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LIFE COACHING VS THERAPY

Life coaching is not a replacement for psychotherapy, counseling, or psychiatric services.  While the life coaching process shares aspects of psychotherapy and counseling, they are not the same. 
Life Coaching does not diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Individuals in need or want of care from a licensed psychologist or therapist often are encountering difficulty functioning in everyday life, secondary to their mental health conditions or personal challenges.  With Life Coaching the relationship between Coach and client  is cooperative and collaborative, as opposed to the "expert-patient" structure of traditional psychotherapy relationship. 
The focus of Life Coaching is to:

• empower individuals to overcome obstacles and work through intrapersonal struggles that interfere with their personal, academic, or professional development.
• foster change, facilitate transformations that are already underway, or support people in leaping out of their comfort zones and reaching toward personal goals

A number of clients who have been previously assessed as having moderate or more serious conditions may be well suited for life coaching work once their challenges improve to where they are functioning well with respect to managing the basic responsibilities of everyday life.