Therapy Vs Coaching: Key Differences

The result of effective therapy is healing.

The result of effective coaching is action.

You go to a coach in order to find clarity and design action steps whereas you go to a therapist to cultivate personal awareness and heal yourself so that growth and action can take place. Therapy prepares you for the action that coaching requires from you.

Often times in a therapy session you are looking at your past and making sense of your behaviors or how you tell your life’s story. But just because you are aware of your past and your story doesn’t mean that you are able to change your present, that requires a step AFTER awareness.

If you become aware that you're doing something a certain way, or thinking about things a certain way that could be limiting you from growth or getting what you want, you have to do something about it.

Therapy looks at the “why”

Coaching looks at the “what”

Once we become aware of something, it is common that the brain goes immediately to, “why do I do that?” Or “why did this happen?”. We’re trying to make sense of things, because we believe that once it all makes sense, we can finally be free of it, let it go. Therapy is helpful for healing through understanding, which is harnessed by the development of our awareness.

The “why” doesn't matter in coaching because it doesn’t actually change anything. No matter what happened in your life, or however many reasons why it happened, doesn’t change the fact that it did happen and now you’re here.

Coaching brings you to the moment of acceptance, and asks a different question: “what do you wan to do about it? Where am I? I'm here right now doing this thing. And is it or is it not helping me or supporting me and getting to my ideal destination? Or producing the results I want to be producing? It's a no, we get to construct a new way forward.

Awareness is a great tool. Coaching builds upon our awareness and focuses on getting you where you want to go in the quickest and most expedited fashion possible.