy differ in a few important ways. I have clients who see me and also see a psychologist or clinical mental health provider for purposes of medication and/or traditional psychotherapy.

Coaching and therapy are not competitors, they represent different approaches to the client’s issue. If it is determined the client may need clinical assistance, I will refer the client to a medical provider.

(1) Approach

Coaching is forward looking. We meet the person where she is, survey the situation, and help you plan steps forward, whether they are toward achieving a goal, bettering a skill, improving a situation or finding peace and calm.

Therapy tends to spend more time looking at how you got to where you are, understanding past experiences and providing healing in that manner.

(2) Mental Health and Medical Model

Coaches assume you are mentally healthy! We do not provide diagnoses or medications. We help with some similar issues, such as anxiety or depression, but not in the manner that psychiatrists or psychologists do. If we believe that you would benefit from that type of help, we would refer you to one of those medical professionals.

That being said, I have had many clients who take medication for psychological issues and are under the care of one of the above mentioned professionals. This makes sense, because the disciplines are so very different.

Therapists, in the traditional healthcare sense, utilize a medical model, ascertaining a diagnosis for the patient and setting a course of treatment, whether that is therapy or medicine or a combination of both.

(3) Billing

As above, therapists diagnose and report conditions to the insurance company for billing. Coaches do not provide medical or psychological diagnoses and therefore do not bill through insurance.