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When the work goes deeper, beyond skills and strategies to the patterns beneath them, it is natural to wonder: do I need a coach or a therapist? Both can be powerful forms of support. They serve different purposes, and they can work well together.
About Coaching
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
Coaching offers a confidential space to step back, reflect, and make more intentional choices about how you want to move forward. It can help you clarify what matters, notice patterns, challenge assumptions, and take action that feels aligned with your goals and values.
My work goes beyond solving the immediate challenge in front of you. It also looks at the deeper patterns shaping how you make meaning, respond under pressure, relate to others, and lead.
Often, the strategies that helped you succeed earlier in your career, such as working harder, adapting quickly, meeting expectations, staying self-reliant, or seeking external validation, can eventually begin to feel limiting. Coaching can help you understand those patterns and develop greater capacity to lead from your own values, perspective, and sense of choice.
This is sometimes described as vertical development: not simply adding more skills or knowledge, but expanding how you see yourself, your role, and the complexity around you.
Coaching is not therapy. I am a certified professional coach (CPCC) with specialist training in trauma-informed modalities including the NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM), Compassionate Inquiry, Internal Family Systems, Voice Dialogue, and somatic coaching. I am not a licensed therapist. If you are experiencing symptoms that require clinical support, I encourage you to seek guidance from a licensed mental health professional.
About Therapy
Therapy is provided by licensed mental health professionals. It may include diagnosis, support for clinical symptoms, and the processing of traumatic experiences.
Therapy is often the right starting point when someone is experiencing acute distress, unresolved trauma, or symptoms that are significantly affecting their ability to function day to day.
When early experiences have become deeply embedded in someone’s sense of self, particularly in the context of complex or ongoing trauma, therapy can provide the depth and clinical container that kind of work requires.
If you are looking for a therapist, these directories can help:
Psychology Today Therapist Directory: The most widely used directory. You can filter by issue, insurance, modality, and location.
NARM Practitioner Directory: For finding practitioners trained in the NeuroAffective Relational Model, a non-pathologizing approach to developmental and relational trauma.
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Directory: For finding practitioners trained in Peter Levine's body-based approach to trauma resolution.