What is life coaching?

Life coaches draw on their specialized education, unique life experiences, and targeted training to help people identify and work toward key personal development goals. Coaches guide clients through a variety of specialized approaches, including targeted questioning, visualization exercises, and reframing techniques. Coach practitioners may also use methods borrowed from mental health disciplines like psychotherapy. For instance, some coaches draw on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) models.

What is the difference between coaching and therapy?

Coaching is different from psychotherapy — it neither is nor purports to be, a substitute for psychotherapy. In addition to being a coach, I am also a therapist licensed in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Texas, with training and experience in diagnosing and treating emotional problems. While there are some similarities between coaching and psychotherapy, they are very different endeavors and it is important to understand the differences between them. Psychotherapy is a healthcare service and is usually reimbursable through health insurance policies.  This is not true for coaching. Both coaching and psychotherapy utilize knowledge of human behavior, motivation, behavioral change, and interactive counseling techniques.  The major differences are in the focus, goals, and level of professional responsibility. Therapy is about helping you to identify what particular life experiences you've had that limit the way that you show up and how you see yourself in this world. This observation aligns with the core focus of therapy on confronting and resolving the past. Meanwhile, life coaching looks toward the future. While life coaches consider their clients' personal histories, they constantly orient them toward empowered, decisive, future-facing action.

What are some benefits of coaching?

There are many areas a coach can help, such as helping a client:

• Boost self-confidence and self-awareness

• Build healthier and more reliable decision-making abilities

• Achieve clarity on personal and professional goals and paths

• Find new ways to take strong, determined actions toward key objectives

• Maximize potential