Sometimes it can be confusing to know whether you need therapy, life coaching, or a mix of both. While both are supportive and empowering, they serve different purposes. Understanding the difference can help you find the kind of guidance that’s right for you.
Life Coaching vs Therapy
Therapy
Healing and Processing
Therapy is a safe, supportive space to explore your mental and emotional well-being, process past experiences, and work through patterns that may be holding you back. It’s particularly helpful if you’re dealing with trauma, attachment wounds, anxiety, depression, or relational challenges.
In therapy, we slow down to listen deeply to what’s happening inside you. You’ll have the space to unpack difficult emotions, understand how past experiences shape your present, and build tools to navigate life with more awareness, safety, and self-compassion.
Life Coaching
Moving Forward and Aligning With Your True Self
Life coaching is more future-focused. It’s designed for people who may not be seeking therapy, but who want guidance around clarity, personal growth, life transitions, authenticity, and alignment.
Coaching helps you tap into what feels true for you now and take intentional steps toward living the life you want. Rather than diving deeply into past trauma or mental health concerns, life coaching focuses on actionable goals, self-discovery, and creating strategies to live more fully and authentically.
Which is right for me?
Therapy
Focus: Healing and processing past experiences.
Goal: Explore and work through trauma, attachment wounds, anxiety, depression, or relational challenges.
Approach: Trauma-informed, reflective, and relational; emphasizes understanding patterns and emotions.
Who it’s for: Individuals seeking mental and emotional healing or struggling with mental health concerns.
Outcome: Greater awareness, emotional resilience, and healing from past experiences.
Format: Typically involves regular counseling sessions; may include telehealth or in-person appointments.
Life Coaching
Focus: Moving forward and creating alignment with your authentic self.
Goal: Clarify values, set goals, navigate life transitions, and build a more fulfilling, authentic life.
Approach: Action-oriented, future-focused, and empowering; emphasizes clarity, strategy, and self-discovery.
Who it’s for: Individuals who are generally functioning well but want guidance, accountability, and alignment in life.
Outcome: Clearer direction, intentional growth, and actionable steps toward your goals.
Format: Coaching sessions that are often flexible and future-focused; may include exercises, goal setting, and reflection.
In the midst of grief and processing nearly 3 decades of unresolved problems, Joanna has drawn out the deepest reservoirs of my heart and mind through counseling. She asks sacred and important questions, excavating deep buried memories and thoughts from the most closed-off areas. Her compassionately attuned and inquisitive presence has made available the storyline of my life from implicit to explicit, unconscious to conscious. Her intuitive presence has been a powerful force in rewiring my mind, body, heart, and soul bringing me back to a place of wholeness. The ground Joanna has walked with me has been a rare, formative, and sacred journey. She has gripped my heart and will be imprinted on it forever.
- Life Coaching Client
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