Coaching and therapy
Coaching and psychotherapy are different professions with different aims.
The International Coaching Federation describes coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential.
The European Association for Psychotherapy describes the practice of psychotherapy as the comprehensive, conscious and planned treatment of psychosocial, psychosomatic and behavioural disturbances or states of suffering with scientific psychotherapeutic methods, through an interaction between one or more persons being treated and one or more psychotherapists, with the aim of relieving disturbing attitudes, promoting change, and supporting the maturation, development and health of the treated person.
In practice the distinctions often show up in focus and purpose. Coaching tends to work with the present and the future — with vision, learning, and development for people who are generally functioning well. Psychotherapy more often works with deeper or more persistent difficulties that require clinical care.
A simple analogy is the difference between an athletic trainer and a sports-medicine doctor. Both understand the body. The trainer works with athletes who are essentially sound and helps them improve performance. The doctor treats injury. Coaches and therapists can explore similar material (including the past or emotions), but they do so with different training, different aims, and different ethical boundaries.
If what you need is clinical treatment, I will say so and can help you find the right support. The work here is coaching.
What is trauma-informed coaching?
Trauma-informed coaching recognises that protective patterns from the past can still shape how a person thinks, feels, and relates — even when they are functioning well. It prioritises safety, choice, and pacing so that new capacity can develop without force. The work draws on an understanding of how the nervous system and relational patterns hold both limitation and possibility. Training through Moving the Human Spirit grounds this approach.
What is somatic coaching?
Somatic coaching includes the body and the nervous system, not only thoughts and stories. Protective patterns often live in the body as tension, shutdown, or automatic responses. Training at the Somatica Institute emphasises experiential, relational practice — noticing what happens in real time and creating enough safety for new choices to become possible. The aim is greater capacity, not forced change.
Are you poly and ENM aware?
Yes. The work is open to people in monogamous, polyamorous, and other ethically non-monogamous structures. What matters is consent, clarity, and the ability to stay in contact with oneself and others without overriding boundaries or safety.
Why does this work for individuals?
Many people who manage complexity well on the outside still carry protective patterns that once kept them safe and now limit them. Coaching creates a paced space to notice those patterns without shame, to clarify values and desires, and to practise new responses when there is enough capacity. The combination of high-stakes professional experience and somatic training is useful for people who are used to functioning under pressure yet want more internal freedom.
Why does this help couples?
Couples who want to move beyond the shadows from the past — either from before the relationship or formed during it — find resources to regulate, communicate, and stay in contact when activation rises. Coaching does not push for resolution. It helps partners notice when one person is carrying a shadow from the past, or when new shadows have formed in the relationship itself, and creates enough safety for different choices. The work supports both individual regulation and the relationship.
How can professionals use this?
Professionals often arrive with strong external competence and less practice at noticing what happens internally under pressure. Coaching helps move beyond the shadow from the past that is preventing progress or access to resources — whether that shows up in leadership, collaboration, or sustainability. The work develops more choice in how they show up, without requiring them to drop their competence.