Understanding The Differences Between Coaching And Psychotherapy
When talking about the process of going to a professional who is dedicated to caring for people to help them better manage their emotions and/or behavioral patterns, it is relatively common to confuse the concepts of “coaching” and “psychotherapy.”
However, not knowing how to distinguish between the two goes beyond a simple confusion of technical terms, and can even be harmful and lead to problems, as we will see below. So that, Let’s see what the specific differences are between psychotherapy and coaching.
Learn to distinguish between psychotherapy and coaching
These are the main aspects that will help you know the difference between psychotherapy and coaching if you consider using this type of services.
1. Psychotherapy can only be offered by psychologists
The first difference, and perhaps the most important, is that the practice of psychotherapy performed by psychotherapists is a regulated practice and can only be legally offered by specialized psychologists and/or other health professionals duly accredited through university training and registration in official entities such as COP (in Spain). On the other hand, coaching in general is not regulated, and practically anyone, with or without training, can offer this type of service, which gives rise to problems. Now, it must be taken into account that many psychologists offer both psychotherapy and coaching; In these cases, there is a guarantee that the professional is trained in the science of behavior.
So that, Training in coaching is much less complex than training as a psychotherapist given that the latter must have at least a 4 or 5-year Bachelor’s Degree (depending on the country) and post-university training, while there are coaching training programs open to anyone and lasting only a few weeks.
2. Psychotherapy focuses its scope of application on mental health
As a general rule, psychotherapists are fundamentally psychologists or specialized doctors, who base most of their work on caring for patients who present some form of discomfort. In many cases, this discomfort takes the form of a diagnosable disorder (and which as such is described in the manuals used in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, such as the DSM-5 or the ICD-11), and in other cases it does not become psychopathologies, but they are also a reason to start a therapy process (for example, a relationship crisis, extreme shyness, etc.).
On the other hand, coaching is not applied as a form of treatment for psychological disorders, and in fact, if someone offers this type of services to intervene in these types of problems without being accredited in the field of psychotherapy, that can be reported as a form of treatment. of labor intrusion. So, Coaching is applied above all to needs that are not raised as a source of discomfort but rather as personal or professional development needs: desire to learn leadership skills, interest in learning self-motivation techniques to prepare for competitive exams, etc.
4. Psychotherapy has more specific action protocols
As the psychological intervention offered by psychotherapists is aimed at mental health problems, this type of procedures is more standardized, trying to follow control of what is done so that it adapts to the strategies and techniques that have proven to be effective based on scientific investigations. On the other hand, coaching, if understood as a practice carried out by people who do not necessarily have training in psychotherapy, It does not have that type of control criteria of the effectiveness of what is done.
5. Coaching has an important deployment in the business environment
In practice, a good part of the coaching processes offered to clients They have to do with the scope of professional performance. Thus, several of the main branches of coaching are executive coaching, focused on helping medium and high profiles of companies (CEOs, Department Directors, etc.) by boosting their communication and leadership skills; sports coaching, offered to professional or semi-professional athletes; or team coaching, which is applied to departments or groups that usually work hand in hand on a daily basis, to help them communicate better with each other, resolve conflicts before they escalate, self-motivate, etc.
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If you are interested in starting a process of psychological therapy or coaching, contact us.
In Psychology For We have a team of mental health professionals and accredited psychologists who intervene in the areas of psychotherapy, sexology, neuropsychology, psychiatry and coaching. We offer you our more than 20 years of experience in the sector and the most effective techniques and strategies according to your problems or needs.
