A smart question to ask, and a common one. A standard and succinct answer is that coaching is about the present and the future, while therapy is about the past. It’s also said that coaching is goal oriented and therapy is about healing old trauma. While these answers are “true enough” they don’t tell the whole story. While they can be viewed as two sides of the same equation, there can be and sometimes is a small amount of overlap between both practices. Sometimes, one cannot be practiced effectively without the other, either concurrently or, as is more commonly the case, with a period of counseling and therapy prior to coaching. The person being coached needs to be well and healthy enough to benefit from this modality, as it can be harmful to try and deepen and move forward before attending to issues from their past.