Bonus Episode: Coaching & Therapy

This bonus episode was created to help share the difference between life coaching and therapy.  What do life coaches do though and how does it differ from therapy?

 Some life coaches are trained and some are not. All therapist must have a license however. In general, life coaches are utilizing their own life experience to help their clients navigate their current life obstacles. Some life coaches use personal development tools they learned in training programs, for instance, I use the Energy Leadership Index with my clients, a tool created by Bruce D. Schneider, founder of the iPEC program.

 Life coaches typically don't give advice as they're supposed to be teaching you how to make choices and follow your own intuition. It's the reason so many of ask so many questions. We believe we all actually do have our answers, we just don't trust ourselves. Life coaches generally focus on moving you forward in your life after you've done your unpacking of the past. Now a therapist is a trained health professional who may hold several degrees. They sometimes specialize in one area like trauma, eating disorders or relationship coaching. Therapist are trained to help you unpack what happened in the past so you can heal. Sometimes, I admit, life coaches do have to have some context for where your thought patterns and habits may have been created so we'll ask some questions of your past for context.

I believe a great life coach is one that listens really well, has great empathy and has not agenda of their own. I believe these are the same important attributes I look for in a therapist as well. Both life coaching and therapist can have life changing benefits and I believe they can work well together if the client has done the bulk of their past  healing with their therapist first. Not everyone is ready for a life coach, and that may just mean they're still very much attached to "what happened" which will make it very challenging to move forward with a life coach. Remember, there are amazing life coaches and not so amazing life coaches. There are amazing therapist and not so amazing therapist.  I hope this episode was helpful in shedding some light between the two professions. 

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