Do I need a Life Coach, Therapist, or Mentor?
Do you need help in some aspect of your life but you’re not sure if you need a life coach, therapist, or mentor? Each professional serves a unique purpose and understanding the differences will help you choose who is best able to fit your needs.
What is a Life Coach and when do you need one?
The International Coaching Federation, defines coaching as: “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
Coaching is a client centered partnership. We are not mentors, consultants, therapists, or advisors. A professional coach is a partner in service of your change, growth, development and towards maximizing your potential. A professional coach will focus on forward momentum via action.
When you are ready for change, growth, development, and maximizing your potential, hire a coach. We will partner with you to help you make meaningful change in your own life.
Aren’t Life Coaches the same as Mentors?
Not exactly. A mentor gives you advice and guides you based on their knowledge and past expertise; this works well in the corporate world when you need someone to tell you the best practices for a certain career path or role.
Life coaching is different in the sense that this is not advice-giving, but instead resource-mining. As life coaches, we believe you have the answers already and we’re here to help pull them out of you. We do this through the questions we ask, our ability to hold space for you, and repeating your language to spark realizations.
We’re not opposed to sharing strategies and ideas where we feel they may help you, but often times you as the client create the best answers for you because you know what will work best for yourself.
Can I stop seeing my Therapist and just hire a Life Coach instead?
The short answer is no. While we have similarities in our ability to hold a safe, non-judgmental space for clients, therapy focuses on mental health and emotional healing. This means most therapy focuses on the past, while life coaching focuses on setting and achieving goals, i.e. the future.
If you are seeing a therapist and are considering hiring a life coach, you can have both. Keep your therapist and leverage their expertise for working through mental illness or healing past traumas. Hire a life coach to gain direction and clarity for your life, then stick with us as we help you train to achieve your goals.
Stuck on choosing the right life coach for you? Download our free guide and then check out our coaches in our Find a Coach Directory.