Life Coach vs Therapist: What is the difference between a Life Coach and a Therapist?
And why does Karin Peeters offer you both at the same time?
“Can you help me?”, is what you might wonder. Very likely, you just want to feel like yourself again, with a sense of confidence, care-freeness, being fulfilled and happy. How to get there might not matter that much, as long as you start feeling better.
If you’re currently trying to decide if you need a Life Coach or a Therapist, are wondering what the difference is, and which of the two is right for you, then this is the place to find answers.
You’ll receive an entire range of support, from Coaching, to Counselling and Therapy. I’ve noticed over the years that clients often come with a practical question, but once they embark on a journey of self-discovery, they realise there is more to be looked at than what’s visible on the surface. So when working with me, you always have that option. I am a certified and experienced Life Coach, and qualified as Psychotherapist.
You can remain in the solution-focused territory of Life Coaching, or you can dive deeper into the terrain of Counselling or Therapeutic healing work where beneficial. At each stage of our work together, you can decide which ‘hat’ you’d like me to wear.
Summary: What is the difference between a Life Coach and a Therapist?
Life Coaching is future-focused; therapy is past-informed
Coaching clarifies goals and supports action, while therapy explores earlier experiences and emotional roots that influence how you think, feel, and behave today.Life Coaching is practical and solution-oriented; therapy is healing and transformative
Coaches offer tools, structure, and accountability, whereas therapists help you process deeper layers such as limiting beliefs, old wounds, attachment patterns, and your inner critic.Life Coaching helps you expand; therapy helps you repair
Coaching accelerates growth and confidence, while therapy nurtures the parts of you that were hurt, stuck, or overwhelmed so they no longer sabotage your progress.
Life Coaching builds skills; therapy builds emotional foundations
Coaches strengthen habits, mindset, and resilience; therapists strengthen self-understanding, safety, and inner stability as a the base for lasting change.
Why do I believe that offering you both at the same time is the best way to move forwards in life? Because real progress requires both forward movement and inner healing of old experience that are sabotaging your progress - combining Life Coaching and Therapy gives you the clarity and the self-trust to meet your goals, resolves the root causes and builds the emotional resilience to sustainably maintain your newfound clarity and joy.
Untangle the threads and feel the freedom of possibility.
What is the difference between Life Coaching, Counselling and Therapy: What you can learn and discover in this article
The difference between life coaching and therapy
Some examples of how a Life coach or therapist would deal with specific issues like self-confidence, healthy relationships and stress & anxiety
An overview of the different qualities and characteristics of Life Coaches versus Therapists
May this give you a sense of the differences and the similarities, and helps you navigate your choices when you’re looking for the right support for you. And the good news is, when working with me there is no need to choose between Life Coaching or Therapy, as I am able to guide you in both approaches.
The wonderful thing about having a transformational Life & Career Coach who is also a qualified Counsellor & Therapist is that you have all the support you need for clarity, healing and the confidence to move forwards all under one roof.
What is Life coaching vs therapy?
What do people associate with Coaching & Therapy?
Therapy is at times, wrongly in my eyes, associated with mental health challenges. With not coping, needing medication, or with childhood trauma. And it can feel a big step to reach out to a therapist. As if ‘something is wrong with you’. This is a big misconception. I believe that therapy is for anyone who wants to understand themselves better, who honours their own grief, let go of what is no longer serving them and wishes to heal themselves for once and for all.
Life Coaching is associated with personal development and is sometimes perceived as more ‘allowed’ in society. It doesn’t have the stigma of therapy, and it’s considered something to be proud of and a sign that you are working on yourself in a positive way.
Having someone on hand to work through it with you who has a solid grounding in both coaching and therapy, means you can travel safely and with ease. Karin Peeters is certified and experienced as a Life Coach, plus qualified as a Psychotherapist (registered member of BACP).
Life Coach versus Therapist explained
So, what is the difference between coaching and therapy, and do you need a coach or a therapist?
Coaching is a movement forwards. It’s about where you are today, finding out where you want to get to, and the journey to getting you there.
Therapy is about healing any potential inner or outer obstacles along the way. Sometimes we need to overcome what holds us back and give space to grieve any painful experiences before we can step into the future with confidence.
Many of my clients do not know exactly what their goal is when they first arrive. They might know what they don’t want, and part of the Life & Career Coaching process is to define the desired destination. Coaching is solution-focused, practical and gives tools and techniques to get you where you wish to be.
But sometimes, when trying to move forwards in life, something is holding you back. Certain beliefs about yourself, the voice of yourinner critic, experiences of the past that made you more careful or unable to trust that it’ll work out. It might feel like the world is working against you, or that you are sabotaging your own progress. In those circumstances, it can be very beneficial to look backwards. To see which experiences might be holding you back. That does not mean there is some massive repressed trauma that will surface. It’s more likely to be as a series of water drops, that over time can erode a rock.
Counselling & Therapy helps to heal, to grieve, to let go. The idea is not to mull over the past and to stir up all sorts of pain, just for the sake of it. Therapy goes back to the past to deal with it for once and for all, so it does not pop up anymore, holding us back in the here-and-now. Each time we visit the past in our sessions, we also relate it back to your day-to-day reality, focusing on what is needed to reach your goals. If you are coming to a lot of insights in therapy, but it is not actually making a difference in the day-to-day then something is missing. The work needs to be translated into the here and now, not just left in the realm of understanding. Therapy transforms you and your life in a profound and lasting way, bringing out beautiful aspects of your being that are beyond your imagination.
In general, a Life Coach is more solution focused and practical, working with you in an empowering way to define and meet your goals. Counselling is a very empathetic, caring approach. And the deepest level of transformation takes place in therapy. Successful psychotherapy heals from the root and makes personality shifts, transformation and deep lasting change possible.
You can compare Coaching vs Therapy with refurbishing a house. If your basement is a little flooded, the path to the front door steep and slippery, and the attic full of stored memories then it might be useful to do some repairs and have a good spring clean first, before we start re-decorating. When your foundations are strong and the old cobwebs have been cleared away, we will create a wonderful home together.
Helping you decide: do you need a Life Coach, Counsellor or a Therapist?
Let’s look at several case stories together, showing the interventions I would do when you hire me as a Life Coach, and what our work would entail if you ask me to be your psychotherapist as well. By reading through these different options, you will get a real feel of what resonates with you, and which approach you would benefit from most. It might also give you an idea of what type of work still feels a little scary at the moment, but could be exactly what you need.
Below you’ll find three subjects people have often brought to me: increasing confidence, reducing stress and anxiety, and feeling fulfilled in their love life. Find out how I as a Life Coach and as a Therapist will work to support you through these challenges. I am qualified as both Coach and Therapist, which means that all of these techniques are available to you.
Working with a Life Coach or Therapist on lack of confidence and low self esteem - exploring approaches
Case study: A Life Coach approach
As a Life Coach I will approach the subject of lack of confidence or low self esteem by helping you identify what confidence means for you. You are invited to freely associate with words and build a clear description of that state for yourself. What does confidence look like? How does it feel? What does it sound like? What happens in your body when you are confident, while speaking your truth and believing in yourself?
As a Life Coach I’ll encourage you to create a Pinterest Board or Vision Board with visual representations of how confidence looks. You’ll be invited to explore the edges of where confidence can slip into its more undesirable qualities like arrogance, self-righteousness or superiority. In this way you we’ll get a really clear sense of each ‘state’ of confidence, and what a healthy image of confidence looks like for you.
When I work with you as a Life Coach I’ll invite you to find role models to help you get a more rounded idea of what it would be like to embody and step into that state. We’ll practice trying on the state of confidence for size, generating some practical tools for applying confidence in different situations. We’ll explore yoga or breathwork, vocal or postural exercises. As a Life Coach I’d help you determine the situations where you’d like to increase your confidence and importantly, those aspects of your life where you feel like you already have it, and “borrow” some of those behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs to apply to other contexts. Good Life Coaches will resource you to tackle some of the limiting beliefs around the subject of self-esteem for you, so you can enjoy true confidence when you need it most. As a Life Coach I’ll point out a negative recurring thought, and suggest a mantra to repeat instead, so you can establish a more positive thought pattern.
versus A therapist approach
As a therapist / counsellor my initial focus would be on the origins of (lack of) confidence for you. For example by doing some work on the timeline of your life to find situations where you did experience more confidence and self-esteem, and importantly exploring what the internal landscape looks like for you when you both feel confident and when it is absent. I’d invite you to explore your earliest memories of feeling confident, and especially where it might have been crushed or undermined. Perhaps there were times when your body failed you, or when you were bullied as a child, or more recently by a superior a work. As a therapist I’d explore your relationship to your parents / caregivers around confidence and the messages you received in your formative years and how those contributed to your Life Script (more on that in our post on Transactional Analysis) and your Inner Critic. The way your primary care-givers treated each other, the (lack of) confidence in them, and the way your primary care-givers treated us all informs our own self-worth.
As a therapist I’d work with the part of you that feels the opposite of confident, in order to help ‘reparent’ it. It’s likely that we might disown, reject or even be disgusted by the part of ourselves that isn’t confident or has low self-esteem. We might perceive it as weak, spineless, worthless and have developed an internal relationship based on shame, or even hatred. As a therapist I’d be concerned with getting to the root of this, and support you in developing a compassionate relationship with the less confident aspects of yourself. You’d be encouraged through ‘chair-work’, journaling and other practical exercises, to befriend that rejected part of yourself, and to offer deep healing. There is an understanding that the part of you that may be keeping you small or less confident was created in order to keep you safe, in order to fulfil a deeper need. Perhaps it’s no longer serving you as well as it might have done in the past, but rather than reject it, the work is to develop a sense of safety in that part of yourself so that you can heal and grow up into a more confident thriving self. A good therapist would be able to lead you back to the early memories where negative conclusions (so called limiting beliefs) originated, and will help you re-parent your inner child into a healthy adult, reframing not only with language but with many different practical, somatic and spiritual exercises. In this way you’ll build a new foundation to rely upon for the rest of your life.
All this work would enable that wounded child part of yourself to grow up into a more accepted, more confident Self, so that the vulnerable part no longer gets to be in the driving seat and, having resolved the issue at the root, you can enjoy more confidence in your day-to-day life.
When you decide to work with me, both the therapy and coaching approaches to help you increase and heal your self-confidence are available for you.
Enjoy that instant feeling of relief, knowing you’ve taken the first step to improve your self-confidence in life and at work.
Explore how I can help you build self-confidence:
Working with a Life Coach, Counsellor or Pschotherapist to tackle stress and anxiety - exploring approaches:
Case study: A Life coaching approach
A Life Coach would very likely work at the behavioural level, exploring time management strategies, goal setting, and perhaps giving an overview of how to use a tool like the urgent/important matrix. They might show you how to work with mindfulness, meditation or breathing exercises for stress release. Exploring all the ways you could boost your self-care, how to slow down, and reframing the unhealthy glorification of busy-ness into something more manageable, are part of the work of Life Coaching. You might work on strategies to develop more effective prioritisation. There would hopefully be some delving into your values to work out what is meaningful for you and what constitutes a deeper contribution to life, as much of your stress and anxiety can come from not feeling fulfilled.
versus A therapy approach
A therapist would likely cover all of the above whilst also exploring the underlying causes of stress and anxiety at a deeper level. You might do some ‘Parts Work’ to help manage the contradicting aspects of yourself when you feel anxious or stressed. By ‘parts work’ therapists mean that there could be opposing forces at play inside of you. One part wishes to be relaxed and rested, while another part of you can’t say no and keeps taking on more work out of fear of rejection. Therapy explores the origins of those polarised parts, where you might have been rewarded and celebrated for example for being the good girl or the high performing boy. You’d uncover where your validation might have come from, which informs the driving force behind the part of you that continues to take on too much. Practical, creative or spiritual exercises are available to therapist to work with those parts, perhaps drawing aspects of yourself and exploring and giving some space to the thoughts and feelings that arise, in order to bring them into deeper integration. By uncovering the deeper reason and role for that part of yourself you can begin to find healthier ways of meeting those needs, without so much stress and anxiety.
Therapy might look at the secondary gain of certain behaviours and how we might be rewarding ourselves, or are being rewarded, for being stuck in helpless or unhelpful patterns. Nervous system regulation will be important to work too, in order to cope and master those tricky stressful moments by introducing tangible tools for self-soothing and emotional mastery.
Does it all sounds fascinating to you, both the Coaching and the Therapy techniques? Then we’d love to hear from you, because at Vitalis all our practitioners are both Coach and Therapist!
When you miss your previous care-free self, we help you find yourself again.
Discover how Vitalis Coaching & Therapy helps you reduce anxiety and stress, so you can feel free to be fully yourself.
Working with a Life Coach, Counsellor or Therapist to improve romantic relationships - exploring approaches
Case study: A Life Coach approach
A Life Coach might begin by exploring the desires you have around a positive, healthy relationship. What are your goals and expectations? What does love look like for you, and what constitutes a fulfilling relationship? They might get you to consider your expectations of the other person. Other areas to explore are the needs you have in the relationship, and how you are taking care of yourself and each other. A Life Coach could share practical tools from the fields of Non-Violent Communication to resolve any potential conflicts. And Life Coaches might also offer some role play exercises around setting boundaries, as well as education around attachment patterns and the consequential dynamics between you and a partner. The main focus of your work together will likely be on tangible day-to-day practical tools in order to improve communication and connection.
versus A therapist approach
A therapist might approach the subject of relationships by exploring in what way certain earlier experiences are being repeated for you. Therapy often accepts that we unconsciously choose a partner based on our early conditioning, which then plays out our expected Life Script and behaviroual patterns. These can at times be helpful, but unfortuantely often are not. It may be that your relationship is activating unresolved wounds from earlier experiences or childhood trauma, so there would likely be an exploration of this, if you’d like to do so. You might be invited to discuss the character traits of your parents or primary care givers and the impact they had on you. This can identify any repeating patterns in your choice of partner. You would be accompanied in creating space for whatever feelings arise out of that exploration.
Let’s say you had a primary care-giver who was absent. Either due to illness, work, or alchohol addiction. This could have resulted in an inner belief that you don’t matter, will never be a priority and are not important. Without bringing this into your consciounsess and doing the healing work, you might end up in an adult relationship where you feel, guess what, that you don’t matter to our partner. The external reasons can look very different compared to your parents, for example your partner might already be married, smokes too much weed or lives abroad. But the impact on you, that inner feeling of not being properly cared for, is the same.
Therapists might draw on work from the field of Transactional Analysis and the Parent Adult Child Model to determine when and how you might be put back in the position of your inner wounded child, and then work with ways to befriend and heal that aspect of yourself. Therapy explores how you’d like the experience to be different in your current relationship, by bringing past patterns into conscious awareness. These past patterns will be given attention and healed, so that they are no longer repressed or repeated. In this way your relationship becomes a source of immeasurable emotional, mental and spiritual growth.
Discover more about what Relationship Coaching & Therapy can do for you, as feeling loved and being loving is vital to our well-being.
Click here to read about love and relationships:
The energy of Life coaching in a few words
Solution focused
Forward orientated
Goal setting
Practical & active
Affirmative
Rational, logical
Measurable
Empowering
The energy of therapy in a few words
Explorative
Holding
Surrendering
Nurturing
Compassionate
Deep
Nourishing
Transformative
In a nutshell, Life Coaching helps you to move forwards, Counselling gives heart-felt support to recover from what happened, and Therapy transforms from the root.
I am qualified as both Coach and Therapist, making me uniquely placed to hold you practically and therapeutically as you navigate all the subtleties of your journey to greater professional and personal purpose, joy and fulfillment.
Like to have a free Discovery Call? I’d love to hear from you:
enjoy new adventures from the driving seat of your life
On an ethical note: If you hire ME to be your Life & Career Coach only, i will not be giving you therapeutic guidance. This would not be in accordance with the code of ethics of MY profession. If we both agree to incorporate the coaching and the therapy, i’l make MY entire skillset available for you. Whichever path we follow, it only happens with your explicit permission.
