What is the Difference between Life Coaching & Psychotherapy?

Coaching is an ongoing relationship, which focuses on clients taking action toward the realization of their visions, goals, or desires. Coaching uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client's level of awareness and responsibility and provides the client with structure, support and feedback. The coaching process helps clients both define and achieve professional and personal goals faster and with more ease than would be possible otherwise. (From International Coach Federation, www.coachfederation.org). In coaching one does not spend a lot of time talking about the past rather the focus is on present moment awareness and moving towards a life they want.

Psychotherapy is designed to help people who are in distress. The role of the psychotherapist is to offer specific intervention techniques and educational tools to help the individual with their presenting concerns. Exploring one’s personal history plays a significant role to help bridge past issues to present day distress.

The Blend Allison Offers

Allison offers a unique blend of Life Coaching and Psychotherapy.  As a result she is able to address the whole person and does not need to refer her clients out when they bump up again a historical issue or struggle with issues related to depression, anxiety, grief, relationships, ADHD/ADD, etc.

The blend Allison offers has the capacity to move one  from: “Doing to being, looking to seeing, hearing to listening, pretence to presence, imbalance to balance, separation to oneness, reacting to responding, inauthentic to authenticity, fragmentation to integration, seeking happiness to allowing joy, revenge and blame to forgiveness, incorrect perception to correct perception, complaint and competition to compassion, behaving unconsciously to behaving consciously, being in time to experiencing present moment awareness.” (Borrowed by Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process.”)

How does it Work?

Allison initially meets with her clients for a two-hour strategy session either in person, over the phone or on skype. During this session the clients will be introduced to tools designed to heighten awareness around their core values, assess current levels of satisfaction in every area of their life and establish what they want to focus on throughout the coaching relationship. Allison typically meets with her clients once a week for fifty minute sessions. For local clients, she is available to meet in person. Otherwise, the sessions take place over the phone. The client is encouraged to make a three month commitment to the coaching process as change takes time.