Therapists and life coaches can both help people create meaningful change in their lives.
Therapists treat mental health symptoms, trauma, and emotional distress. Life coaches focus on self-improvement, career advancement, and other life goals.
When choosing a provider, consider your personal goals and what you hope to learn.
Working with a therapist is a chance to improve your self-esteem, build healthier habits, and create positive change in your life. But depending on your goals, it might be worth considering a life coach instead of a therapist.
Life coaches teach tools and strategies for future success, while most therapists consider how a person’s past experiences influence their present. Life coaches provide insight, motivation, and accountability to help people reach their personal and professional goals. With therapy, you’ll learn how to manage mental health symptoms and express your emotions in healthy ways.
Some therapists also work as life coaches, but life coaches can’t provide the same mental health support as therapists. Below, we review four key differences so you can find the right support for your goals.
1. Provider training
Therapists are licensed mental health professionals who have a master’s degree in counseling, psychology, or social work. Before earning their license, they must also complete around 3,000 hours of supervised clinical experience. Therapists may choose to focus on specific conditions, patient populations, or types of therapy.
Life coaches aren't required to have any formal training or education. Many life coaches will receive certifications, but these are not required to work with clients. Similar to therapists, life coaches can choose to specialize — such as in wellness and fitness or career coaching.
Another important distinction involves privacy and confidentiality. Life coaches aren’t obligated to follow the same health privacy laws as therapists.
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2. Your personal goals
Therapy helps people understand the connection between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Everyone has their own reasons for starting therapy, but some common therapy goals include:
Managing mental health concerns, like stress, anxiety, and depression
Understanding and processing trauma
Navigating interpersonal conflict
Coping with grief, loss, and other major life events
Learning more about yourself and others
Life coaches help people understand what they want in life and how to achieve it. A life coach might be the right fit if your goal is to:
Create actionable and achievable goals
Understand your values, priorities, and vision for your life
Challenge yourself or break out of your comfort zone
Navigate life changes, like switching careers
Create fitness or wellness goals
3. Skills learned
Working with a therapist or life coach is an opportunity to develop new skills. For example, talk therapy can help people improve their:
Emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage emotions. It involves empathy, self-awareness, and motivation.
Communication: You can learn how to practice active listening, improve your conflict resolution skills, and get better at expressing yourself.
Coping methods: Discover healthier coping mechanisms for managing emotional distress. For example, you could try meditating, journaling, or reading a book.
Emotional resilience: Learn how to bounce back after stressful or challenging experiences.
Life coaches show people how to reach their personal and professional goals. Depending on your interests and objectives, these skills may involve:
Time management
Leadership abilities
Communication
Productivity
Problem solving
Decision making
Interpersonal skills
Team building
4. Format and provider approach
Another factor to consider when choosing a therapist or life coach is how they structure their sessions. Both providers will begin with an initial assessment to learn more about your strengths, challenges, and future goals. A therapist will also review your mental health symptoms, health history, and any other details that might impact your treatment plan.
Therapy is a journey designed to help you heal and grow at your own pace. It's often a longer-term commitment, so you might meet with your therapist every one to two weeks for months or even years. Life coaching is typically a more-short term arrangement that’s designed to help people overcome obstacles and reach a specific goal. Many life coaching programs involve 6 or 12 weekly sessions.
If you’re unsure whether therapy or coaching is right for you, think about whether you want to focus more on healing and managing emotions (therapy) or on setting and achieving specific life goals (coaching). Either way, it’s OK to try one and then switch later if your needs change.
Brandy Chalmers, LPC
Clinical reviewer
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Therapists and life coaches can both work with you to help you achieve your goals and create meaningful change in your life. But if you want to manage mental health symptoms or process emotional pain, consider choosing therapy. Therapists are trained to support your mental health and can help you improve your overall well-being and quality of life.
At Rula, we’re committed to delivering a comprehensive behavioral health experience that helps people feel seen and understood so they can get back to feeling their best.
Rula makes it easier to find a licensed therapist or psychiatric provider who accepts your insurance so you don’t have to choose between affordable care and excellent care. With a diverse network of more than 15,000 providers, 24/7 crisis support, and appointments available as soon as tomorrow, we're here to help you make progress — wherever you are on your mental health journey.
Alex Bachert
Alex Bachert is a freelance copywriter and mental health advocate. Since earning her masters degree in public health, she has focused her career on creating informative content that empowers people to prioritize their health and well-being. Alex has partnered with organizations like Ro, WellTheory, and Firsthand, and her work has been recognized by the Digital Health Association.
When she’s not writing about mental health, Alex is usually playing pickleball, meeting with her local board of health, or enjoying time with her three kids.
Brandy Chalmers, LPC
Having faced challenges like childhood abuse, neglect, and the loss of her father to suicide, Brandy Chalmers is deeply passionate about providing compassionate care. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and Registered Play Therapist with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy.
Brandy also teaches at a university, sharing her expertise with future mental health professionals. With over a decade of experience in settings like inpatient care and private practice, she specializes in helping clients with perfectionism, trauma, personality disorders, eating disorders, and life changes.
Rula's editorial process
Rula's editorial team is on a mission to make science-backed mental health insights accessible and practical for every person seeking to better understand or improve mental wellness.
Members of Rula’s clinical leadership team and other expert providers contribute to all published content, offering guidance on themes and insights based on their firsthand experience in the field. Every piece of content is thoroughly reviewed by a clinician before publishing.
