I am both a professional therapist licensed in the States of Washington and Colorado, and a professional life, leadership and career coach. As such, I can provide either therapy/counseling or coaching, depending on your needs and interests. The difference between coaching and counseling can be a bit confusing, so please read on to determine whether you would like to explore coaching further.

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I provide coaching through my coaching and training company, Mighty Acorn, PLLC. 

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In addition to being able to provide general life coaching, I also have years of experience in leadership and management roles, as a supervisor, and in coaching people in leadership roles. I have provided organizational coaching, training, and consulting. I also have expertise in helping people make career decisions and transitions. You can find out more about my coaching experience and training here.

 

Some Basic Logistical Differences Between Coaching and Counseling/Therapy

• Not all therapists provide coaching, and coaches cannot provide therapy. Because I have interests, education, expertise, and experience in both therapy and coaching, I can provide options depending on the needs and situations of my clients.

• While I can only provide therapy services to clients residing in Washington and Colorado due to licensure requirements, there are no geographic limitations on coaching – so my coaching clients can live anywhere.

• Additionally, while I accept many health insurance plans for counseling, health insurance doesn’t cover coaching. There must be a diagnosable mental health or substance use disorder present to use health insurance.

• Sometimes my current therapy clients will at some point no longer meet diagnostic criteria for a mental health condition, and we may transition to a coaching relationship.

• From time to time, when I am working with a coaching client, it becomes apparent that they need therapy for a developing or previously unrecognized mental health condition. The benefit of working with a coach who also has a clinical background is that I can recognize this situation readily and can help make appropriate referrals. 

 

What is Life Coaching and how is it different from Counseling or Therapy?

Experienced coaches have similar qualities to counselors, in that both types of professionals listen actively, observe objectively, provide perspective and support, and customize their approach to individual client needs. They set goals with their clients and help their clients to reach those goals. Both counselors and coaches are interested in improving the quality of their clients’ lives.

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Life coaches help the clients they work with focus on identifying and moving towards personal and/or professional goals. Through focused coaching support, clients can learn helpful skills, practices and perspectives that help them grow personally and/or professionally, navigate life challenges, and create their best and most meaningful and satisfying life.

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Coaching focuses not on psychopathology but on strengths and works to support individuals in developing and applying mindsets, perspectives, skills, and actions that improve life. Coaching is often an exploration of values, interests, passions, needs, and strengths as well as areas for growth. Coaching may address areas where a client is stuck, lacks skills, is experiencing life challenges, and/or has barriers that reduce their effectiveness and functioning level. Like therapy, coaching often naturally results in improved physical, mental, emotional and social well-being – it simply does so without the focus on diagnosable clinical conditions or using specific treatment modalities.

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Coaching may include working with the client to help them:

• Define life dreams and goals, and identify and take steps to realize those goals and dreams

• Formulate a plan that will identify, foster, and grow the client’s skills and talents

• Navigate difficult challenges and overcome barriers to reaching their goals

• Learn tools and skills through education, practice, provision of resource materials, and application during and between coaching sessions

• Identify strengths, interests, needs, values, and other components of self-awareness that help move the client forward

• Improve habits, focus, structure, and accountability

• Feel encouraged and supported and that they have a source of unconditional, intentional and empathetic listening

• Challenge mindsets, habits, and behaviors that are holding them back

 

While life coaching is rooted in clinical psychological theory, often drawing on the work of Dr. Carl Rogers, Dr. Alfred Adler, and Dr. Carl Jung, it is very different from clinical psychotherapeutic approaches. A therapist or counselor works with clients dealing with mental illness, trauma, grief and loss, substance use and/or addiction, and interpersonal problems caused by dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaviors. Therapists utilize specific, evidence-based treatment modalities to treat the condition(s) presented by the client.

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How Do I Approach Coaching?

Because of my clinical background, I may approach coaching a little differently from those coaches who don’t have this knowledge and experience, but this doesn't mean that I do therapy in the coaching relationship. Most notably, I may bring my knowledge of specific skills and practices related to therapeutic approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and related fields like Positive Psychology, simply because I find many of the perspectives, tools and practices to be not only useful in a therapeutic context, but also widely applicable for any human being. You don’t need to have a mental disorder to benefit from practices that have been researched and found to not only create greater levels of satisfaction in life, but to help people take action towards the person they want to be, the relationships they want to have, and the life they want to create.

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While coaching for personal growth is often insight-oriented and full of lots of discovery and “aha” moments, I will also focus on helping you apply that insight in ways that move you forward and take action. I love being a resource to bring you new ideas for skills, tools and practices that can help you apply what you are learning in coaching. And I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to sharing new research and best practices in the field of coaching, human potential, psychology, neuropsychology, resilience, etc. and applying those new learnings to your life when applicable.

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Let me give you one example that might help to sum this up. If I’m working with a counseling client with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, I might help them reduce worrying by using a tool called a worry list where you write down every worry that is spinning around in your head, and then you cross off the ones you can’t do anything about, then you prioritize the rest and choose what to focus on in the next day. You don’t have to have an anxiety disorder to spend a lot of time worrying each day which distracts your focus away from doing the things you want to attend to – and so this same tool can also benefit my coaching clients (and any human being who worries - which is all of us!)

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To summarize, through specific strategies and skills, I can help you define your goals and create the life you envision by helping you focus, create more clarity, identify and address barriers that reduce your ability to accomplish your goals, provide different perspectives, compassionately challenge and work to motivate you, and of course, celebrate with you!  

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If you are interested in coaching, or want to explore whether counseling or coaching would be more appropriate for you, you can set up a free 15-minute consultation call, email me at admin@linwildercounseling.com or fill out the contact form on this website.