Counseling in St. Louis, MO vs. Mindset, Mindfulness, and Life Coaching
Counseling (in St. Louis) and coaching (often not location specific!) are two different types of supportive services with a bit of overlap. Sometimes, you really need therapy. Other times, the issues and challenges you face could be solved with some mindset or life coaching. This week, let’s walk you through the similarities and differences between coaching and counseling, so you can dig in to what’s best for you and your needs.
What is counseling? What is life coaching?
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Counseling is the in depth process of addressing your mental health needs through tools built within your clinical therapy session. There are a lot of different kinds of evidence-based therapy (like, 100 blog posts worth of discussion on types of therapy), and we use some really effective ones here at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis.
To be a counselor or therapist, you need advanced training, a master’s degree or doctorate in a related field, and you need to be licensed as a therapist which includes years of supervision training, ongoing continuing education, and meeting the qualification requirements. All of our therapists are licensed.
What do you need to call yourself a life coach? Umm, none of that!
Literally anyone can call themselves a life coach, as it is an unregulated field without a required accreditation process. This is why we want you to be very careful if you’re considering working with a life coach. Hopefully, coaches are entering the field with good intentions and are backing them up with actually effective strategies for getting through the challenges you face.
As a trained mental health therapist who also provides coaching services, this is how I really view the difference:
Counseling is for mental health needs. Coaching is for support.
As a licensed clinical social worker with over 10 years of experience, a published book, and various interviews with news and other media sources, I know how to assess, address, and effectively treat a variety of mental health/diagnosable issues. I plan to always maintain my clinical licensure and to always stay up to date on the continuing education requirements. Knowledge is power! I want to help.
I also know that not everybody NEEDS therapy.
You might have some situation-specific stress going on. You might need help figuring out why you are people pleasing all the time. You might need to talk about how to move forward on your career goals, or you need someone as a sounding board for the big decisions your making post-graduation. These are all things we could address in therapy together, but to really be providing effective therapy I would expect to be able to diagnose you with an anxiety, depression, trauma, or other mood-related disorder.
In coaching, we don’t need a diagnosis.
We’re not under any kind of medical model. We don’t need to worry about insurance reimbursement on your end, we don’t need to dig into your past, and we don’t need to be following any kind of treatment protocol. We just focus on what’s going on now and how to meet your goals.
Can I receive both counseling and life coaching services? Also… can you coach me?
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Sometimes, you have mental health needs, but they’re already been addressed. If you are in therapy for anxiety, trauma, anger management, etc. you can receive life coaching at the same time (and your coach might even require that you get counseling at the same time).
Counseling/psychotherapy is the process of looking at what is driving your behavioral and emotional state and teaching you strategies and tools to deal with it. Coaching is often more goal and future oriented.
How I’ve worked as a therapist is very different than how I work as a mindfulness and mindset coach.
Often in therapy, I find that there’s real power in just sitting with the emotions that come up. With a background in CBT, TF-CBT, ACT, and mindfulness, I would bring specific clinical tools to the therapy session to help improve the symptoms of your diagnosable mental health needs. Client-centered comes first in therapy, so I don’t push people until they’re ready.
When I work as a life coach/mindset and mindfulness coach, I am very direct, even bossy, and will call you out on your shit.
I focus on identifying the problems, co-creating some solutions, and checking in your satisfaction with your life, your relationships, your work/school, your mental health, and your physical health. If any of those areas are out of alignment, we work on them or we refer you out (to, say, mental health therapy, physical therapy, career counseling, etc).
I like to think I’m still collaborative, compassionate, and understanding, but when you come to coaching, you have a problem that needs to be solved and a balance you’re striving to find.
I’ve had over 10 years of experience working in the field of mental health, so I’ve got the chops to know when someone NEEDS therapy. If you need it, as your coach, I’m going to make you seek it out.
Life coaching is not therapy, and should neverrrrrr be used as a replacement for therapy.
If you have real mental health needs, I want you to be meeting with a clinical therapist! Here’s the legal asterisk:
“Coaching with Kelsey” is not a therapy service nor is it a substitute for therapy or psychiatric services. Our clinically trained staff may determine that you need to seek out therapy in conjunction to coaching -- if you haven’t already -- and it may be required that your mental health needs are being addressed alongside the coaching endeavors.
How do I know if life coaching is right for me?
If you’re generally meeting your mental health needs, if you’re generally doing okay, but you have some specific professional, social, or mindfulness goals, coaching might be a good fit. Coaching with me is only available to adults 18 on up, and I specialize in working perfectionistic college students, overwhelmed young professionals, and Type A moms (learn more and reach out here).
If your anxiety takes up a lot of brain space, if you’re experiencing significant life distress, or if you’re just having a really hard time coping with stress, counseling might be a better fit.
Our counselors and therapists are trained to dive deep on what’s going on underneath the surface. Therapy is an amazing resource. You can learn more about the Compassionate Counseling St. Louis approach on our specialty pages. The team works kids and teens from age four on up.
Whether you’re interested in anxiety therapy, life coaching, or both, we’re here to help connect you with the best available resources.
And we’re always here to chat.
Kelsey Torgerson Dunn is the owner of Compassionate Counseling St. Louis. You can find more about her book and her other work at kelseytorgersondunn.com.
Our therapists specialize in anxiety counseling for kids, teens, and college students throughout the St. Louis area, working with families throughout Clayton, Creve Couer, Brentwood, Clayton, University City, Ladue, and the city.
