Counseling or Coaching?


What is the difference between counseling and coaching?

Realistically, they often overlap. I will be counselor and coach with all of my clients depending on the presenting concerns. The common thread, for me, is the attention to the emergence and development of the whole-person (see the Full Circle Point of View). Regardless of the issue or particular focus, counseling or coaching, I bring my whole background and expertise to the session with a client.

Counseling.

I am a licensed psychotherapist with 25 years experience. Clients seeking to manage painful transitions, heal past emotional wounds or address other mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, access my professional experience and skills. The work the client does in therapy may be to ease or heal emotional or psychological symptoms and move beyond emotional wounds from the past. Others engage in a deep process of self-awareness and realigning to become more authentic.

As a Jungian therapist, I am sensitive to the ways in which symptoms often are an indicatior of how our lives have become one-sided and partial. As strange as it may seem, the symptom often points toward a neglected or underutilized aspect of our whole self demanding attention. Attending to the needs of the whole person, body, mind, heart and spirit, significantly impacts the experienced symptoms.

Often clients come to see me seeking a solution-focused, time-limited approach. We work together to change the difficulty they are having. Others are looking for deeper healing work that uses the therapist/client relationship in a psychodynamic approach over a longer period of time. The presenting issues usually point toward the more effective approach.

Because of the nature of counseling and confidentiality, individual and couples sessions are conducted face to face.

If insurance benefits are accessed, a mental health diagnosis is required. The fee is determined by the terms of the client's insurance contract. I am in-network for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and PreferredOne.

Some clients prefer not to have a mental health diagnosis in their insurance records and choose instead to pay an agreed upon fee out of pocket.

Coaching.

Clients seeking personal development or life coaching may have some mild emotional distress. However, their focus is more directed toward a particular goal, such as a change in career, interpersonal skill building, transition planning and implementation, life purpose exploration, and more. Some type of "homework" or exercise is typical between sessions to deepen understanding and/or facilitate skill practice.

In coaching, the client has a particular goal or set of goals in mind and the coaching program we engage in is targeted specifically toward that goal. The client may have something specific tailored to their circumstances in mind or may engage with a program or module that I have created that is useful for many people, such as life purpose exploration, career planning, or developing greater understanding of the impacts of personality type.

Although face to face sessions are more typical, coaching sessions may easily be held at a distance, by computer or telephone, since the confidentiality concerns are substantially less. Clients may pay for sessions individually or for a bundled number of sessions that are prepaid.

For coaching, go to Full Circle POV.

Payment of Fees.

Session fees and copayments are payable at the time of service or prepaid in the case of bundled session packages. I accept personal checks for face to face sessions, as well as major credit cards for either face to face or at a distance sessions.


Life and work are more effective and satisfying when
body, mind, heart, and spirit
are all nurtured and aligned toward purpose
.