What is coaching?
How is it different than psychotherapy?
Coaching helps a relatively well-functioning person to reach a higher level of success. Coaching also helps clients leverage their strengths and develop themselves in ways that bring greater success and satisfaction in their career or personal life. A choice to do coaching is a choice to focus very specifically on goals that relate to the present and future. The past may be used as a springboard for learning, but is usually not the emphasis in coaching.
Psychotherapy, on the other hand, focuses on painful situations of the present or past and/or emotional or behavioral difficulties. Certain issues are traditionally seen as more appropriate for therapy, (rather than for coaching) such as depression, anxiety and addictions. However, in some psychotherapy modalities, people with no major issues use psychotherapy as a vehicle for personal growth.
In actuality, there is an overlap in that both modalities deal with personal growth in a variety of ways.
We could think of coaching and psychotherapy as two ends of a continuum.
One of the advantages of coaching is the ability to receive a coaching session in the convenience of your home or office, as coaching is often done over the phone. Therapy, by contrast, is usually conducted in-person in a private office setting. Only occasionally is therapy conducted over the telephone, because of the greater sensitivities involved.