As both a psychotherapist and coach, I focus on helping people to make changes in their lives’ and accomplish the goals that are meaningful to them.  Sometimes there are situations that each profession can possibly help.  The brief list below is not all-inclusive.  Sometimes therapists are “coach-like” in their orientation and there is a shared common ground between the two professions.

Some of the similarities include:

• Working with a client’s/patient’s whole life
• An initial session in order to discover the issues that a person would like to have resolved
• Working with emotional material
• An overlap of some of the techniques used to help a person to be successful
• Dependent upon a therapist’s orientation, there is a greater or lesser degree placed on the client/patient taking responsibility for their life and the creation of such. In coaching the client is always held accountable for the management of their own life.

Some of the differences include:

• Seeing a patient/client from a medical model versus the holism of a physical, psychological, and spiritual model
• Coaches do not diagnose or treat mental illnesses while therapists are trained to work with people who suffer from major mental illnesses
• There is a greater sense of co-creation with coaching versus the therapist being seen as an “expert”
• Therapy is more insight-oriented whereas coaching is action-oriented
• Therapy focuses more on healing and understanding while coaching focuses on evolving and manifesting potential
• Coaching’s emphasis is on the present while future and therapy’s emphasis is more-so on the past and present.

Reneé C. Feller, MS, APRN/PMH, Holistic Health and Professional Life Coach
6302-C Falls Road | Baltimore, MD 21209 | phone: 410-484-0809
email: Integratedtherapybaltimore@gmail.com |email: Integratedcoachingbaltimore@gmail.com  facebook: Integrated Therapy and Coaching Baltimore