Life Coaching vs. Therapy: Understanding the Difference

Learn the difference between therapy and life coaching — and how Threshold Therapy and Coaching integrates both to help you heal, grow, and create the life you want.

With the growing popularity of life coaching, it’s common for people to wonder: Are therapy and life coaching the same thing?

The short answer is both yes and no. While therapy and coaching share some overlapping goals — such as personal growth, self-awareness, and change — they differ in their focus, depth, and professional requirements. Understanding those differences can help you determine which approach best fits where you are in your life right now.

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The Key Difference: Regulation and Scope

One of the most significant distinctions is regulation and training.

Therapists — including Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) like myself — complete extensive education, clinical training, and supervised experience. We are licensed and regulated by state boards and required to uphold a strict professional code of ethics. Therapy involves evidence-based methods and the ability to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and stress-related issues.

Life coaches, on the other hand, do not need a license to practice. Many receive specialized training or certification, but coaching is not regulated by a governing body. Coaches can offer valuable guidance, accountability, and motivation, but they are not trained to treat mental health disorders or provide clinical therapy.

Simply put, a therapist can offer life coaching, but a life coach cannot provide therapy.

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Coaching: A Present and Future Focus

Coaching tends to focus on the here and now — helping individuals gain clarity about their goals, values, and vision for the future.

A coach might help you:

• Set and achieve realistic goals

• Build confidence and self-discipline

• Strengthen relationships and communication

• Create balance in career, health, or personal life

• Develop accountability and motivation

Coaching can be an excellent option if you’re seeking structure, encouragement, and forward movement toward the life you want to create.

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Therapy: Healing the Past to Move Forward

While coaching focuses on growth and direction, therapy often involves understanding and healing what’s beneath the surface.

Therapy provides a safe space to explore your emotions, experiences, and patterns — especially when those patterns are rooted in past pain, trauma, or limiting beliefs. Together, we may look at what’s getting in the way of progress: unresolved grief, burnout, anxiety, or the inner critic that keeps you feeling stuck.

At Threshold Therapy and Coaching, I often combine the insight and depth of therapy with the goal-setting and action-oriented approach of coaching. As Mel Robbins wisely said, “There’s a reason your windshield is bigger than your rearview mirror. It’s because human beings, like cars, are designed to drive forward.”

The rearview mirror — your past — still serves a purpose. When we understand it, we can move forward with greater safety, awareness, and freedom.

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Therapy and Coaching: Better Together

Healing and growth often work hand-in-hand. You can’t move confidently into the future if you’re still carrying pain, fear, or patterns from the past. In therapy, we may pause to explore what’s holding you back; in coaching, we build the momentum to move beyond it.

Our work together may include:

• Identifying and transforming limiting beliefs

• Healing from trauma or emotional pain

• Clarifying your personal values and goals

• Developing strategies for authentic living

• Creating a roadmap toward the life you want

This integrative approach allows you to move through what has kept you stuck and step across the threshold into a more grounded, purposeful, and fulfilling future.

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The Threshold Approach

At Threshold Therapy and Coaching, my philosophy is simple: you already hold the wisdom, strength, and answers within you. My role is to help you uncover them.

I work from a place of empathy, curiosity, and belief in your capacity to grow and heal. Whether our work together leans more toward therapy, coaching, or a blend of both, the goal is the same — to help you reconnect with your authentic self and live with greater clarity, confidence, and peace.

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Written by Karin Miller, LCSW

Threshold Therapy and Coaching

“Empowering individuals in midlife to heal, grow, and reconnect with their authentic selves.”