How does 'Maybe Baby' coaching differ from therapy or counselling?

One of the questions I sometimes get when people approach me about coaching is 'What is the difference between coaching and therapy?'

There is no black and white answer to this as some forms of therapy/counselling are more similiar to coaching and some coaching techniques are like counselling/therapy techniques.  Emotions are also part of the coaching process - it's human to cry or feel angry and we hold our cliens as creative, resourceful and whole.  So it's not uncommon for a client coming to me about the baby decision to cry - after all, if emotions weren't part of this, if making the decision was purely a rational choice, you would have made it by now!

However, one thing coaching does not do which therapy/counselling does do is to focus on  or explore the past.  In coaching, we work with where you are now and where you want to be.  So for example, my 'Maybe Baby' clients who are coming to me wondering whether to have children or not might have had a number of experiences from the past that impact on their present ability to make the decision.  For example,  having had a difficult childhood themselves sometimes can make people question whether they do want children themselves.  This experience provides an important context for the work but we don't delve into the past to discuss the past or analyse it.

What I do is look at how the client is feeling now - or how that experience is impacting her in the hear and now.  We would look at the clients fears now and shine a light on them.  And then, we look at where the client wants to be - and the coaching is all about the journey from where the client is now to where they want to be.

If a client really needs to look at and explore the past, I will suggest clients explore seeing a therapist.