Coaching can be therapeutic but is very different than therapy.

Therapy is conducted by a licensed counselor or therapist, and it typically focuses on problems rooted in the past, on why things happened, and how those experiences affect current behaviors.

Coaching is focused on the present and the future. And while Coaching might touch on the past, Coaching is a partnership where the Coach helps you design a plan based on your agenda and focused on solutions tailored to what you want and/or need.

A Coach holds space for you and your goals and helps you to be accountable for what you say you’ll do.

Not at all. And that’s a common misconception about Coaching. A Coach doesn’t give you advice or tell you how to live your life. A Coach knows that you have all the answers, and helps you bring out that inner knowledge. If a “coach” is telling you what to do, they’re most likely not certified or trained professionally to be a coach.

A Coach can help you increase your awareness, gain clarity and be more conscious about your behaviors and/or the decisions you make, in order to come up with the best solutions according to how you want to live your life.

The power is in the relationship between you and the Coach, and the process of co-creating answers you already have within.

There isn’t a specific type of person who should work with a Coach. Anyone and everyone can benefit from working with a Coach. Even Professional Coaches have their own Coaches.

However, in order to make the best out of Coaching, you must feel ready to either consider, explore and/or effect change in any area(s) of your life.

You can benefit from working with a Coach if you’re going through a transition of any kind, or considering making a change or improvement in any area of your life, no matter how small or big the change might be, and no matter who or where you are right now, or who or where you want to be.

One of the great advantages of working with a Professional Coach, is that you can bring anything to the conversation. No topic is too big or too small for Coaching.

Even if you don’t have a specific goal in mind but you know that you want something different in your life, a Coach can help you identify what you want, as well as to find out what might be holding you back from getting what you want, and help you break through those blocks.

Anyone can call themselves a coach, but only ICF (International Coaching Federation) certified coaches are required to meet and adhere to rigorous education and ethical standards.

If the coach you are considering is certified by ICF, they will have one of the following designations: Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or Master Certified Coach (MCC).

If these credentials are valuable to you, I recommend looking for a coach on ICF's Find a Coach webpage, where you can also verify their credentials.