“So, you both help me work toward goals and overcome obstacles… right?”
If you’ve yet to work with a counselor or a life coach, the difference between the two might be gray and confusing. Because – yes – both helping professionals guide clients toward goals set within their meetings and work to overcome obstacles. However, it’s the details that vary.
Perhaps you remember that phrase from geometry class: all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Counseling and life coaching can be viewed in a similar way.
Counseling can function as life coaching, thanks to licensed counselors’ extensive training and psychological and medical expertise. However, life coaching cannot necessarily function as counseling or therapy.
While life coaches are equipped to help clients work through struggles and achieve new goals, they do not have the psychological expertise to guide clients through trauma, past hurts or other topics normally reserved for counseling and therapy.
Life coaching is designed to help individuals with a number of things: setting goals, making easy and practical steps to achieve those goals, growing in discipline, and more. Christian life coaching does these same things but through a Christ-centered lens.
Life coaching is not the same as counseling or therapy. Where therapy helps individuals work through past struggles and/or trauma, life coaching looks forward, helping you create a more proactive and action-based approach to personal or professional goals. It doesn’t seek to process or resolve specific problems or issues, but rather is about setting and meeting goals.
What can you expect from Christian life coaching?
First and foremost, the goal is to align our values with God and to keep Him at the center of everything we do. Christian life coaching is geared to help individuals discern their unique passions, gifts and skills, and then use those to discover their purpose, set goals accordingly, and then work to achieve those goals.
Coaches create a safe environment to allow clients to share openly, ask questions, and take an honest look at their lives and where they want to go. While coaching can challenge our lifestyles and unhealthy habits, it’s also a space that allows for gentleness and grace as you learn and grow.
At Graceful Balance, our life coaches come alongside therapists and other treatment providers as a comprehensive team for a holistic approach. The various aspects of our coaching and care plans will work in harmony, rather than at odds, with one another to create the best path forward.
What can you expect from Christian counseling?
According to the American Counseling Association (ACA), “Counseling is a collaborative effort between the counselor and client. Professional counselors help clients identify goals and potential solutions to problems which cause emotional turmoil; seek to improve communication and coping skills; strengthen self-esteem; and promote behavior change and optimal mental health.”
There are several reasons why someone might seek out counseling, and it isn’t reserved for just mental illness. Counseling can be helpful for coping with overwhelming levels of stress or anxiety, changing negative thinking patterns, processing a life-changing event, dealing with mental health issues, and much more.
There are a lot of myths surrounding counseling, but it’s not all about lying on a couch and having a funny man in glasses ask you about your mother. Counseling provides a neutral, safe and non-judgmental environment for individuals to learn, explore and grow. It can help clients gain new perspectives and learn how to cope in healthier ways. Counselors will actively listen, ask questions, offer therapy interventions, provide education, and give feedback.
At Graceful Balance, we have a team of licensed counselors who walk alongside you through the struggles and big questions of life. We offer individual counseling for children, teenagers and adults, as well as couples therapy and premarital counseling. Improved mental well-being isn’t reserved for just one stage of life. Taking care of yourself and all areas of your health should be a lifelong priority, and we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Are you looking for a life coach or a licensed counselor? Do you just need some help in better understanding where to go next? Our Christian life coaches and counselors are here to help women just like you. Work with one of our practitioners, and discover how realigning with God’s purpose for your life can help in moving forward. Learn more about our team and how you can work together here:
