I know I need help but do I need a life coach or a therapist? I'll help you see
the difference today. And yes, there is a difference. I know because I've been both
a life coach and a therapist. As a professional psychologist, I've got some
experience in both of those arenas. Let me help to define for you what the
difference might be. First of all, think of your emotions, your mental health, your
psychology your relationships. Everything that makes up your experience basically.
If we put that on a spectrum or a continuum, clear over here on the left
end of that continuum, is the sick end. So that's where we have diagnosis, pathology
treatment, all that fun stuff is over here. What's on the other end? This is
where I get kind of excited because on the other end, well to understand that
let's go to the middle first. The middle is health. Meaning not sick. You'd think
that health is the opposite of sick right? I'm just putting it in the middle
to mean not sick. So you could be sick in bad, fever, throwing up the whole 9
hours. There comes a time you can get out of bed and you're not sick.
But that doesn't mean you're truly fit. Thriving, prospering that's over here on
this end of the spectrum. Therapy belongs over here on this end of the spectrum. It
is for the purpose of diagnosing and treating disease or disorder or problems.
Coaching is on this end of the spectrum and there's some overlap in the middle.
Okay, everybody's got issues. Welcome to earth that's how we roll here. There's a
lot of issues however that we face in our regular
life. Stress, mild forms of depression or anxiety, relationship conflicts, questions
about life purpose. That's all middle of the spectrum and I
don't think it means that you're sick. Probably means that you're human. So it
doesn't really fit well into the therapy category. But it might respond really
well to life coaching. So when we ask the question do I need a coach or a
therapist? The first distinction we want to make is the pathology distinction.
When I worked as a psychotherapist in my psychology practice, I focused on this
end of the spectrum. I would bring my clients in give them a diagnosis. Work up
a treatment plan, build their insurance company for payment and see if we could
work them along that treatment plan to the point where they could get out of
bed or no longer qualify for the diagnosis.
Well that's about the same
time the insurance company would pull the plug and stop paying for services
because it's no longer medically necessary.
Well I knew, my clients knew that there's more. There's so much more. We've
followed principles that have got us up to this point what would happen if we
continued to work toward this other end. Now it's not therapy because it's not
medically necessary. We don't even qualify for a diagnosis at
this point. That's where coaching comes in. Now I have a neighbor who keeps
telling me almost insisting. Dr. Paul, it's the same thing. Well, not really. We
may apply some of the same principles, we may talk about some of the same issues,
we may even engage in some of the same activities. But it is not the same thing
because of the focus and the definitions and the way that that's set up. Now
here's another difference and you got to watch out for this
you're trying to decide, "Do I need a coach or a therapist therapists?" People
who work on this end of the spectrum are licensed to do so by the state. There are
certain industries and disciplines that can qualify to become a therapist which
is a licensed activity. You have to have a license from the state in order to do
therapy. What about coaching? In most areas
license is not required to do coaching. Now that's good news if you want to be a
coach. It's also the bad news because it means that the whole industry is filled
with people who've just decided they wanted to do it, anybody can hang up
their shingle as a life coach. You have to go through some credentialing and
training in order to be a therapist. And so you have some assurances that if
you're on this end of the spectrum, if you're dealing with some mental health
issues that need some competent care, you've at least got someone who knows
what they're doing. Over here you don't have that kind of an assurance and so
you have to be very judicious about who you engage to assist you with coaching.
Now the good news and the bad news are the same thing. Anybody can get into the
industry. That's something that you need to watch out for if you're on the
consumer end and you're trying to decide which one am I going to hire a therapist
or coach. If you don't want to diagnosis, just realize that in most areas of
therapy that is required and you will probably get one. If you don't want to
pay out of pocket, you want to use your insurance benefit that's not going to be
covered in coaching. But it might be covered in therapy. So these are some of
the distinctions that you might want to watch out for. You might be wondering, "Dr.
Paul why did you shift over from this side over to this side? You know what
quite frankly, it's because I love it. It's because I get lit up about how people
can create and live a life that they love. I'm really good at the therapy end
of things, I practiced it for almost 13 years. Doing therapy helping people to
work through the treatment plan and get to a point where they're not sick and
and I love that but not as much as I love this. I love taking people from this
point to where they can actually be. And a coach isn't the hero. You think about a
sports analogy for example. The coach is usually on the sidelines. Observing,
pointing out or bringing to awareness things that the players are the athletes
or the performers can do in order to reach a higher level of performance. A
higher level of excellence or achievement. That's what a coach does. I'm
like the guide on the side that helps them to get out of their own way and go
do their thing. Every one of us is dealing with internal barriers. I've been
able to use my experience in clinical psychology to apply to this end of the
spectrum over here and see some really phenomenal results. It's exciting to see
that happen and I can even train other people to do it, The sports analogy is
actually kind of useful. When we think about our emotions, our relationships, our
goals, what it is that we want to accomplish with our business or in our
personal life? There are things that get in our way. A coach can help us see that
and get out of our way to move forward. Just another final note, I have noticed
as I've started to train and certify coaches in my models that people who
have experience over here. Therapists and counselors and mental health
professionals, already have a skill set that is well designed to move them over
to this end of the spectrum if they choose to go that direction with their
particular practice or career. The same tools and skills and
tributes can be applied on either end of that spectrum to help people in some
phenomenal ways. So the answer to your question might be that you could use
both. It might be that you could use a therapist. That's okay. It might be then a
coach would be the perfect fit for you. Maybe you weren't even aware that this
was an option for you. I want you to look at the resources that are available at
liveonpurpose.coach.