Coaching And Consulting
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Coaching and Consulting
If you live outside of California, I offer consulting services via ZOOM. While Coaching and Consultation may often be different than the deeper work of Therapy, ZOOM or “tele-help” can also be very effective and can often provide similar benefits to “in person” therapy.
What is the difference between Coaching and Therapy?
Simply put, a therapist is a qualified and trained mental health care professional who operates in a regulated field of healthcare and therefore requires a license. The focus is on your mental health care. Therapists specialize in prompting you to reflect, to look to more deeply understand early trauma, PTSD, and a host of other issues that can leave someone struggling with Anxiety or Depression. Therapy is also often utilized in examining dysfunctional circumstances leading to that very important question: “Why am I the way that I am?” This process as to the “why,” over time, helps you understand why you feel or act the way you do, again and again. A therapist can help you change not by pressing you to take action, but by helping YOU work through your inner blocks and “demons” until change starts to naturally happen for you. If you feel like you need help healing then therapy may be exactly what you need to start helping heal yourself.
Coaching on the other hand focuses more on you and your life and professional goals, and then helping to clarify these and move you toward achieving them. A Life Coach looks to provide a supportive and informative environment, helps to identify strengths of yours, and looks to initiate action plans toward one’s future goals. Life Coaching is more action-based and focuses more on accountability rather than healing.
Where these two separate areas often mesh is in the process of closing the gap as to where you are presently, verses where you’d like to be, and taking on the impediments that are hindering you.
A life Coach may encourage immediate movement and change. A therapist’s approach would be that you move when you are ready to move (toward changing a particular area or aspect of your life).
Is this difference confusing?
Yes, it is. Because, after a time of working together, a Therapist or Life Coach may be sharing and wearing the same hat when it comes to a particular issue. In other words, the goals may be the same (mental health and proactive movements), and sometimes a Therapist may need to be more proactive with a person, and may have an ethical responsibility to do so, particularly when someone may be endangering themselves through a course of action they look to take.
As with Therapy, Coaching can be short-term, or…ongoing. Consulting with a Life Coach can be helpful to many for working consistently through a specific issue, problem or obstacle. Making or creating a concrete plan is one thing, but, following through on ambitious goals can be quite intimidating.
Utilizing a Coach to help get over new hurdles toward a known end result is similar to utilizing a personal trainer to help with a personal health goal. Many derive significant benefits when someone else is helping “push” us over hurdles or obstacles toward a goal that is actively known or desired and ultimately, achieved.