Psychotherapy often includes techniques to increase awareness and the capacity for self-observation, change behavior and cognition, and develop insight and empathy. Desired results may be to enable other choices of thought, feeling or action, and to increase the sense of well-being and to better manage subjective discomfort or distress. Perception of reality is hopefully improved. Grieving might be enhanced producing less long term depression. Psychotherapy can improve medication response where such medication is also needed. Psychotherapy can be provided on a one-to-one basis, in group therapy, conjointly with couples and with entire families. It can occur face to face (individual), over the telephone, or, much less commonly, the Internet. Its time frame may be a matter of weeks or many years. Therapy may address specific forms of diagnosable mental illness, or everyday problems in managing or maintaining interpersonal relationships or meeting personal goals. Treatment in families with children can favorably influence a child’s development, lasting for life and into future generations. Better parenting may be an indirect result of therapy or purposefully learned as parenting techniques. Divorces can be prevented, or made far less traumatic. Treatment of everyday problems is more often referred to as counseling (a distinction originally adopted by Carl Rogers) but the term is sometimes used interchangeably with “psychotherapy”. Therapeutic skills can be used in mental health consultation to business and public agencies to improve efficiency and assist with coworkers or clients.”
In short, therapy is a very inclusive set of modalities that addresses both improving the clinical status of individuals suffering from a mental illness and improving the well-being of individuals who have needs and goals but who do not have diagnosable mental illnesses. It is client centered and organized around client goals. Therapy emphasizes a supportive partnership with the client. Strategies for meeting the client’s goals may emerge both from the client and from the expertise and experience that the therapist brings to the engagement.
Therapy and Coaching Similarities and Differences
In order to better understand the definitional traits of coaching compared to those of therapy, I deconstructed the definitions of coaching and therapy and listed the essential components of each. I then looked at each individual element of each definition to see if the elements of one were present in the practice of the other. The deconstruction of the definition of therapy and its comparison to coaching is presented in Table 1. The items highlighted in red are the elements in which there are some significant differences between therapy and coaching.
Table 1. Therapy and Coaching Definitional Traits Compared
| Wikipedia Therapy Characteristic | Present in Coaching | Comments |
| Therapy Definition | ||
| Interpersonal invitation | Yes | |
| Aid in reaching full potential | Yes | More singular focus in coaching |
| Aid in coping with problems of life | Yes | |
| Practitioner paid for time and skill | Yes | Therapy often insurance reimbursable |
| Create therapeutic frame for change | Yes | Coaching talks about frames, but not therapeutic ones |
| Free and secure setting for to help clients open up | Yes | |
| Techniques to increase awareness | Yes | |
| Techniques to increase self-observation | Yes | |
| Techniques to change behavior | Yes | |
| Techniques to change cognition | Yes | Coaching refers to “underlying beliefs” |
| Techniques to increase insight | Yes | Coaching emphasizes awareness |
| Techniques to increase empathy | Yes | Emotional intelligence interventions used in both |
| Enable other choices in thought, feeling, action | Yes | Choices in coaching are almost always client generated. Choices in therapy may be therapist or client generated |
| Increase sense of well-being | Yes | |
| Manage subjective discomfort or distress | Yes | Coaching works with lower risk, non-acute distress |
| Improve perception of reality | Yes | Called underlying beliefs in coaching |
| Enhance grieving to reduce depression | Yes | Coaching not directed toward clinical depression relief |
| Improve medication response | No | Medication generally not a part of coaching |
| Provided on one-to-one basis | Yes | |
| Provided in groups | Yes | |
| Provided to couples/families | Yes | |
| Conducted in person, over phone, over internet | Yes | |
| Variable duration (weeks to years) | Yes | Coaching and therapy usually done in weeks to months |
| Addresses mental illnesses | No | Coaching works with non-clinical needs |
| Addresses everyday problems | Yes | Therapists tend to call this counseling |
| Intervention with children influences development & future | Yes | |
| Improved parenting may result | Yes | |
| Divorce prevented or made less traumatic | Yes | |
| Consultation to businesses to improve operations | Yes | Not always called consultation but related and done by both groups |
| Consultation to public agencies to improve operations | Yes | Not always called consultation but related and done by both groups |
As you will note, of the 30 deconstructed elements from the definition of therapy, 26 of them appear to also be elements that are very present in coaching. In addition, two of the remaining four are also present in coaching but with some notable differences in emphasis. There are two elements found in therapy that are not found in coaching at all: “improve medication response” and “addresses mental illnesses”. Both of these elements of therapy are part of therapy’s role in the clinical treatment of illnesses and, for this reason, are explicitly excluded from accepted understandings of coaching.
I then deconstructed the ICF definition of coaching and assessed the degree to which these deconstructed elements were also present in therapy. The results of this comparison are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Coaching and Therapy Definitional Traits Compared
| ICA Coaching Characteristic | Present in Therapy | Comments |
| Coaching Definition | ||
| Partner with client | Yes | |
| Thought provoking & creative process | Yes | |
| Inspires to reach maximum potential | Yes | |
| Honors client as expert in own life | Yes | More variable in therapy |
| Believe client is creative, resourceful, whole | Yes | More variable in therapy |
| Discover, clarify, align with client goals | Yes | |
| Encourage client self-discovery | Yes | Present but less emphasis in therapy |
| Elicit client-generated solutions & strategies | Yes | Present but less emphasis in therapy |
| Hold client accountable & responsible | Yes | |
| Helps client improve outlook on work & life | Yes | |
| Improves client leadership skills | Yes | |
| Unlocks client potential | Yes |