The Difference Between Therapy and Life Coaching

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Apr 19

Starting off your own personal development and healing journey can be intimidating. While working to improve your mental and emotional well-being can absolutely be done on your own (shoutout to all our awesome members - we see you!), here at The Self-Care Space, we’re super excited that the stigma around seeking mental health support continues to decline and more individuals are feeling empowered to seek out the help of professionals that can guide them on their journey!

In today’s article, we’d like to answer one of the most common questions that we see from those who are looking into any type of professional support. And that is:

What is the difference between a therapist and a life coach? And how do I choose which one to work with?

Our goal is to break down the difference between the work of a therapist and that of a life coach so that you can feel empowered to make an informed choice on what’s best for you.

What is therapy?

When we talk about therapy, we’re generally referring to the process in which we work with a mental healthcare professional to diagnose and resolve unwanted behavior or feelings as well as treat mental illnesses/disorders.

This type of work can focus on past or present behaviors, limiting beliefs, relationship issues and even physical responses that result from any of these problems. Usually, this process will take place in regular sessions with a therapist until the point where your therapist decides that you don’t need therapy any longer.

By working with a therapist, you’ll be able to get help with:

Making sense of any negative experiences/emotions in your life
Recovering from any past or present trauma
Understanding why a past or present relationship wasn’t/isn’t working
Learning to work with depression or anxiety that may affect your daily life
Learning to cope with grief/hurt/pain of a divorce, breakup or loss of a loved one

What is Life Coaching?

Life coaching on the other hand usually refers to the process of working with a coach (who is not a healthcare professional) in order to clarify specific goals, increase motivation and identify specific roadblocks in your life that are keeping you from achieving your desired results. This can be a long-term process like therapy but it’s more likely to be set up in short-term coaching programs or session packages that guide you through a specific curriculum.

A life coach will generally take your current starting point as neutral ground and help you identify the actionable steps you need to take from that point onward. While they might help you with similar problems as a therapist, their goal isn’t to help you understand and heal from past problems, it’s to focus on the future and motivate you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

The variety of areas where a life coach can offer guidance is also quite different from a therapist. Depending on their focus, a life coach might help you with:

Specifying personal or career goals/dreams and making them a reality
Learning to improve your daily health/fitness/wellness habits
Improving your relationship and communication skills
Improving your overall financial situation
Starting and growing a successful business
Developing your untapped talents (creative, athletic, etc.)
Improving management or leadership skills

What are the key differences?

So now that we’ve understood what therapists and life coaches do, let’s break down the most basic differences between the two a bit further.

Quick disclaimer: One thing we do want to mention is that of course, these differences aren’t 100% set in stone. You’ll absolutely find both therapists and life coaches that work beyond these “limitations” and reach into the realm of the other profession. However, in order to understand what type of work might be most beneficial for you, we’ll go ahead and break down where they differ on average.

Here is a quick overview of the differences we find noteworthy (therapist vs. life coach):

General Focus: mental health (past) vs. specific life goals (future)
Qualification/Education: licensed mental health professional vs. (self-)trained coach
Goal: learning how to heal vs. learning how to achieve specific goals
Timeframe: continued regular session (with an open-end) vs. long or short-term programs
Way of working: introspective/reflective vs. actionable
Payment: insurance vs. out-of-pocket

To make the difference even more clear, let’s look at an analogy from the sports world. You might imagine two professional athletes who are at different points in their professional careers.

Athlete A is completely new to the profession. They are in great shape and have no physical injuries, but since they aren’t very experienced yet, they might benefit from working with a performance coach to improve their overall athletic performance. Maybe they could learn more about the strategies and tactics of the game or improve the daily habits that other athletes have found to be crucial to their success.

Athlete B on the other hand has been playing successfully for years but has just healed from a physical injury (like a broken bone or a torn muscle). They don’t need a performance coach to tell them how to play the game. Instead, they might benefit from the work of a health professional such as a physiotherapist to help them recover and learn specific strategies to prevent any future issues related to their injury.

In this example, the physiotherapist would be the therapist. They are in charge of your overall emotional and mental health and can help you heal, recover and improve your well-being in the long run. The performance coach would be the life coach. They have knowledge and expertise in a field that you wish to master and can coach you through the process to help you improve.

Therapist vs. life coach: which one should you choose?

Based on that example, you might already have an idea of whether a therapist or a life coach would be a better fit for you. In general, we’ll say that which path you choose will completely depend on your current situation and most likely also be different across time.

If you’re just starting out on your personal healing journey or you’ve recently gone through an intense negative experience or change, you might thrive under the guidance of a therapist. Whereas those who are already on their way but are feeling stuck for whatever reason might prefer to work with a life coach.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to seeking help on your personal development journey which is why it’s important to understand yourself, your current needs and the different professions in the field so you can choose whichever will be the perfect fit for you.

Another thing to consider is that your choice between a therapist and a life coach doesn’t have to be either-or. The work of a therapist can go beautifully hand-in-hand with the work of a life coach. Therapy might be a great first step to help you uncover limiting beliefs, insights and issues from your past and that knowledge can then be used to work with a life coach who can help you apply those insights to your life and implement the necessary changes successfully.

At The Self Care Space, we offer self-guided programming that is based on a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques and holistic life coaching, along with lots of expert-led events to support your healing journey every step of the way.

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