What is the difference between life coaching and therapy?
While there may be overlap in both therapists and life coaches seeking to assist people in improving the overall quality of their lives, therapists can practice coaching, but coaches cannot practice therapy. That is because psychotherapy, a type of clinical service, is a highly regulated field with specific licensing requirements and legal restrictions that ensures practitioners are adhering to best healthcare practice guidelines.
Coaching, however, is an unregulated profession, and therefore is more relaxed in terms of educational and documentation requirements, client-coach boundaries, and methodology. There are some organizations that provide certification and guidelines for coaches, but there is no formal governing body and no legal mandate for coaches to adhere to any standards of care. As a result, life coaching has a much broader spectrum of options available to clients in terms of quality, from extremely poor and unqualified to highly experienced and effective coaches.
Additionally, the focus of work with the client is different between the two disciplines. Whereas therapy tends to look at the role of past events and a person’s clinical history to help identify a potential mental health diagnosis and treatment for managing symptoms, life coaching tends to be future oriented and focused on solutions that can help people address specific challenges or obstacles in their lives that they need to address in order to accomplish personal goals.
Finally, the role of each professional and relationship to the client are distinct. The role of a therapist is determined by professional boards of training and ethics such that therapists are held highly accountable to boundary violations and may even lose their licenses to practice. A coach’s role is much more ambiguous and subject to individual preferences from the coach and/or the client with no determination from a governing body about what the coach’s role should be.
Coaching, however, is an unregulated profession, and therefore is more relaxed in terms of educational and documentation requirements, client-coach boundaries, and methodology. There are some organizations that provide certification and guidelines for coaches, but there is no formal governing body and no legal mandate for coaches to adhere to any standards of care. As a result, life coaching has a much broader spectrum of options available to clients in terms of quality, from extremely poor and unqualified to highly experienced and effective coaches.
Additionally, the focus of work with the client is different between the two disciplines. Whereas therapy tends to look at the role of past events and a person’s clinical history to help identify a potential mental health diagnosis and treatment for managing symptoms, life coaching tends to be future oriented and focused on solutions that can help people address specific challenges or obstacles in their lives that they need to address in order to accomplish personal goals.
Finally, the role of each professional and relationship to the client are distinct. The role of a therapist is determined by professional boards of training and ethics such that therapists are held highly accountable to boundary violations and may even lose their licenses to practice. A coach’s role is much more ambiguous and subject to individual preferences from the coach and/or the client with no determination from a governing body about what the coach’s role should be.
What kind of coaching clients do you see?
Because of my current online telecoaching platform, I am able to see any adult (18 years or older) from any geographic location with a reliable internet connection. The ideal coaching client is someone who is open and honest with communication, motivated to implement changes by putting in the necessary time for personal work, and excels through high accountability with behavioral objectives and goals.
My clients range from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations and present with a wide variety of goals. Some examples are young adults seeking direction and purpose in their lives, spouses who have a desire to improve their relationships among family members and friends, and various executives/professionals looking to strike a better work-life balance for themselves or are considering changing careers.
My clients range from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations and present with a wide variety of goals. Some examples are young adults seeking direction and purpose in their lives, spouses who have a desire to improve their relationships among family members and friends, and various executives/professionals looking to strike a better work-life balance for themselves or are considering changing careers.
What are your business hours?
My current hours of operation are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 6pm Pacific time.
What forms of payment do you accept?
At this time, due to the remote online nature of services being provided through my client portal, I accept all major credit and debit cards. In the future I will be working on accepting other forms of payment.
Do you accept insurance for life coaching?
No - in general, life coaching services are not covered by health insurance plans.