If you are considering conducting a private practice where you help people become fit, thriving and purposeful, you may be wondering about the difference between therapy and coaching. Getting clear about the characteristics of each category of service is critical to your ability to define the training you want and need.

Therapy

·        Your clients are dealing with long-standing, persistent mental challenges.

·        Often the mental illness is based in trauma from the client's past.

·        The therapist develops a treatment plan based on their diagnosis to address the symptoms the client is facing.

·        Treatment is evidence based, building on well researched approaches and proven outcomes.

·        A therapist is a licensed professional offering clients a level of consumer protection.

·        Insurance companies will pay for therapeutic services viewed as medically necessary.

I have abundant respect and appreciation for the therapists in my professional network. I make it my business to align myself and my clients with gifted, experienced therapists, ensuring I am ready to make referrals for clients who may be experiencing mental and emotional challenges.

Coaching

·        Your clients are seeking skill development, life enhancement and career satisfaction.

·        If they have mental or emotional challenges, they are in the range of what is technically called "adjustment disorders". Examples include relationship challenges, anxiety, sadness, career frustrations and life disappointments.

·        You come to each coaching session with a clear structure and process including the establishment of an agreement regarding session goals, a clarification of a successful outcome and action steps moving the client forward.

·        Coaching is a self-regulated industry, not a licensed profession.

·        The International Coaching Federation (ICF) certifies coaches, sets ethical standards, mandates competencies and requires continuing education.

·        Coaching is paid by the individual seeking services or by the organization seeking to develop or retain their employees.

There is a grey area between these two helping professions. In fact, over the years I have had clients tell me I'm more like a therapist than a coach I consider this comment to be one of the highest compliments. It means I'm interacting at a significant, meaningful level. My goal is to catalyze my clients to their greatest potential. I see this as a holistic challenge, one where mental and emotional challenges can be discussed.

I'll leave you with the guidelines that keep me clear about my role and my professional limitations:

·        As a career coach I focus my clients on the present moment and the future. They are able to develop a vision and goals.

·        My clients are resourceful, creative and wise. My job is to co-create solutions generated by my clients.

·        If my clients have a history of mental illness, they have successfully moved beyond identifying with their trauma. They now view past episodes of pain and suffering as things that happened, not who they are. I want to thank Lee Chaix McDonough for this last clarification. She offers an amazing podcast called Coaching with Clarity.



·        As a coach, your clients are ready to grow, move forward and evolve into the best version of themselves.

Your clients will be somewhere on a continuum between mental illness and thriving levels of health. You do not have to be afraid of stepping outside your professional sphere of competence if you understand your training and limitations.