You may have reached the stage in your life where you are interested in your personal growth and well-being.
Now, the question that you may be asking yourself is what kind of professional to hire for the best results and what is the difference between a life coach vs therapist?
In this article, I hope to shed some light on the topic of hiring a personal life coach vs therapist to make the choice simple and easy for you.
The biggest difference between life coach vs therapist is where we focus our work.
A life coach sets YOU up with the processes and skills that you’ll need to eventually help yourself.
We will supply you with various tools and techniques; to pick and choose from; that you can continue to use without having us around for many years to come.
Yes, we do offer individual sessions or monthly subscription packages should you need to vent; make a difficult decision; handle any life challenge that comes up suddenly, but I know of many people (myself included in the past) who had standing appointments with their therapists for exceptionally long periods of time.
You see, therapy is open-ended with no set end-date when you start, and this comes at huge costs!
They may charge anything between R800 (50 USD) to R1500 (94 USD) per hour and generally earn more than double what a coach does annually.
Coaching is goal focused and has end-dates attached to those goals.
Coaches are all about helping you to take – and be in – control of yourself and your life. The focus is on your own personal empowerment.
A life coach is a facilitator that makes an action or process easy or easier and someone who supports you no matter what’s going on in your life and world!
Here are the 9 major reasons why I believe you should hire a coach vs a therapist
- Therapists look at mental stress, but life coaches look toward your happiness and you achieving fulfilment in your life
- Therapists focus on illnesses and look into emotional resolutions whereas coaches focus on creating an entire new life path which encompasses all your major life areas – Mind, Body and Soul
- Therapists focus mainly on the present and past, but coaches focus more on the present and future and hold a preverbal mirror up in front of you so that you can look forward from the past
- Therapy may cost you an arm-and-a-leg in the long-term, but coaching offers you packages that give you the power to control your spend and budget
- Therapy is a long-term process whereas coaching is action orientated toward a set date
- A therapist will focus their attention on being the expert, but a coach is a partner that you can connect with who cares about your well-being and will be a mentor and unbiased accountability partner; and who will help you gain greater self-awareness
- Therapists specialize in certain areas and concentrate on your psychological workings, but coaches can guide you through all aspects of your life; from your romantic relationships, your finances, professional life, personal life and beyond; and help you plan for the future and make decisions
- Therapists tend to hold their cards close to their chests but most life coaches I know are so whole and complete that they use their personal experiences as examples for their clients to achieve the absolute best results that they can
- Therapists tend to focus only on the area that they studied in, but most life coaches have an arsenal packed full of different weapons to help their clients thrive
I myself hold Diplomas in Life Coaching, Counselling, Modern Day Applied Phycology and I have studied Applied Kinesiology and Energy Healing.
What kind of coach should you be hiring?
Unfortunately, there are many people out there who call themselves coaches based purely on what they believe is great life experience.
As coaches we do use the wisdom gained from our own personal experiences to help us coach, but we need more than a bad past to help and serve others.
There are even one hour video time ‘certified’ courses available online that ‘qualify’ you as a coach and then you’ll get charged the same rate that another person who actually studied and year or even two (and had to do practical’s and exams) would charge.
This is your life. It is not a rehearsal. You do not get another shot at it. So why not hire someone accredited and who belongs to an association who holds them accountable?
I – for example – belong to Comensa, who is the South African Professional Body of coaches and mentors who subscribe to the values of Integrity, Accountability, Inclusivity and Professional Competence. They require their members to uphold these same values. Comensa is also the 10th signatory to the Global Code of Ethics.
What is the code?
The Global Code of Ethics supports excellence in the development of coaching, mentoring, and supervision and it raises the standards of practice of the members. Comensa is listed in the company of other international professional bodies like the Association of Coaches and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
I signed this oath and I am totally committed to upholding the code of ethics – which I take very seriously.
My point is that before you hire a coach, simply ask them for their accreditation and the number of hours they have under their belt coaching. This will help you make sure that you are hiring quality services from a professional who has ‘paid their dues’ – so to speak.
Why you should hire me – a life coach vs therapist!
If you have read any of my previous articles, you are aware that I had a very rough past.
I literally grew up with no hope. This means that I had no trust in the process of life or desire for fulfilment.
I hold a history of sexual; physical; mental; emotional and verbal abuse, adoption; foster care, abandonment, addiction, divorce, cheating, blended; cross-cultural family…. and the list goes on.
Today, I am the perfect example of living the life I could only ever have dreamt of and never would have believed to become possible!!!
I am optimistic, positive, willing to apologize and admit when I am wrong and fully aware that I am – and no one is – perfect and without mis-takes.
I embrace my errors, blessons and challenges now and use them to learn and grow as a being.
As mentioned before, I have a wealth of knowledge through studies and honestly still have a passion to study further and upgrade my applied knowledge all the time.
Today I am a natural empath and healer and I know my purpose is to help and serve my community.
YOU.
And beside all of this, I have no ambition to empty your financial reservoir with endless sessions.
My intention with all of my clients is pure and I only have their best interests at heart.
I have hundreds of hours of official coaching, with two decades of unofficial coaching experience before that.
I personally have had clients not return after a program with me because they achieved their desired results; and others return a lot because changing their lives has been a process.
But why not check out who I am or my testimonials for yourself to make you feel at ease and comfy?
Everyone needs a coach. We all need people to give us feedback. That’s how we improve “
Bill Gates
I hope that I have managed to answer a lot of questions that you had about hiring a life coach vs therapist in the article.
If there is anything else you’d like to know, please contact me by hitting the big WhatsApp button below or navigate to our Contact Us page.
Yours in kindness, Taz.