Coaching and therapy are among many helping professions.

The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” The American Psychological Association (APA) defines psychotherapy as “the informed and intentional application of clinical methods and interpersonal stances derived from established psychological principles for the purpose of assisting people to modify their behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and/or other personal characteristics in directions that the participants deem desirable.”

The main distinctions between coaching and psychotherapy are based on focus, purpose, and population. Coaching focuses on visioning, success, the present, and moving into the future. Therapy emphasizes psychopathology, emotions, and the past in order to understand the present. The purpose of coaching is frequently about performance improvement, learning, or development in some area of life while therapy often dives into deep-seated emotional issues to work on personal healing or trauma recovery.

Coaching tends to work with well-functioning individuals whereas therapy work tends to be for individuals with some level of dysfunction or disorder. As an analogy, a coach is like an athletic trainer while a therapist is like a medical doctor specializing in sports medicine.

Reference: REFERRING A CLIENT TO THERAPY: A SET OF GUIDELINES, INTERNATIONAL COACH FEDERATION

Coaching is distinct from the advice-giving practices of experts, consultants, or mentors in that it supports the client to seek their answers from their own resources. In this way, the client is able to recognize and strengthen their ability to draw upon their own capacity and wisdom to chart the course for themselves, and thus to develop their inner trust in their own resourcefulness. Effectively, they “learn to fish” for themselves.

While consulting approaches vary widely, it is often assumed that the consultant or expert diagnoses problems, then advises and sometimes implements the most effective solutions. These experts typically offer a tested and proven process that is specialized in its application, and is almost always based on the consultant’s particular expertise and experience. As a result, the role of the expert is to help an individual see things from the expert’s frame of reference, knowledge and skills.

A strong distinction between mentoring and coaching is that a mentor has traveled a particular path or developed a level of experience or expertise that enables them to guide or teach others “how to” based on the mentor’s idyllic pathway. Although some professional coaches include mentoring as part of their coaching process, professional coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach. Instead, they use questions that invite the client to find their own resources and reliable mentors within their own lives versus relying upon the coach for all the answers and suggestions.

Reference: COACHING DISTINCTIONS, COACH TRAINING WORLD

If you consider yourself to have a curious and learning mindset, then you are at the right place. I’ve come across many highly creative thinkers in all kinds of professions, e.g. entrepreneurs, researchers, home makers… Remember your job title doesn’t define you, and you don’t need a traditional creative job title to live creatively.

Don’t worry. I provide structure and guidance throughout the coaching process. The results of coaching can vary greatly among people, depending on one’s actions and preferred speed of change. Failure only occurs when there’s no learning or action. As long as you are open to new learnings and take steps, you will make progress. Any intentional action towards your aspirations is you demonstrating growth and success.

I obtained my 150+ hours of professional coach training with Whole Person Coaching (WPC) methods, developed by Feroshia R.J. Knight, a master coach and educator. WPC is a holistic, transformational learning process based on the premise that when one comes to fully embody and embrace their whole self, they are positioned to thrive in all aspects of life. It recognizes the inter-relatedness of all aspects of life, and it engages the client’s whole being through intellectual, emotional, somatic, and relational knowing. WPC is a system grounded in scientific theory and backed by the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Integrity, collaboration, inclusivity, and transparency are core values in my practice. My coaching also complies with ICF code of ethics, which you can reference here: https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics.