The Key Differences Between Therapy and Coaching [Ep 9]

Welcome to the Thriving therapyneur podcast. The show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue to make an impact without sacrificing the life you love, welcome Therapreneur.

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Welcome to a jam packed episode of the Thriving Therapreneur podcast. I'm your host, Carly Hill and today we're going to dive into all things therapy coaching. The difference between the two, why you might want to add coaching certification options, how to protect your license, successful niches and structures and styles of coaching. So first things first, I would love to know why you want to add coaching. And I hang out on Instagram all the time. You can slide into my DMs. It's arlyhillcoaching. But I'm always curious to hear from you, from fellow clinicians, why you're interested in adding coaching. Because it always varies. Sometimes it's location. I've had a lot of clinicians who have moved to different states or even countries. They feel limited by their license and there's some hoops that you have to jump through to get licensed in new states. So sometimes location plays a role into this and making a move. Sometimes it's career options. Maybe it's who you could work with, the money that you could make. I see this one probably the most wanting to leverage their time, leverage technology, impact more lives and make more money. So I'd be curious to hear from you and if you don't reach out, that's okay. But just have this self reflection moment about coaching. Why is it important to you? What is it gonna do for you and what's driving you towards your curiosity to learn more about coaching? Maybe it's that you've actually been coaching the whole entire time and you feel like you resonate more with coaching. This was me in my private practice when I really started to study the online coaching industry. I took a coaching certification, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. And speaking to attorneys, I was really immersed into this world because nobody really teaches us the difference between therapy and coaching. In school I was like, wow, I am actually coaching. I am not doing therapy. I was helping people with more situational, non clinical, less severe problems. Maybe that's you. Maybe you're more solution oriented, if you will. You enjoy helping people in a faster way. Now, yes, you can absolutely do this in therapy. But broadly speaking, on a high level, coaching tends to be a much shorter process between coach and client. Maybe you don't like diagnosing people or working with people who are meeting medical necessity. They're not meeting textbook DSM criteria. Maybe you want to move to completely self pay and you want to have more options. Whereas we know with therapy you have the option to take insurance or completely be self pay, whereas in coaching it's completely self pay. Maybe you're just burnt out and the work that you do is really heavy and you want to have that breath of fresh air niche where you are working with more situational, nonclinical, less severe problems. You're working with ideally healthy people. Right? So let's talk about the differences between therapy and coaching. Because some of them I agree with, some of them I don't. And if you have ever googled what the difference between therapy and coaching is, you could have been left more confused. I think one of the most common definitions is therapy talks about the past and coaching talks about the future. And these are, this is one that I don't necessarily agree with. While I understand why this definition exists, I know as both a therapist and a coach, you can talk about the past, you can talk about the present, and you can talk about the future. And that really doesn't define whether you're doing therapy or coaching. Therapy definitely focuses more on the past and the present, but it's not black and white. Whereas coaching really does focus more on the present and the future. But again, it's not black and white. It doesn't have to be this. Just because you're talking about the past doesn't mean you're no longer doing coaching. Another definition that's really common is therapy tends to focus on analyzing clients. Again, using the past to understand current behaviors and then you're working to modify this pattern. It's really this quote, unquote why? Whereas coaching is sometimes the identified problem, you accept the identified problem, you modify the problem, and it's more about the quote unquote how rather than the why. It's more about the step by step and how to modify this problem versus why does this problem exist in the first place? And psychoanalyzing deep into the past. This is Another reason why a definition of therapy says that it focuses on cognitions and thought patterns and introspection, whereas coaching focuses on behaviors and achieving goals. Helping you launch forward, helping you get unstuck, problem solving, looking at barriers. But I do know that as a therapist, you can do all of that. You're definitely problem solving and looking at barriers and helping people get unstuck and launch forward. So that's why some of these definitions I don't necessarily agree with. And there is so many nuances in coaching, you do have more flexibility in how you treat because it's not a regulated field. Where therapy, we have ethical guidelines, we have regulating bodies. Now, as a therapist and a coach, you are still held to your ethics, which is why protecting your license is something that I teach and is very important. And I have a whole episode on this. I'm going to touch on it briefly in today's episode, but as long as you're making sure that you are abiding by your ethics, protecting your license, you're good to go. I touched on this already, but therapy is usually for a longer period of time. There's no set end date. Now, this isn't always the case. It depends what modality you're using. But coaching usually does last for it's more of a set period of time. So with all of these confusing definitions and nuances that some we agree with, some we don't, some we understand why they're there. But again, it's not black and white, I'm going to give you a very simple definition that you can adapt as your own. To help you understand when you're doing therapy and when you're doing coaching.

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All right, let's get back to the episode. So I always say that therapy is treating medical necessity. It's treating medical necessity. Coaching is working with the more Situational, non clinical, less severe problems. So let's go over some examples. If somebody is experiencing panic attacks, they have agoraphobia, they cannot leave their house, they need therapy. They need to be treated for medical necessity. If somebody is a new mom and she's having anxiety going to the park, or somebody is having anxiety getting sweats standing up in the workplace for public speaking, this could be a more situational, non clinical, less severe problem that somebody could be coached through. So I believe there's a time and a space and a place for therapy, and there's a time and a space and a place for coaching. Not everybody needs coaching. Not everyone needs therapy. Some people want coaching when they really need to be treated for medical necessity. And some people think therapy is their only option when in reality they need a coach. And this is why it's important for us as clinicians to deeply understand these differences so that we can use our clinical discernment so our clients are not confused and we can lead them in the right direction. Just because somebody is meeting criteria for a mental health diagnosis doesn't mean they can't have a coach. As long as you are not treating them for medical necessity, you could be their coach and they could have their own therapist. So, for example, I had a client of mine who worked with women who were getting back into the dating realm after being in a toxic relationship. Now, a lot of these women were in domestic violence relationships, and I would say some of them met criteria for ptsd. She was not their therapist. She was not treating them for ptsd. A lot of them had their own therapist already or had been through therapy, maybe kind of hit a plateau, but they had this situational problem where they were dating again and they needed to boost their self confidence to get back into the dating world. So they came into her signature coaching program. So I hope these examples kind of clear up and help you use your clinical discernment between therapy and coaching. Because just because you're talking about emotions, you're helping them with a problem. Emotions are triggered. It doesn't mean it's therapy. Emotions are clinical. People say no, emotions are human nature. So would it be therapy if you really deeply went into the patterns, like where it stemmed from getting into generational trauma, focusing on past introspection. Okay, yeah, okay. But talking, talking, coming to a conclusion, closure, aha. Moments. And of course, if it was a diagnosable problem. But as a coach, it's like, boom, here are your tools. It's kind of focusing on that quote, unquote, how the problem is in a full blown clinical problem, you're not treating them for DSM criteria. It's that situational problem and you're helping them move through to a solution in a timely manner. So not everyone needs therapy, not everyone needs coaching and you most certainly don't need a coaching certification. Like, like I said, coaching is an unregulated field. I believe that therapists know how to coach already. We should be on the forefront of the coaching industry now. Maybe some clients would want you to have a certification. This has not been my experience, not even as a therapist. People really didn't care too much about my credentials. They just needed to know me and like me and trust me and know that I could solve their problem. So if you want to take a coaching certification because it's going to make you feel more confident if you're going to take it within your niche, like I love taking certifications and I do have a coaching certification myself. The program was ICF certified. I did not go through to get ICF certified because I didn't want to go through all of the extra hoopla to take all of the test and do the intensives because I felt like in the certification itself I didn't learn anything. I didn't learn in grad school. And I have heard that feedback often from clients. So it really depends on the type of therapist and the person you are. If you want a certification more to you, but just know that you don't have to. It's not necessary to have a coaching certification and you have the clinical knowledge and skills and tools already to coach. What's more important in my opinion, knowing that you already have this clinical background and you're in integrity with what you're offering is to learn how to monetize it. Okay, so you can call yourself a coach. Right now I deem you a coach. Try on the identity, call yourself a coach, see how it feels. But with that being said, I want you to remember as a coach you're solving non clinical problems. You still need to take the precautions to protect your license. So when we talk about protecting your license and abiding by our ethics, we're always mandated reporters. So we need to include that in our paperwork. Informed consent, mandated reporting. We need to have a coaching agreement, needs to be attorney approved. I provide this to all of my clients. You need to consult your board, do your due diligence, have a paper trail, talk to your liability insurance provider. So you need to add errors and emissions. You need to have most of the time a separate policy. But Depending on your insurance provider, sometimes you could add it on to the policy that you already have. This solely depends on the carrier that you have. You need to keep everything separate. So if you have a private practice, it's going to be separate. You can have a separate business entity, separate bank account, so your taxes are going to be separate. And you're going to keep therapy clients, Therapy clients and coaching clients. Coaching clients. You cannot move them around. It's considered a dual relationship. They can't unsee you as their therapist. And then you want to keep your marketing separate, mainly so clients don't get confused. So we talked about all these nuances between therapy and coaching and how it can be confusing for us. And we most certainly don't want our clients to be confused. Coaching options are endless. I always say riches are in the niches. Niche, niche, potato, potato, whatever you want to call it. But coaches are not successful because they're called coaches or because they have certifications. It is because they solve a very specific problem for a very specific person and they get them a specific outcome. Coaches, they embody their niche. They dial in their messaging. They have their entrepreneur hats on. Clients are attracted to coaches because of their niche and because oftentimes their niche is related to their own life story and they're relatable. So the most viable niches are going to fall into these four areas. If you're in a place to take some notes, please do so. So it's going to be health and wellness. So this can be mental or physical. It could be weight loss, autoimmune, mental illness, healers, anything. Health and wellness. Then we have wealth and business. So this is your B2B. This could be real estate, finances, accounting, money, entrepreneurship. Then we have relationships. So this could be marriage, dating, divorce, friendship, your relationship with self, your spiritual relationship. So most of my clients fall under health and wellness or relationships. I think moving from therapist to coach, that's what most people do fall under. Sometimes it's wealth and business, sometimes it's a combination. Which leads me to my last one, which is hobbies. Because sports, music, arts, creativity, sometimes you can tie your hobbies in with wellness or in with relationships or even money mindset as it relates to hobbies. So sky is the limit, the world is your oyster. When it comes to coaching, there are so many options and so many coaches that exist. The goal is just to be as specific as possible. So there's career coaches, there's health coaches, there's life coaches, mindset, financial relationship, weight loss, nutrition, productivity, confidence, stress, intimacy, communication, Resilience, social skills, conflict management, parenting, couples, family, birth, sleep, infertility, grief, divorce, retirement, life direction, business, leadership, sports, wellness, singing, dancing, writing, job skills. I mean I could go on and on. Spiritual, personal development, life purpose, focus, time management. Did I say that one? Habits, creativity, goal setting. So there's no shortage of people who need help and there's room for you. There's no shortage of people that need help. So therefore there is a need for more experts. Like take health coaches, there's a million of them, so you may think it's saturated and there's no space for you, but that's just not the truth. Nobody can do what you do, how you do it. And there's different structures of coaching as well. There's one to one coaching, there's one to many coaching, which is what I teach, which is the group model. Maybe this is a mastermind, which is more of like a harmonious group of people. They all come together, they all bring forth this power of creativity and they support each other, right? This is what makes it a mastermind. All these minds come together, they have this commitment to one another. If you just have Q and A group coaching calls, then you are the leader. You have a curriculum, you're answering questions. You can also do a hybrid of one to one mastermind and Q and A calls. Again, this is the beauty of the coaching industry and structuring your business entity. However it feels best to you, you could do VIP days. This is really great for a pop of cash to do VIP days or do retreats. And then we also have our different styles of coaching because everybody has a different personality, humor, sometimes they're serious. You have free form coaching, you have laser coaching, you have teaching and training and consulting, you have Q and A. So there's many different coaching structures and styles. When we go back to the definition of therapy and coaching and talking about how therapy is treating medical necessity and coaching is working with those more situational, non clinical, less severe problems to make sure that we stay in our lane as a therapist and as a coach. We can also bring in the definition from the International Coaching Federation, the icf. And they describe coaching as partnering with clients in a thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Now this definition is a little bit flowery to me, right? Because I think as both a therapist and a coach, we can partner with our clients. We could meet our clients where they are. We always have thought provoking and creative conversations and processes that inspire our clients both in a therapeutic and a coaching relationship, and we're always trying to help them maximize their potential. So this is why it can be confusing. And I encourage you to adapt the definition of am I treating medical necessity or am I not? And that's gonna really help you use your clinical discernment on when you're coaching and when you're using therapy. And that's gonna really help you understand when you're functioning as a therapist and when you're functioning as a coach. I hope this episode provided clarity to you on all things therapy and coaching. If you are ever interested in hearing something specific when it comes to starting your online coaching business, protecting your license, clarifying your niche, reducing your hours, marketing, writing your story, branding, all things mindset and entrepreneurship, please feel free to reach out to me on Instagram at Carlyhill Coaching and I do take suggestions. My love is with you. I am always cheering you on and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening to the Thriving Therapy podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales and.

Adding coaching ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.