Life Coach vs. Therapist: What’s The Difference?

Over the years, society has highlighted therapy as an outlet for healing in all areas of your life. The various mental health apps and platforms that have been created are absolutely amazing, and have played a major role in destigmatizing the negative associations with seeking professional help.

Within the last few decades, a newer form of healing and growth, known as Life Coaching, has emerged. “As a formal field, coaching is relatively young, but it has roots in many older disciplines. It draws on areas that include the human potential movement of the 1960s, leadership training, adult education, personal development, and numerous areas of psychology. Life coaching formally emerged during the 1980s and grew in popularity throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Some of the earliest life coaches focused on life planning, but the field eventually grew to encompass other life areas including relationships, finances, careers, health, and overall well-being.” (Kendra Cherry, What Is A Life Coach?)

Many people may not know what a life coach provides and how it differs from therapy. Today we’ll discuss the differences between therapy and life coaching.

Therapy focuses on mental health; Life Coaching focuses on pursuing goals

“The major difference between therapy and life coaching is the focus of the work: therapy focuses on mental health and emotional healing, while life coaching focuses on setting and achieving goals. While therapists are trained mental health professionals who are in the regulated field of healthcare and require licensure, life coaches do not have mental health training and are not equipped to diagnose or treat mental health conditions (unless a life coach was previously trained as a therapist, which is also common).” (Devorah Steinberg, Life Coach vs. Therapist)

When to see a therapist:

• You experience mental health challenges that cause distress in your life (depression, anxiety, trauma, eating disorder, etc.)

• You want to heal from past hurt or trauma

• You need support navigating your emotions

• You struggle with interpersonal relationships in your life and you want to learn strategies to feel less impacted by others

When to see a life coach:

• You want to get ‘unstuck’ and set goals you will actually achieve

• You are looking for a mentor to help you take accountability in your life

• You need support with rediscovering yourself, your life purpose and planning the next steps in your life

• You feel like your life is on autopilot, and want to challenge yourself or break out of your comfort zone

Therapy focuses on healing and releasing; Life Coaching focuses on forging a new path for yourself

Therapy is all about healing from your past and/or how to cope with your current challenges in life. It’s a wonderful outlet and support system for releasing any emotions or thoughts you have bottled up. Therapists are mental health professionals who can provide new coping skills and a reframing of mind on whatever you’re struggling with. Therapists are qualified to diagnose patients with any mental or emotional disorders and to structure their sessions to help work through these challenges.

Life Coaching focuses on why you’re feeling stuck, why you have the desire to transform, what’s working in your life, what’s not working in your life, and establishing realistic goals you can achieve during the time spent together and beyond. Life coaches will normally provide weekly homework assignments for you to complete in between each session as a way to hold you accountable for making the change you so desire. The homework assignments will vary depending on what type of life coach you’re working with.

For example, a Therapeutic Art Coach will assign different types of art assignments to help you discover more about yourself and release your emotions in a healthy and creative way. A Spiritual Coach may assign weekly tasks that have to do with meditation, chakra work or affirmations. A Confidence Coach may assign weekly assignments focusing on techniques to build more confidence and gain awareness and control over negative thought patterns.

Therapy is rooted in the past and present; Life Coaching focuses on the future

“In therapy sessions, you’re often returning to the emotional experiences, the patterns, the trauma, the learning, and the beliefs that you had in the past – and connecting the dots to understand how they have now brought you to this time with challenges. Therapy, at its core, is working on the psychological problems from their source and doing healing work. Essentially, in therapy you’re deeply examining the questions and solving them, so that you feel free to move forward.” (Devorah Steinberg, Life Coach vs. Therapist)

Life coaching is all about where you are now and where you want to be in the future. When working with a life coach, you are being coached to change or rid of any negative patterns, and discussing ways to develop your dream life. Life coaches help you discover what’s blocking you and how you can overcome this…