Do I Need Coaching or Therapy?

It is important that the professional you are working with carefully assesses you and your concerns initially, to determine whether you can benefit more from therapy or from coaching. Everyone's needs and specific circumstances are different, which makes it extremely important to know the difference between the two methods.

Generally speaking, coaching is more focused on GOALS, rather than a problem or UPSET. Coaching is very effective for those who are NOT in crisis, nor on any psychotropic medications and have specific areas of their lives they want to enhance.

Therapy tends to focus on resolving problematic patterns and addressing reoccurring issues, managing therapeutic support with monitoring psychotropic medications, conflict resolution and on crisis intervention. Therapy can be for an individual, couple or family. In contrast, coaching is focused on the specific goals of one INDIVIDUAL, much of it related to becoming more successful in a specific area of one's life.

Therapy is more effective when done face to face so that body language and personal presentation can be added into the mix for resolving the immediate issues. Coaching on the other hand, lends itself better to a wider variety of formats, such as phone sessions or e-mail/chat sessions, because there is no immediate crisis that needs to be resolved and body language is less important in the achievement of goals.

Anna M. Losito, LMFT, PA

Licensed Psychotherapist-Professional Life Coach-Motivator