FAQs about Therapy, Counseling, Coaching and Finding Therapy in Connecticut
When you’re ready to work with a professional to get the support you need, it can feel confusing to figure out the type of professional you want to work with. There are many types of professionals out there who do one-on-one work in Connecticut including therapists, counselors, and life coaches.
All three of these professions are designed to help individuals improve their lives but they can differ in their approaches, frameworks, and skill sets. Each approach can be incredibly valuable, depending on your needs and what your specific goals are. The purpose of this blog post is to share with you what the difference is between therapy, counseling, and coaching so that you can make the best decision for you. My intention for this blog post is to help you get the clarity you need about the type of mental health professional that could be the best fit for you.
With that being said, this can be confusing because many people (and even professionals) interchange the words therapy and counseling. So, it is very important that you are, first and foremost, clear on what you need from the professional you work with so that you can ask them if they can provide that for you.
Important Note: This blog post is not intended to sway you in any direction. Therapists, counselors, and coaches are like any other category of professionals — there are amazing ones, mediocre ones, and crappy ones. One is not better than the other! This blog is about empowering you to be informed so that you can make the best decision for you.
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What is Therapy and What Does a Therapist Do?
Therapy is primarily focused on addressing mental health issues, deep emotional challenges, and family-of-origin issues. Therapy often involves exploring past experiences and how they are impacting the client in the present, understanding underlying issues, and making positive changes to thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.
Therapists use evidence-based models such as Family Systems Theory, Structural Family Therapy, Bowenian Family Therapy, or Internal Family Systems to help clients work through the presenting problems they bring to therapy. Therapy can be a long-term or short-term process, depending on the issues being addressed.
The main goals for therapy differ depending on the clinician you choose to work with but, generally, therapists aim to help individuals cope with stress, experience emotional healing & personal growth, and transform ingrained patterns, dynamics, and/or relationship roles that no longer serve them so that they can well…live freer and more joyfully!
Therapy is conducted by licensed mental health professionals, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs), licensed professional counselors (LPCs), and marriage & family therapists (MFTs). These professionals often hold advanced degrees and have undergone extensive clinical training.
What is Counseling, What Does a Counselor Do, and How Does Connecticut Counseling Differ from Connecticut Therapy?
Counseling supports individuals with navigating and healing from specific issues and challenges they are facing. Unlike therapy, counseling is most often short-term and centers on providing guidance, advice, and specific support to help individuals navigate a current issue or immediate concern.
Counseling is different from therapy because it is generally less focused on exploring the deeper reasons, roots, and causes of what is happening in one’s psyche. For example, a counselor might work with their client on developing specific coping mechanisms to navigate through their challenge(s) over a period of 3 to 6 months.
Counseling can be provided by licensed professional counselors (LPCs), school counselors, pastoral counselors, or social workers. While they may have specialized training, the focus is generally less on diagnosing and treating mental health conditions and more on providing immediate, short-term support.
What is Coaching and Is a Coach What I Need Over a Therapist in Connecticut?
Life coaching is forward-looking and forward-focused on personal development, goal-setting, and achieving specific life objectives. Coaching is not designed to address mental health issues (that is therapy’s role). Coaching is designed to help individuals improve their performance, realize their potential, and achieve personal and professional goals. Coaching is well-suited for highly motivated, ambitious, and self-directed people.
Life coaches help clients reach their full potential, improve their quality of life, and succeed in specific areas, such as career, relationships, or personal growth. Life coaches work with clients to clarify their goals, create clear action plans, and stay accountable to those plans. The approach is typically more structured and goal-oriented, focusing on practical steps rather than emotional exploration.
Life coaches are not necessarily licensed, and they do not need to have formal mental health training. Instead, they may have certifications from coaching programs, and their expertise most often comes from personal experience (i.e. their own self-study and discipline to learn and master the skills they now teach to their clients). Life coaches can get a bad reputation because the industry is not regulated but there is absolutely something to be said for people who really put the work in on their own, gain mastery from that experience, and teach that to others.
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To sum it up:
Therapists work with clients both short-term and long-term and focus on diving deep with their clients to help them unpack, understand, and heal from deep mental, emotional, psychological, and/or family-of-origin related issues. The goal of therapy is to increase the client’s mental, emotional, psychological, and even spiritual well-being.
Counselors work with clients on mostly a short-term basis to help them achieve tangible results on a specific challenge or two using a combination of education, advice, and specific strategies. Counseling is not typically for those who want to dive deep into issues of the mind, psyche, and soul.
Life coaches work with highly motivated, ambitious, and self-directed clients to help their clients achieve specific, measurable goals in their personal life, career, and/or relationships over time. Life coaching is typically more structured and goal-oriented, focusing on practical steps rather than deep emotional exploration.
I hope this blog post helps you find the right therapist in Connecticut who can help you reach your goals. You deserve to receive the exact kind of quality care you need.
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