What’s the difference between therapy and coaching?

By Peggy Haymes

You’ve decided it’s time to get some help from someone outside of family and friends. But do you go to a therapist or a coach? What’s the difference?

As a therapist who is also a coach, I’ve thought a lot about the differences.

As a coach, I might help you examine your beliefs that are holding you back. As a therapist, I might delve deeper into the family and childhood experiences that formed those beliefs. 

As a coach, I might invite you to pay attention to the feelings that come up as you anticipate change or possible decisions. As a therapist, I might invite you to go deeper into the feelings themselves.

In coaching, we might identify the impact that your coping skills learned in trauma have on your life and the things you want to do in your life and work. In therapy, we’ll address the trauma itself.

I find it hard to talk about the differences between coaching and therapy without the descriptions sounding pejorative. For example, in therapy we can go deep, and doesn’t deep always sound better than shallow?

But of course, in this case, a surface thing isn’t an insignificant thing. Addressing how I deal with email isn’t usually a deep subject, yet it can have a profound effect on my work. Moreover, making decisions about changes in my work or where I live doesn’t require deep psychological work but will have a profound effect on my life. 

It helps me to think of it this way. Therapy is the broad landscape of personal development work. It may involve dealing with feelings or healing old wounds from the past. It may involve deep work in trauma or grief. It may bring generations of a family into the conversation. And sometimes, it may involve coaching skills.

Coaching, on the other hand, is a very specific part of that landscape. It may be choosing the right road or figuring out how to travel. It focuses on identifying next steps and taking specific actions. It can help you figure out which way you need to head, whether in how you organize your day or how you invest your life. 

If it’s time for a coach to help you navigate your journey, you can find a variety of trained coaches here at Pinnacle.