What is the difference between coaching and therapy?

Coaching vs. therapy: which one do you need?

People ask me this a lot, and it's a fair question. Here's the honest answer.

Grief coaching is for people whose grief is painful but not dangerous. You lost someone. You're sad, angry, foggy, exhausted, sometimes all of those in the same hour. You're functioning, more or less, but it's hard, and you feel alone in it. Coaching gives you a steady place to talk it through, practical tools for the worst moments, and help figuring out what life looks like now. We spend less time on why you feel what you feel and more time on how to live with it.

Therapy is for when grief has tangled up with something that needs clinical care. Depression that isn't lifting. Anxiety that's taken over. Trauma from how the death happened. Thoughts of not wanting to be here. A history of mental health struggles that grief has stirred back up. Therapists are licensed to diagnose and treat those things. I'm not, and I won't pretend otherwise.

Some people do both, and that works well. A therapist handles the clinical side, and I'm the person you talk to about the everyday reality of living with loss.

How I handle it. In my free consultation, and in every session after, I'm paying attention to whether coaching is actually serving you. If I think you need more than I can offer, I'll tell you directly, and I'll help you find a therapist or other resource. That isn't me turning you away. It's me taking your wellbeing seriously.

If you're in crisis right now, please don't wait for an appointment with me or anyone else. Call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time, day or night.