Coaching or therapy? What is best for me?
You are not alone, coaching or therapy can help.
A question, I am often asked, is: What is the difference between coaching and therapy and what is best for me? My answer is usually: Both approaches might address the same issue, but the way we arrive at the desired outcome, is different. In this blog post, I will give a brief overview about how I work as a coach and therapist and how I use coaching and therapy differently to work with my clients.
As a qualified and registered health and mindfulness coach and integrative therapist, both approaches have great benefits towards healing. The way I practice, might be different to others, who offer similar services, and it is important, that as a client you find what works for you and you find the coach/ therapist that you feel connected and safe with. Below, I briefly outline the main differences, and if you would like to learn more, please feel free to get in touch, hello@mindfulnessspaces.com. You can also explore my other website Yateley Therapy Space to learn more about therapy.
Coaching
In coaching, I work with you on your symptom/issue with a solution-focused lens to relieve symptoms and initiate change in the future that helps you arrive at your desired outcome. Mindfulness tools & lifestyle medicine work well in coaching and complement the solution-focused approach. To initiate change, we dynamically explore present moment experiences and move from now to future scenarios that are aligned with your desired outcome. We focus on:
What does your experience of your issues feel and look like now?
What do you want and can change?
How do you want the future to look like?
Therapy
In therapy, I work with you; the person, not just the issue you bring to therapy. We spent more time exploring how your past informs your present experience of the issue and identify why there is the issue. Clinical hypnosis, emotion-focused and embodied therapy, talking therapy and well known psychotherapeutic approaches (e.g. IFS Parts work, Gestalt therapy, CBT) support this process. To initiate change, we move from understanding the issue, to creating new meaning, new thoughts and new emotions, with the aim of integrating new desired experiences into your day-to-day life. We focus on:
Why does my issue exist?
How does the past inform my experience here and now? How can we make sense of “painful” experiences, create new meaning and move forward?
What does this mean for the future?
In a nutshell
For some, coaching works really well. There might be no need to explore the past and work through perhaps painful experiences at a deep level. Finding solutions might be sufficient to manage your issue(s), reduce symptoms and feel content and happy. For others, therapy might be better suited, and bring closure about certain issues which in turn allows you to move on and enjoy life. Therapy might be more long-term than coaching, but it depends on the issue.
