What’s the Difference Between a Life Coach and a Therapist?

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a life coach and a therapist?

Maybe you’ve actually had a potential client ask you this, and didn’t quite know how to answer.

The difference between a life coach and therapist is an interesting one, and one that I am deeply familiar with.

I have a degree in counseling psychology, and I counseled private clients for many years before I became a transformational life coach.

The Difference Between a Life Coach and a Therapist

The major difference between the two, is that a therapist helps you gain insight into your past, whereas a life coach focuses on what you want for your future.

A therapist’s role is to help you focus on and review the patterns from your past, analyze where you may be feeling hurt or fearful, and help you move past these patterns and feelings so that they are no longer affecting you in the present.

The therapist’s job is to help their clients process the emotions from these experiences, so they can experience greater peace of mind, emotional freedom and confidence moving forward.

Therapy can be an amazing and wonderful way to help someone who’s in deep pain to transform that experience, and then to come out on the other side as a happier and healthier person.

And, not everyone who goes to a therapist is in deep pain – therapists also help people make decisions.

Some people simply want someone they can speak to, without fear of being judged, who can help them process something they’re going through or answer a question they’re struggling with – such as whether they should move, change jobs, or have a baby.

How life coaching is different from therapy

What we do at Brave Thinking Institute – train life coaches – focuses more on how their client wishes to transform in their life.

Rather than deeply exploring the past, they take a look at the results they’re having right now.

A life coach helps their client to stand on the shoulders of everything they’ve learned from their past, whether easy or difficult, and to learn from those experiences.

Then we, as life coaches, look at where our clients would love their lives to be a year from now, or three years from now, so we can help them transform their current results into the results they would love to have in their lives, often using evocative coaching methods.

As a life coach, your primary role is not to listen to your clients retell the painful stories of their past

Your clients may occasionally share some of their past pain with you, and of course, that’s part of the process…

But your primary role is in helping your clients design a life that they truly love living, and then to help them turn that life into their living, breathing reality.

For this reason, you want to work with people who are really ready for transformation, who have an idea of what it is that they want for their future, and who are willing to invest in doing a program with you to help them make their dreams come true.

What questions do YOU have about how to become a life coach and make a profound and lasting difference in the lives of others?

Join the conversation in the comments below!

Free eBook Here: Are You Meant to Be a Life Coach?