Coaching Archives -

The Difference Between Life Coaching and Therapy

rfuzgamy — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 14:55:07 +0000

The Difference Between Life Coaching and Therapy

Coaching

While life coaching and therapy do have similarities, it’s important to recognize the differences in order to get the best results for your life.

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.”

It’s All About Daily Functioning

Both coaching and therapy are collaborative processes that are client driven and goal oriented. Both have the goal of helping people to live better, more fulfilling lives. The differences essentially come down to the scope and focus of services.

Coaching assumes that a client has a high level of daily functioning in one or more areas of life on a regular basis. Daily functioning (p. 4+) can refer to any area of life, including eating, grooming, work, and personal life.

Unlike therapy, coaching does not diagnose or directly treat mental illness of any kind, including depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, substance use disorder, or others.

Coaching is almost exclusively focused on client actions and results in relation to specific and measurable goals, generally over a designated period of time. Once those goals have been accomplished then the coaching relationship comes to an end.

Therapy, on the other hand, emphasizes psychopathology, emotions, and the past in order to understand the present. Therapists diagnose and directly treat a variety of mental illnesses in order to help clients heal and improve their level of daily functioning.

This may involve working with trauma, mood disorders, and other conditions that prevent an individual from coping effectively with past and present circumstances.

Unlike coaching, therapy may continue for an extended period of time to help clients maintain stability and manage coping skills.

Do I Need a Coach or Therapist?

The decision to seek out a life coach or therapist is a personal one. Consider this analogy (p. 6) from the sports world to help you in your decision making process. A coach is like an athletic trainer, while a therapist is like a medical doctor specializing in sports medicine. Both draw from a similar body of knowledge.

The trainer (coach) assumes that the athlete is essentially sound in body and is focused on improving fitness and performance. The trainer will refer the athlete to the team doctor (therapist) if there is reason to believe he or she has an injury. The doctor (therapist) may refer the athlete to the trainer (coach) when healing has taken place and there is a desire for higher levels of growth and development.

Similarly, coaches and therapists work with the same material but with different skill sets and to different ends. A coach may explore the past, family life, or emotions of their client in the service of understanding the client’s origin stories being told about the present and future. However, a coach does not diagnose nor does a coach offer treatment.

The Best of Both Worlds

It is possible for individuals to experience high levels of daily functioning in one area of life and not in others. Coaching may be an appropriate fit for those who are also seeing a qualified therapist to help them in areas of lower functioning, such as depression or PTSD. Likewise, therapy may be appropriate for some coaching clients when functioning becomes impaired and limits progress on goals.

In either case, the coach or therapist should always consult with the client to discuss the alternatives so that the client can make an informed decision.

To Sum It Up

A life coach can offer guidance by:

Clarifying and achieving personal and professional goals
Creating personal and professional mission statements
Working to improve communication skills
Helping you to achieve a sense of purpose and passion
Developing work/life balance
Launching a new business
Developing leadership strengths

A therapist can help you to:

Recover from past traumas
Explore why past relationships have been destructive
Work through depression or anxiety that affect your ability to function at home or work
Survive a divorce or loss of a loved one
Learn coping skills to manage disorders and addictions

Next Steps

Regardless of whether you would benefit most from coaching or therapy, the most important step is the first one. Reach out today and get the help you need to start living your best life.

Discover strength.
Find purpose.
Embrace life.

Get In Touch

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What is Professional Recovery Coaching?

rfuzgamy — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 14:37:00 +0000

What is Professional Recovery Coaching?

Coaching, Treatment

Professional recovery coaching is a unique support role in the field of addiction recovery care

At its core, professional recovery coaching is about helping another person achieve lasting sobriety for addictive disorders, either following treatment and clinical care, or after finding a way to stop on their own. It’s also about helping someone to reduce their intake of addictive substances, or acting less on compulsive behaviors, before full-blown addiction sets in.

But it’s not treatment. And it’s not therapy. So what exactly is it?

There are many definitions for the evolving role of the professional recovery coach. The one that we use as Certified Professional Recovery Coaches (CPRC) comes from the organization that provided training for several of our coaches:

“Recovery coaching is a strengths-based process which helps individuals remove personal and environmental barriers to recovery and take action towards the realization of their visions, goals, and desires.” – The International Association of Professional Recovery Coaches (IAPRC)

With its roots in the field of professional life coaching, recovery coaching is a solution-focused partnership designed to assist people in making profound, lasting changes in their lives. It’s centered on addiction recovery, but includes all other areas of life too.

Recovery coaching answers the question “What’s next?” following treatment, intensive outpatient programs, trauma therapy, and when a level of personal stability has been restored.

It also answers the question “What if I stop now?” before addiction sets in, while the individual still has a sense of choice and control over their substance use or compulsive behavior.

Who recovery coaching is for:

Put simply, recovery coaching is for people who want to stop and think they can – or for people who have stopped and want to stay that way.

In the image below, professional recovery coaches serve people above the dark blue line going from left to right through the “V” shaped graphic. They help raise awareness and prevent losses on the left side (green and yellow sections), and help sustain recovery and enhance wellbeing on the right side (orange and blue sections).

For all others who fall below the dark blue line on the image (orange and red potions at bottom of “V” section), a heightened level of care is required because clinical addiction is involved. Recovery coaches do not provide primary care for people with addictive disorders at this stage. That work is for licensed clinical professionals. But, they can be included as part of any professional recovery team in a non-clinical support role.

What recovery coaching is not:

Professional recovery coaching is sometimes confused with other one-on-one forms of personal support such as an addictions counselor, peer recovery specialist, 12-step sponsor, sober escort, or sober companion.

Recovery coaching isn’t therapy

Addiction counselors diagnose and treat active addictions and underlying mental health disorders to achieve initial sobriety. Recovery coaches use a collaborative process for developing strengths and enhancing wellbeing in order to achieve longterm sobriety.

Professional recovery coaches (PRCs) are not licensed professionals like counselors and therapists. They do not diagnose, treat, or cure any mental health condition, substance use disorder, process addiction, or any other medical condition.

PRCs may be credentialed (ex. Certified Professional Recovery Coach), and often have high quality training from reputable providers. They possess practical knowledge of recovery models, change theory, motivational interviewing, family systems, and health and wellbeing.

While they don’t develop clinical treatment plans like counselors and therapists, PRCs do actively assist in developing addiction recovery plans and partnering with clients to stay accountable to aftercare plans.

In general, counselors help individuals move from a state of dysfunction to a functional way of living. PRCs take if from there by helping people move from functional to optimal living, with an emphasis on longterm sobriety, wellbeing, and purpose.

Recovery coaching isn’t a peer recovery specialist

Peer recovery support specialists serve as role models using their personal experience to support others in recovery. Recovery coaches acknowledge individual autonomy and are open to multiple pathways of recovery.

Peer recovery support specialists are by definition people who are in recovery themselves. They use basic training, along with their lived experience, as a primary means of helping others. They are often regulated by the state they reside in and are typically part of clinical treatment teams and community recovery programs. Generally, peer recovery support specialists are not trained in professional coaching.

A PRC may or may not be in recovery themselves. Their primary means of helping others comes from the field of professional coaching, supplemented with research-based knowledge of addiction recovery. They are currently not regulated by the state they reside in, may work on their own or alongside a larger recovery team, and are not directly involved in clinical treatment.

Peer recovery support specialists play a crucial role along the continuum of addiction care, especially during treatment and into early recovery. They act as trained mentors to help others gain confidence and learn new ways to live without substances or compulsive behaviors. PRCs, on the other hand, are not mentors as much as they are trained professionals. They facilitate a client-led process of self-discovery and profound change leading to meaningful, fulfilling, longterm sobriety.

Recovery coaching isn’t a 12-step sponsor

A sponsor is an unpaid peer from a 12-step community support group who agrees to serve as a guide and resource for others. Recovery coaches are paid professionals who provide a transformational space for self-directed growth and development.

Sponsors work with individuals in a service role as part of a mutual support group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Al-Anon, and many others. They use their experience, strength, and hope to walk alongside newcomers in working through the 12 step program while acting as an encouraging mentor.

PRCs work with clients in a professional role and are not limited to any one recovery pathway or any specific community support group. They help clients to set their own agenda in developing a recovery plan, which may or may not include 12 step support groups. Other community support options can include SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, Wellbriety, and additional local or specialty groups.

Recovery coaching isn’t a sober escort

Sober escorts are paid professionals who provide direct transport for individuals in recovery. Recovery coaches encourage autonomy and partner with clients to discover empowering ways to meet their own needs.

Sober escorts are often employed when high accountability is needed for someone who is at high risk of returning to substance use or engaging in compulsive behaviors. They serve as an ever-present traveling companion in charge of ensuring that an individual arrives safe and sound at their destination. This can be a trip to the grocery store, the office, the therapist, the courthouse, or an international event.

PRCs do not provide transportation services for their coaching clients. Instead, they work together to find resources and develop transportation plans that they can then carry out on their own. This may mean using public transportation, asking friends in recovery for rides, or hiring a sober escort to get them where they need to go if they believe they are at risk for relapse.

Recovery coaching isn’t a sober companion

Sober companions are paid professionals who directly assist with the life of an individual in recovery. PRCs create goals with clients to help them develop confidence and healthy habits for living life on their terms.

Sober companions are hired to help with many, or all, aspects of daily life. They are generally in recovery themselves and often have some level of medical and/or addiction recovery training. They may provide limited services a few times a week, most days of the week, or even live on site with their clients for higher service needs. Their role is to help individuals to learn how to live without substances or compulsive behaviors through very high accountability, intensive mentoring, and regular support.

PRCs provide a much more limited scope of services within the context of coaching sessions and intermittent contact in between sessions as needed. The autonomy of the client is first and foremost. PRCs main focus is to help individuals discover inner strengths, develop basic skills, and demonstrate the confidence to learn ways of living a healthy, happy, purposeful life.

Benefits of recovery coaching

Professional recovery coaching can provide a number of tangible and intangible benefits to clients, including:

Learning new ways to live without alcohol
Exploring what “fun” is for you without substances
Developing an individualized recovery plan
Clarifying your personal strengths and values
Staying accountable to your own goals
Cultivating greater resilience, mindfulness, and wellbeing
Experiencing greater peace and satisfaction
Finding more purpose and meaning in life

To sum it up

Professional recovery coaching is a unique support role in the field of addiction recovery care. It has important differences from an addictions counselor, peer recovery specialist, 12-step sponsor, sober escort, and sober companion.

Recovery coaching helps people to achieve lasting sobriety from substance use disorders and compulsive behaviors following clinical treatment.

It also helps people who want to stop, and think they can, to develop healthy habits and a plan to reduce or eliminate substances and compulsive behaviors altogether before addiction sets in.

Reflect and connect

How is professional recovery coaching different from your experiences or perceptions of therapy, peer recovery support, 12-step sponsors, sober escorts, or sober companions?
What can you apply from this article to your own personal or professional growth plan?
How could recovery coaching potentially benefit you or those you serve?

Connect with us to share your thoughts.

Discover strength.
Find purpose.
Embrace life.

Get In Touch

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