½ of all men are more depressed than they admit. Are you one of them? If so, do something about this and start working with a therapist or a coach.
Men make up roughly half the population, yet only 1/3 of people in therapy are men? Don’t allow yourself to be part of this grim statistic. Take action.
I have found in my own life that working with various therapists and coaches has been extremely helpful in having me heal and helping me move forward with my life in a way that resonates and is inline with my current values, life purpose, and vision.
Unfortunately, one stumbling block for men seeking help is not understanding what sort of help they need. So what is the distinction between coaching and therapy? Without a doubt there is overlap with therapy and coaching, but they also differ in many ways.
If you already know you want to work with a coach or a therapist? Look for my subsequent articles on helping you select the right therapist or coach.
Primarily we think of therapy as an outlet to heal emotional wounds and to treat depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. Coaching is more focused on what’s next, alignment with your values, life purpose, and dreams/vision and to help you recognize and overcome obstacles standing in your way.
What Does A Therapist Generally Do?
A therapist who provides talk therapy (or psychotherapy) is adept at working with a client to understand their issues, feelings, and emotions and generally offers generally a look back to see what might be causing this issue/wound. They then work on healing these wound(s). Therapists help clients look at certain unhealthy patterns or thoughts and how these patterns or thoughts could be driven by past issues.
What Does A Coach Generally Do?
While therapy can be more of a look back to identify and heal wounds, coaching is more focused on moving forward. With that said, many coaches will deeply explore all issues that a client brings to the session and will help them move through emotional issues, by helping a client feel what they feel and to sit in the emotion, thus creating a certain opportunity to move forward and not be stuck in this emotion. For any given topic, a coach will explore how a client may want to take specific actions to move forward with the topic thus affecting change.
Know Thyself
Do you know what your current values, life purpose, and vision for the future are? Coaching helps clients to uncover these issues so you have an internal GPS or guidance system that helps you navigate life in a resonant way. Imagine being on the open seas without a GPS or navigation system. Without this guidance system you are likely to wander, wasting energy and precious time.
Once a coach has established these important issues, values, life purpose, and vision a coach can work with a client to ensure their actions and thoughts are in line with their values and life purpose. Coaches help you stay on track. They will help you to establish specific goals and a plan that has you move towards your intended dreams/visions.
Coaches also help clients to overcome obstacles that might be holding them back from reaching their goals/dreams. While much of coaching is focused on action and reflection, it’s also focused on helping clients with the being, how are they thinking about a given topic and what other perspectives might they consider?
Most coaching methodologies are not directive in nature, the coach holds that an individual is naturally creative, resourceful, whole and not broken, and they are the ones that know best about their lives
Through various coaching tools and skills coaches create a courageous and safe space for a client to explore their issues so they can determine how they need to move forward with any given topic.
Untreated Emotional Wounds
What emotional wounds do you have that have gone untreated? I can’t impress upon you enough how important it is to look at and heal emotional wounds, as a component of having the life you want.
In my next article I go into detail on why healing emotional wounds is so important to having the life we want to live.
In Summary
Life can be complex and daunting at times. You don’t have to do it alone if you’re stuck, generally unhappy and feel less than fulfilled in one or many areas of your life. Be good to yourself and generous with yourself and seek a competent therapist or coach to work with. See my guide to choosing a therapist here : Choosing A Therapist, what to look for and what are the various major types of psychotherapy options.