Therapy and Coaching…What’s the Difference Anyway?

By: Dr. Denise Renye

It’s not uncommon for people to declare their job is a coach, be it life, business, executive, health, relationship, or even trauma-focused.*   Because this field is relatively new, there are little to no stipulations around the credentials needed to call oneself a coach.

I’ve had coaching businesses since 2006. I started off by splitting my time between two. I worked with construction management firms, non-profits, and tech companies offering executive coaching, leadership development, and group facilitation. And I also ran a coaching business focusing on sexuality and relationships for people who wanted to address and focus on targeted goals in these areas. Sometimes the two worlds overlapped when I had a business exec discuss their sexual orientation, marital concerns, and extramarital goings-on with paid and unpaid companions, which was not uncommon. However, because of the training I had, I knew when it was time to make a referral and stayed in my lane as either a business coach or a relationship coach. I also knew when it was time to make a referral for a coaching client to also work with a well-trained clinical psychotherapist. Keeping boundaries in my line of work was, and is, imperative.

While I have had higher levels of training, which help me develop programs and generally to provide coaching, that’s not always the case for many coaches. The credentials needed to call oneself a coach are not very stringent. However, this is not the case when it comes to offering psychological services, such as depth psychotherapy, assessments and evaluations, expert witnessing and testing.

I have a master’s degree in education, which comes in very handy when developing curricula for programs, classes and workshops. Master’s degrees are typically two-year programs plus additional internships and practica. Business coaching training can also be multiple years, but the training I took on to become a psychologist spanned a decade including post doc education and internships. And, for both, the learning really never ends. There are always more trainings to take and more consultations to have so I can continue being the best coach and the best psychologist I can be. Continuing education units are required and imperative for the safety of my patients, so that I can do my best to decrease my blindspots that are inevitable as a human being.

About six years ago I expanded my coaching practice by taking a 500-hour mental and holistic health and yoga training. This has allowed me to develop more diverse programs around yoga, health, and healing, as well as more deeply implement my certification as a yoga therapist to provide services to the whole person. Because of my training and studies in India, I was grandfathered in as a yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

But with all of this being said, the question that still lingers is: what’s the difference between therapy and coaching?

The type of therapy I practice is depth-oriented and can help you understand where you’ve been in life, and how long-standing patterns may be influencing your current life. This type of therapy can help you make deep shifts in those patterns and come to know yourself in a new way so that you can begin to implement new choices in your life. I specialize in depth psychotherapy and work from a psychodynamic and relational framework. I blend together concepts, techniques, and theories from transpersonal psychology, somatic psychology, psychoanalysis, and Jungian psychoanalytical therapy. That means the work is highly dynamic and potentially deeply transformative. I bring in numerous components to help a person integrate their entire, or whole, selves. The work is not only intellectual and emotional, but somatic, meaning related to the body.

Body awareness and embodiment are an integral focus of my practice.  You can read more here in my posts on food and self-care, mindful eating, and embodiment as a way to increase intimacy satisfaction. The topic is so essential in the work that I do, I researched and wrote about accessing the unconscious through the body for my doctoral dissertation. I also became a certified yoga therapist through my global research of dance, body movement, and Indian philosophy, which influences my work with people. (You can read more about that here.)

All of these elements of my background influence my “regular” therapy work, but it also comes up in my sex therapy work, which you can read more about here. Sex therapy sessions may be embedded in depth psychology treatment, an adjunct for someone who is already working with a long-term therapist, or a short-term, standalone treatment.

Therapy as a field, by and large, is a broad and wide-ranging one. The way one therapist who may have trained in and practices a therapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) would look and feel very different from a session with a therapist who has had training such as myself.  Therapy sessions with me are non-directive and open-ended. One session we may talk about your childhood and the next how you can’t stop eating crackers, and how these two may be intricately entwined. It covers anything and everything; there are no topics off limits. Therapy is also location specific in that I only offer therapy for and to California residents. Coaching, on the other hand, is open to anyone no matter their location.

Coaching is goals focused and directed. We won’t talk deeply about your childhood, old memories, or trauma. We may touch on those topics, but primarily we’ll focus on the present and how to move forward to live the life you want. Coaching provides you with tools and tips for a specific goal or change via specific action plans. Coaching may offer both a respite from your current state of mind and affairs by helping you make a plan and implement changes immediately.

For instance, the business I ran, called Whole Person Consultation, was executive coaching, facilitation, and leadership development. I assisted my clients to determine and name specific goals around their roles in a company, or, for entrepreneurs, their own businesses; I helped them create avenues through which they could achieve those goals.

Why Both Offerings?

Why do I offer both therapy and coaching? I think it can be summed by a quote from Jeffrey E. Auerbach, PhD on the American Psychological Association website: “Psychologists have the most training of any profession in understanding human motivation, behavior, learning, and change. And if they’ve done clinical work, they have a depth of one-on-one experience far greater than that of people who aren’t mental health professionals. Coaching is actually a great fit with what most of us already do.”

Exactly! I already have extensive training around the human psyche and coaching creates flexibility not only in how I’m working, but also who I reach. Not everyone identifies as desiring therapy, nor is it for everyone for a plethora of complex reasons, and those that don’t may want support in reaching a specific goal – whether it’s in regards to a relationship, body movement or holistic health, or a business venture, which I can help with.

If you’re interested in learning more about therapy, or coaching, let’s keep in touch.

*When people claim to be a trauma-focused coach and do not have clinical training, it can be dangerous and highly unethical. Please be careful when working with anyone, regardless of credential, and especially when dealing with trauma.

Reference

DeAngelis, Tori. “First-class Coaching.” American Psychological Association. November 2010. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/11/life-coaches