Is it therapy? Why is it different? How is it similar?
Despite what many people think, a coach is not Yoda with the knowledge to place things in perfect context, possessing mind blowing insights and strategies. Rather, a coach trusts that the person that they are working with will set their own intention and agenda.
I find that a coach is best suited to players who have already developed a certain level of creativity and self-awareness.
This is an entirely different approach than what most of us have become accustomed to which is “what do you want to fix?”
Coaching is not therapy. There is a therapeutic space that is created through coaching, and healing does happen, but it is different from traditional therapy.
Coaches are “Smart guides” and use tools and techniques to build collaborative relationships with their clients. They often hold certain certifications, but they’re not therapists. There can be some things that resemble therapy, given the person and what their goal is, but coaching is different.
By contrast, therapists are required to meet specific educational and licensing requirements which support a different kind of relationship that is often focused on the intellectual center of their patient.
As a holistic coach, I focus instead on three centers: body, emotion and logic, and how they inform each other.
Let’s look at some sobering facts that affect both people who seek therapy and coaching:
- More of us than ever are taking antidepressants or medications to help us regulate our emotions.
- The highest number of people in our lifetimes have unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies.
- As many as 50% of us are living alone, and those of us that are in relationships are often lonely and unsatisfied emotionally and physically.
- Our country is said to be in a mental health crisis.
- Many of us are still sorting through our experiences during covid and ongoing impacts.
- Life is moving faster and feels more difficult than most of us have ever experienced.
These truths cause many people to turn to therapy as a default. But therapy, as powerful as it can be, may not always be the right fit for everyone.
First, let me make a confession. I love therapy.
It certainly didn’t start off that way. As a teen I was enrolled in therapy as a result of my mother’s feeling that I needed to speak with an adult who wasn’t a part of the drama in my life.
Since this wasn’t my choice let’s just say my participation was under duress.
As I grew older, however, I began to really enjoy therapy. It was like going to the “school of me” once a week with someone who seemed to have received the manual about me that I had not. The idea that there was a reason I was experiencing all the things that I was experiencing was a comfort, even if I wasn’t always up to doing the work to change things.
I saw mental health counselors and psychologists for the better part of 20 years, more times than not, I really enjoyed the insight and space. Then I started noticing something.
For me, the process, insights and approaches seemed cookie-cutter, and I was not receiving the results that I desired for both balance, and a higher level of quality that I longed for. There were still missing pieces that might have pulled it all together into a tidy package. Sometimes a therapist might blow my socks off, but I seemed to cover similar issues with each therapist until something wonderful happened.
I became a coach!
As a coach, I am able to fill in the gaps with clients that I had experienced in my own therapeutic relationships. I found an incredible coach for myself who I continue to work with today. For the first time I began receiving holistic support and the pieces that had eluded me for so long were suddenly there. My coach opened my eyes to the importance of holistic integrative coaching and the power that it gives to me during the process of learning about myself. She was the game changer for me, helping me to become, I hope, a game changer for my clients.
If you are ready to have a different type of experience, contact me to discuss how coaching can be a game changer for you.