Coaching and counseling are both excellent options, and you should choose the one that works best for you for this phase of your life. Both coaching and counseling are all about you, your goals, and your needs. Both coaching and counseling leverage knowledge of human behavior, motivation, behavioral change, and interactive counseling techniques.

Goals

Counseling is fundamentally a healthcare service, and can be reimbursable through insurance depending on the diagnosis. Counseling focuses on the identification, diagnosis, and treatment of mental and nervous disorders. The goals of psychotherapy include: alleviating symptoms; understanding the underlying dynamics that create symptoms; changing dysfunctional behaviors that are the result of these disorders; and developing new strategies for successfully coping with the psychological challenges that we all face.   

The focus of coaching is on developing and implementing strategies to achieve client-identified goals to enhance performance and personal satisfaction. Coaching may address specific personal projects, life balance, job performance and satisfaction, or general conditions in the client’s life, business, or profession. Coaching utilizes personal strategic planning, values clarification, brainstorming, motivational counseling, and other counseling techniques to help individuals achieve their goals. The client determines these goals and focus areas.

Relationship

Most research on psychotherapy outcomes indicates that the quality of the relationship between client and therapist is most closely correlated with therapeutic progress.  Counseling patients are often emotionally vulnerable. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the expectation that they will discuss very intimate personal data and reveal feelings about themselves, which they are sensitive about. The life experiences of psychotherapy patients often make establishing trust difficult. These factors give psychotherapists disproportionate power that creates a fiduciary responsibility to protect the safety of their clients and to “above all else, do no harm.” 

The relationship between the coach and client is specifically designed to avoid the power differentials that occur in the psychotherapy relationship. The client sets the agenda, and the success of the enterprise depends on the client’s willingness to take risks and try new approaches. The relationship is designed to be more direct and challenging. You can count on your coach to be honest and straightforward, asking powerful questions and using challenging techniques to move you forward. You are expected to evaluate progress and, when coaching is not working as you wish, inform me immediately so we can both take steps to correct the problem. 

Availability

If counseling is covered by the client’s insurance, the coverage level and diagnosis will limit the length and frequency of sessions. If a client is self-paying for services instead of using insurance, then sessions can be as long and frequent as desired. Counseling is limited by state licensure. Currently, I am only licensed in the state of Utah and must see clients located within the state. 

Coaching is not bounded by licensure. Since it is paid for by the client (or their workplace), sessions can be as frequent and as long as desired. Coaching services can be offered anywhere in the US.

Approaches

Whether you choose counseling or coaching, my therapeutic approaches are:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) Informed
• Narrative Therapy Informed
• Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) Certified (for trauma)
• Gottman Method Certified (for couples)
• Working from a Christian faith-based perspective, if desired by the client