What is Career Coaching (And Why it Can Be Therapeutic)

After hearing on an initial discovery call about how I work with clients, a woman said: "Ooh, that sounds like just what I need – career therapy!"

I laughed, because I’m not a therapist. But actually she wasn’t entirely wrong. 

Career coaching isn't therapy, but it certainly can be therapeutic. There's no exploration of past trauma, no clinical mental health assessments, and the scope is career focused.

It is a fundamental and holistic process, with deep exploration of what you value and your identity, but through the lens of your working life and career decisions.

People feel better for having done it. This is what helps them feel ‘unstuck’.  

From our initial chat about my services, this woman clearly sensed that the work would require her to dig deeper than she might have expected. And that, in the process of gaining clarity about what she needs from work at her stage of life, she’d likely surface things that she hadn’t thought of. Things potentially buried under busyness, confidence knocks, or history she hadn't necessarily connected to her career. 

She went ahead with the coaching programme and at the end of our final session, I reminded her of what she'd said on that first call and asked whether she still felt that way. She said:

"Actually, yes. It's like a counselling session for your career – you have to dig deep, and it gets the wheels turning. Things that are there but hidden, having to surface them in a structured way. And when someone articulates it back to you, well, there were so many moments of ‘oh yes, that is me!’."

That last part is the point really. Things do surface that you hadn't consciously connected to your career – but when they're articulated back, they're recognised rather than foreign. 

While the career coaching process isn’t therapy, it does require the same willingness to look honestly at what's there.