If you have been “in therapy” for years, you’re probably no longer really “in therapy.”

There IS a difference between “being in therapy” and “seeing a therapist.”

Unless we are processing deep trauma, at some point in our journey, we are probably getting (or should be getting) something that looks more like Life Coaching. Strengths-based. Developing our Vision. Creating and building meaning for our current and future life…

Therapy remediates hurt, sorts out and makes sense of the past, gives meaning to what have been limiting life experiences. For most of us, at some point it is time to leave 1967, mom, your Catholic upbringing, being made fun of in the 3rd grade, not getting into med school in 1983, your family moving you right in the middle of high school, and losing first chair cello to a freshman in 1990. Again, true trauma is true trauma, and that requires a different approach. But for a lot of us, life’s pains have been more in the department of “that really sucked bad”, and I am very careful about differentiating that from deep trauma. In my world, calling “not getting into Stanford” a trauma does wild injustice to Vietnam Vets and sexual assault survivors who are experiencing true PTSD.

We sort the old stuff out, ascribe it meaning, acknowledge and feel the disappointment and losses, and move forward. We got what we needed from therapy, from turning the past over and over, and we are ready to make our mark on the world.

HURRAY!
Life Coaching Time.

Sure, new “therapy issues” show up every month. But by this time, you are able to move through them quickly, and get on with your vision of life. Therapy stopped giving you the fish, and instead taught you to fish for yourself.

Next up: How Life Coaching can catapult you into the exciting and meaningful part of your life…