Coaching is a relationship with less professional boundaries than therapy. It can be more intimate and personal, but it is committed to growth on your terms. A coach is your partner in what you want to create. Therapy is more focused on diagnosable conditions and helping clients be well. Coaches are more focused on their clients thriving. Sometimes clients work with therapists and coaches simultaneously.
I’ll let my clients describe it in their own words. Most of them have had experience with both modalities:
“Practical things: being on the phone rather than in an office. I expected to find this difficult but actually took to it very naturally. In a way I think it also provided safety for the flirting that happened that could never happen in a therapy relationship.
Future focused: There are some therapies focused on the future but most are focused on understanding the past and why you came to be the way you are. I’ve spent a lot of time digging around in the past and needed to do it, but at this point in time I really needed help moving forward
Goal focused: some therapies and therapists are good about articulating goals and sticking to them but most aren’t. I liked the goal aspect, the homework, the accountability and how far and fast I came in just 6 months.
The intensity of a weekly call with a 6 month commitment. Therapy sometimes lags and this did not.”
– AJ, Therapist and Author
“I found working with Gregg to be infinitely more helpful and positive than any of therapies I tried or therapists I experienced. To this day, more than five years later, I still remember many of the guiding principles Gregg taught me and the types of non-physical exercises we did together that helped me out of a situation. The effects with Gregg were long lasting and I saw results that I didn’t see in therapy. He enables you to see past yourself and your environment, and he helped me get out of my own way.”
-AS, Sr. Manager, Defense Industry
“Gregg is focused on what you claim to be your objective, and works to that end, being empathetic to the circumstances or environment, but as a motivated solution oriented coach, he focuses on the end result. From my experiences, a therapist tries to bridge the behaviors and results through analyzing human behavioral trends. This may give you the answer to why one does what they do, but that doesn’t necessarily inspire or coach a specific change in behaviors, patterns, or beliefs to create a different/ improved result. Gregg takes human behavior in to account, but is very effective in creating a result where different actions and patterns are taken/ followed. Working with Gregg, becomes benchmark and result oriented. A therapist may heal, but doesn’t necessarily create direction. By working with Gregg, healing can be achieved by experiencing a different set of results that can be experienced in the short term while having a lasting and permanent effect on ones future. If you need a therapist to get some “work done” get one, if you want to change what you DO with that work, team up with Gregg.”
– RS, Leadership Professional and President of a Non-Profit in the Space Industry
“I see a therapist, and I’ve had some coaching conversations with Gregg. In my opinion, the approaches and benefits are different. Although a therapist and Gregg listen carefully, a therapist listens with his/her expertise and experience in matters more related to psychology–thoughts, beliefs, feelings. And that emphasis is valid and essential for me. Gregg listens with an expertise in matters related to human experience. What I mean is that he’s working with people to produce results and to take actions. A therapist isn’t necessarily focused on that.”
– AB, Author and University Professor
“Gregg will help reveal emotional, spiritual and intellectual blocks to a client’s success. Most of the time, simply being aware of these blocks allows us to remove them within hours or days. Other times, those blocks are big and we need to work with a therapist, or spiritual guide to help eliminate them. Gregg helps you build a future of vast possibility, a therapist looks into the past to build a strong foundation for that future.”
– RE, Think Tank Consultant and Non-Profit Founder
“I’ve had my fair share of experience with therapists as I’ve lived with depression for over 15 years. The relationship is completely different. My wins are Gregg’s wins and vise versa. I learned about him, his life and his personal relationships. Also, he holds me accountable to the things I want to accomplish. I’m more likely to fix things in my life when I work with Gregg because he is invested in my happiness and personal growth.”
– RJ, Consumer Experience Specialist
Empower and Emerge 