Coaching IS: Therapeutic, NOT Therapy
Coaching is one of the most misunderstood tools in business and leadership. It’s often confused with consulting, mentoring, or even therapy or performance management. As a result, its real value and potential to transform people and conversations is overlooked.
As coaching becomes more common in organizational settings, leadership development, and professional and personal growth, it’s worth slowing down to clarify what coaching actually IS and just as importantly, what it IS NOT. This series is meant to bring nuance, realism, and clarity to the conversation, grounded in practical experience rather than hype. Because when coaching is understood properly, it can be a powerful support for how people think, lead, and work.
“Coaching can feel therapeutic. Clients often describe it as energizing, clarifying, and even healing in its own way. But it is not therapy. Coaching exists to amplify strengths, clarify goals, and help you thrive in your career and business.”
The concepts of coaching and therapy get confused but they are quite simple. Coaching is provided by coaches. Ideally those who are certified and trained. Therapy is provided by therapists. For them to use the title “therapist” they are required to be certified (registered, regulated) which requires training.
Where things get muddy is when you think about the therapeutic benefits of both. The word “therapeutic,” by definition, speaks to healing of disease, but over time this word has been generalized to something that makes you feel better, or even good. People call many things “therapeutic.”
When people hear the word coaching, it’s common for their minds to drift toward therapy; hiring someone to help you work through your goals, intentions, or to move problems through to solutions. It’s true that coaching can feel deeply therapeutic. It can reduce stress, provide clarity, and leave you feeling lighter. But coaching is not therapy.
Think of it this way: therapy is like repairing a cracked foundation, while coaching is designing the dream renovation once the structure is sound. Both are valuable, but they serve different purposes.
For entrepreneurs, business owners, healthcare providers, lawyers, and leaders, this distinction matters. Understanding it helps you choose the right support at the right time and ensures you get the outcomes you’re really looking for.
Why People Confuse Coaching and Therapy
Both coaching and therapy involve meaningful conversations and reflection. They share a few key traits:
Confidential conversations in a safe, judgment-free environment.
Skilled listening and questioning that uncover new insights.
A focus on growth to help make life or work better.
Because of these similarities, many assume coaching is “therapy by another name.” But that’s not the case. Coaching doesn’t replace therapy, and therapy doesn’t replace coaching. They serve different, complementary purposes.
The most important distinction, however, is that coaching is provided by coaches. Ideally, by those who are certified and trained in coaching. Therapy is provided by therapists who are required to be trained in their therapy field. People cannot use the title therapist without the necessary qualifications.
The Purpose of Therapy
Therapy (under the lens of counseling) is primarily about:
Healing from an experience or event that impacts mental or emotional health. This might mean processing unresolved trauma, grief, loss, or coping with mental health challenges and experiences.
Treating conditions. Working with diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, or PTSD.
Restoring functioning. Supporting people in coping with daily life when challenges feel overwhelming, and they cannot engage in the things that matter.
Changing and challenging behaviors, habits, and mindsets using proven models and theories of practice.
For example:
A healthcare professional experiencing clinical burnout may need therapy to rebuild mental health before making major career changes.
A business leader navigating panic attacks may be off work or needing therapy to stabilize their condition before being able to effectively manage work responsibilities.
The Purpose of Coaching
Coaching, on the other hand, is about:
Action and forward momentum. Defining goals, clarifying priorities, understanding barriers, and taking purposeful action.
Unlocking potential. Building on strengths and expanding what’s already working.
Building accountability. Staying aligned with commitments and moving consistently toward growth.
Examples include:
An entrepreneur uses coaching to refine a business model, build strategy, create systems, and build a stronger team.
A law firm partner works with a coach to build a new service or sales model to bring in more clients or to improve current relationships.
A business owner leans on coaching to step into a leadership role instead of getting stuck in day-to-day operations.
Coaching assumes a baseline of wellness and works with you to achieve higher performance, better clarity, and stronger results. Think about coaching in sport. You can be coached in your sport if you are injured. Therapy heals the injury, and the coach helps with performance.
Coaching as Therapeutic
So why do people describe coaching as therapeutic? Because it often delivers outcomes that feel healing:
It feels good to be heard. Coaching provides a rare and protected space to think out loud without judgment.
It offers clarity. Sorting through competing priorities reduces overwhelm.
It builds confidence. Celebrating progress and identifying strengths restores energy.
It provides a decision-making ally. Being an owner in a business can be isolating and lonely. Making decisions can feel daunting. Having structured guidance lightens the mental load and improves the weight often felt by entrepreneurs.
In this way, coaching is therapeutic in outcome; it can bring peace of mind, fresh motivation, and hope. But again, it is not therapy.
When Coaching is the Right Choice
Choose coaching if you want to:
Clarify your business vision and strategy.
Improve time management and productivity.
Strengthen leadership and communication skills.
Gain confidence in decision-making.
Build systems for growth and sustainability.
Example: A business owner expanding to multiple locations may use coaching to create a strategic roadmap, define leadership roles, and set clear accountability measures.
When Therapy is the Right Choice
Choose therapy if you need to:
Address mental health concerns like depression, anxiety, or trauma.
Process grief, loss, or emotional distress.
Learn coping strategies for day-to-day functioning.
Heal from past events that still affect your present.
Build coping and stress resiliency through mental and emotional strategies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or behavioral activation.
Example: An entrepreneur grieving a personal loss might benefit from therapy to process emotions before turning to coaching for business growth strategies.
When Coaching and Therapy Work Together
It doesn’t have to be “either/or.” Many people benefit from both, including me.
In my own life, I often used therapy to discuss and unpack thoughts and feelings regarding roles at home, my relationships with those around me, and parenting concerns, strategies, and challenges.
Then I used coaching in my business to have a monthly accountability partner for my strategic plan, to talk through the “problem de jour,” to challenge me on business decisions, and to keep me focused on metrics and actions that helped garner my success.
I work with clients who are also receiving therapy. Sometimes we joke about which conversation is for whom, and while I can wear a therapy hat, I work hard to stay in my coaching lane.
A Guide to Decision Making
If you think you might benefit from therapy, you are right. You will. Even just pondering therapy means you need it. THERAPY.
If you are struggling to process thoughts and feelings, and these are impacting your roles at home, work, and beyond? THERAPY.
If you find yourself tearing easily, getting angry quickly, isolating from others, pondering major personal life changes, or struggling to manage daily routines? THERAPY.
If you have unresolved experiences with loss or trauma, and these show up for you regularly and without warning? THERAPY.
If you are showing up for work regularly but experience stress with decision-making, task management, or a lack of work direction? COACHING.
If you have goals that you keep recycling without movement? COACHING.
If you have a dream for your work or life, and don’t know where to start? COACHING.
If you want to sit across from someone who will hold you accountable for what you did (and didn’t do) to progress your goals last week? COACHING.
If you want to share the thrills and terror of owning a business with someone other than your family? COACHING.
Want to make a bold career or work move, or learn skills to lead better? COACHING.
Final Thoughts: Coaching as a Catalyst, Not a Cure
Coaching can feel therapeutic. Clients often describe it as energizing, clarifying, and even healing in its own way. But it is not therapy. Coaching exists to amplify strengths, clarify goals, and help you thrive in your career and business.
If you need to heal, recover, unpack thoughts and feelings, therapy is the right path. If you’re ready to grow and move forward at work, coaching is your partner. And if you’re unsure, remember, investing in yourself might require both. Build the team you need to create the life you want.
