02 Jan Do You Need Therapy or Coaching?
Do you need therapy or coaching? For those navigating wealth, legacy, and leadership, choosing the right kind of support matters
Are you in a place where you know you need support, but are unsure whether therapy or coaching is better for you? It’s a question that often comes up in my introductory chats. When you’ve achieved success in your career or business, it becomes harder, not easier, to know what kind of support you need.
You may feel that something is shifting. Decisions feel heavier. Old patterns are resurfacing. Perhaps a relationship is strained, or your ambition feels hollow. You’re looking for a place to reflect — but you’re unsure whether that means therapy or coaching.
Here’s how we approach this, especially for those whose lives include significant responsibility, visibility, or financial success.
Coaching: forward-facing and strategic
For some people, the therapy comes first before they are in a position to move into coaching. This can work well. However, perhaps your issues aren’t so deep. Maybe you’ve just made a few bad decisions and need help unravelling them.
Coaching can be most helpful when you’re in a place to move forwards. It it is typically goal-focused. Yes, there can be deep work with coaching, and it can produce amazing mindset shifts. It helps you gain clarity, define action, and move forward. It can be powerful for:
- Career transitions
- Visibility or confidence blocks
- Strategic decisions
- Leadership style and communication
A skilled coach will challenge and support you, offering insight and accountability. But coaching usually stays in the present or near future — it doesn’t always dive into deeper emotional roots or longstanding patterns, and if mental health is also an issue, it’s not the choice for you.
Therapy: private space for depth and change
Therapy can provide the one place in your life where you don’t have to perform, lead, or edit yourself. It’s where emotional inheritance, inner blocks, and complex relational dynamics can be explored safely — without needing to tie it all to productivity.
For those navigating wealth, power, or visibility, therapy is a private space to:
- Unpack personal and family narratives
- Explore patterns that no longer serve you
- Process burnout, grief, or internal conflict
- Move past trauma
- Coming to terms with a diagnosis, or transition of any kind
There may be subtle signs therapy is the right choice for you. Perhaps you are feeling anxious or overwhelmed, but hide it well, or have health conditions you know are related to stress. Perhaps you can’t even face getting up in the morning, even for a life you used to love. Or you are feeling irritable, on the edge of snapping, even with the people you love and protect the most. This is where therapy can help.
What if you need both?
Many clients arrive unsure whether they need therapy or coaching. Often, the answer isn’t binary.
Some may begin with coaching, only to realise a therapeutic lens is needed to explore the resistance or emotional charge beneath the issue. Others begin with therapy and later move into more strategic or visibility-focused work.
Interested in exploring the right fit?
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