Coaching and Therapy. Why I Use Both

One simple way to think about the difference between coaching and therapy is to imagine a ball sitting on a platform.

Coaching helps you move the ball.
It focuses on what is happening now and supports you to make specific changes — perhaps changing a behaviour, building a new habit, taking an action or moving towards something that matters to you.

Therapeutic work looks at the platform.
Rather than focusing only on the behaviour itself, it explores some of the underlying patterns, emotional responses and experiences that may be influencing how you respond in the first place.

Both can be valuable. Sometimes you simply need support to change what you’re doing. Sometimes the thing getting in the way has deeper roots, and trying to change the behaviour alone can feel like pushing against something much bigger.

How does this relate to chronic illness and stress?

When we experience stress, our brains and nervous systems are constantly taking in information from the world around us and making sense of it in the context of what we already know. Our previous experiences can influence what feels safe or threatening, how we interpret situations and the responses that follow.

Living with chronic illness can add another layer to this. When your body has repeatedly felt unpredictable, unsafe or difficult to trust, it can be challenging to simply tell yourself to “feel the fear and do it anyway.” Your responses may have been shaped not only by what is happening today, but also by previous experiences, including experiences of illness, uncertainty, loss or trauma.

This is where I find having both approaches particularly useful.

Sometimes we can work directly with the thing you want to change — building confidence, changing a behaviour, setting boundaries or taking steps towards the life you want. That’s the coaching side.

At other times, it can be helpful to work with the emotional patterns underneath the behaviour — helping you understand and shift some of the responses that may be keeping you stuck. That’s where therapeutic approaches such as EFT and hypnotherapy can come in.

Rather than choosing one approach over the other, I use both because chronic illness is rarely a simple, one-dimensional experience.

My coaching training helps me stay focused on where you want to go. My therapeutic training gives me additional ways to explore what might be getting in the way.

I can therefore move between the two depending on what you need — always working collaboratively with you, and starting from the understanding that you are the expert in your own experience.