For parents and students · Launch League blog
Career coaching vs. therapy: what's the difference?
By Nick Gonzalez, founder, U.S. Air Force veteranPublished
The short answer
Career coaching helps a person who is functioning day to day decide what to do next and take steps toward it. Therapy is licensed health care that treats distress, anxiety, depression and other problems that get in the way of daily life. If a teenager can't get through the day, see a therapist or doctor first; coaching can come later.
The “what next” versus “why can't I” test
If the question is “what should I do next?”, that is coaching. If the question is “why can't I get out of bed, go to school or stop feeling this way?”, that is health care, and it comes first. Many teenagers have both questions; answer the second one before the first.
Career coaching vs. therapy: the plain difference
Coaching looks forward. The International Coaching Federation, a professional body for coaches, describes coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. In career coaching that means working out what someone is drawn to, testing it against real work, and making a plan.
Therapy is health care. A licensed therapist assesses and treats things like anxiety, depression, trauma and other problems that get in the way of daily life, and in most places it is a regulated profession with licensing, standards and a complaints process.
I am a coach, not a therapist, and I say that to every family at the start.
The “what next” versus “why can't I” test
Here is the test I use with parents. Listen to the question your teenager is actually stuck on.
If it is “what should I do next?”, which program, which job, whether a trade or a degree, that is a coaching question.
If it is “why can't I?”, why can't I get out of bed, go to school, stop panicking before tests, stop feeling like this, that is a health question, and it comes first.
Many teenagers have both, and that is normal. Answer the second one before the first. A plan built while someone is struggling to get through the day tends to fall apart, and the teenager can end up feeling they failed at the plan when the real issue was never the plan.
When to see a therapist first
Talk to your family doctor, the school, or a licensed mental health professional before booking any coach if you see:
- Weeks of low mood, withdrawal or loss of interest in things they used to enjoy.
- Anxiety that stops them doing ordinary things: going to school, eating, sleeping, seeing friends.
- Missing a lot of school, or refusing to go.
- Self-harm, talk of not wanting to be here, or giving things away.
- Big changes in sleep, eating or energy that don't lift.
- Something at home or at school that has frightened or hurt them.
If your teenager is in crisis right now
Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org, to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24 hours a day, every day. It is free and confidential. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
What career coaching can and cannot do for an anxious teenager
Plenty of teenagers who are nervous about the future are not unwell. They are 16 and being asked to choose a life. Coaching can help with that ordinary worry: it breaks a huge question into small steps, replaces guessing with conversations with real people, and gives them a short plan they wrote themselves.
What coaching cannot do is diagnose, treat or manage anxiety, depression, ADHD or anything else. A coach should not be the only adult a struggling teenager is talking to. The ICF publishes guidance for coaches on recognizing when a client's needs are outside a coach's competencies and referring them to a mental health professional, and any coach you hire should be able to tell you what they would do in that situation.
Coaching and therapy can run side by side. If your teenager is seeing a therapist, tell the coach that much (not the details) and ask the therapist whether a short, practical career project would help or add pressure right now.
Who is licensed to provide therapy
In Ohio, counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists are licensed by the state's Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board, and psychologists and physicians have their own boards. Anyone can call themselves a coach. Before your teenager starts therapy with anyone, check their license. Your pediatrician, your insurer or the school counselor can point you to providers.
Questions to ask a career coach about this
Ask any coach, including me, before you pay:
- What do you do if you think my teenager needs more than coaching?
- Will you tell me if you are worried about them, and how?
- What topics do you not handle?
- Have you ever stopped coaching someone and referred them on?
Where Launch League fits
The Future Ready Sprint is career coaching: six weeks, one-to-one, about what comes next. If I think a teenager needs more than that, I will tell you plainly and help you find the right kind of professional, rather than keep coaching around a problem that coaching can't fix.
Questions
Quick answers
- Is a life coach the same as a therapist?
- No. Coaching is not a licensed health profession and does not diagnose or treat anything. Therapy is. A coach helps a person who is managing day to day move toward a goal; a therapist helps with distress and problems that get in the way of daily life.
- Can a career coach help with career anxiety?
- With the ordinary kind, often: the worry of not knowing what to do. Small steps and real conversations shrink that. If the anxiety stops a teenager going to school, sleeping or eating, it needs a doctor or therapist, not a coach.
- Should my teenager do coaching and therapy at the same time?
- It can work, if the therapist agrees it would help rather than add pressure. Tell the coach that therapy is happening, keep the details private, and let the therapist lead on anything to do with mental health.
- What if my teenager won't see a therapist but will see a coach?
- That happens, because coaching can feel less loaded. Be honest with the coach about why you're worried. A responsible coach will work on the career question and help you find a route to proper support, rather than act as a substitute for it.
Next step
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Sources: International Coaching Federation: what coaching is · International Coaching Federation: Referring a Client to Therapy (guidelines for coaches) · 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline · Ohio Legislative Service Commission: Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board. Coaching is not therapy, medical, legal or financial advice.