Psychotherapy vs Coaching with Me
Also see my FAQ page
Psychotherapy
Duration. Short term or long term (beyond 1 year).
Frequency of meeting. Weekly or bi-weekly is minimal requirement for a period of time that we discuss. After this period of time, it can be more ‘maintenance’ meetings, infrequent meetings, or just as needed. Flexible to a point: my clinical input matters.
Focus. Collaborative, includes goals, and is dependent upon structure of therapy – which is co-determined too.
Goals. Goals may be overarching or quite specific. We collaborate on goals, and they can shift over time.
Form of sessions. Varies dependent upon your wishes and my input. Can be structured to less structured and process oriented or a combination.
Content of sessions. Includes everything of coaching as well as: pattern recognition; examining coping styles, their interaction with your goals, and their effectiveness; insight, emotion processing, somatic processing, cognitive processing or a combination of these; restructuring thoughts and practicing new behaviors; history and present and how these impact achieving your goals; exploring shadow sides and strengths to develop skills in maximizing these human parts; examining family systems present/past; meaning making, integration of spiritual practices – and more.
Availability to you. My psychotherapy practice is not crisis-oriented and does not work with serious mental illness. Having said that, if in psychotherapy, responding to sudden significant stressors, being in touch between sessions, adding sessions or extending length of sessions if clinically useful are possible.
Your location and location of our sessions. You must be living in California. We may meet in person or online. We collaborate on this. Flexible to a point: my input matters.
Holistic Coaching
Duration. 12 sessions maximum to be completed within 6 months.
Frequency of meeting. Weekly for a minimum of 2 sessions. Frequency after that, dependent upon your goals and wishes, but time is limited (6 months).
Focus. Your goals. I may offer input.
Goals. Your goals are specific, and I offer feedback on them.
Form of sessions. Structured. I am directive in service to your goals. You set the agenda. I do not contribute to the agenda with exception of steps to take to reach your goals and checking in on their progress. Processing is minimal.
Content of sessions. Goal-focused, practices/tools, education (learning), tracking progress, homework, and noting challenges and focusing on what you can do to assist the challenges in an effective way.
Availability to you. In session only.
Your location, and location of our sessions. You can be anywhere in the world. Location of our sessions is either in my office or online, and it is up to you.