Therapy vs. Coaching - Which Path Leads to True Transformation?

coaching identity upgrade self esteem women in leadership womens leadership Oct 28, 2024

If you're a woman in leadership who feels driven yet secretly weighed down by self-doubt, perfectionism, or the need to prove yourself, you’ve likely considered getting support. But navigating the world of personal development can be tricky—especially when deciding between therapy and coaching. Each has its merits, but they’re also quite different.

So, how do you know which is right for you? And what if you didn’t have to choose?

The Essence of Therapy | Processing and Healing

Therapy is primarily about healing. It provides a safe space to explore past experiences, identify where painful patterns began, and understand how these experiences shape your current beliefs and behaviours. For many women in leadership, unresolved trauma and outdated beliefs about self-worth quietly undermine confidence and well-being, impacting how they show up at work and in life.

When unprocessed trauma or negative core beliefs go unchecked, they fuel self-criticism, anxiety, and a constant need to achieve. Therapy equips you with the tools to understand these underlying dynamics and to heal the wounds that drive these behaviours. With a professional trained in mental health, therapy can help you process deep emotional experiences and resolve them, so you no longer have to carry their weight.

The Power of Coaching - Vision and Forward Movement

On the other hand, coaching is future-oriented. It’s about clarifying your goals, building a vision, and identifying practical steps to achieve them. Coaching is incredibly useful for goal setting, accountability, and taking actionable steps to level up in your career or personal life.

However, traditional coaching often assumes that clients have a stable, healthy baseline from which to work. In practice, though, many women in leadership find that unresolved emotional blocks, limiting beliefs, or hidden insecurities stand in the way of their success. Without a trained mental health professional, coaches may lack the skills to help clients process these deeper issues.

If you’ve ever found yourself held back by perfectionism, fear of judgment, or self-doubt, you might have already experienced the limitations of a purely coaching-based approach. Coaching alone might push you toward goals, but it won’t necessarily get to the root of what’s holding you back from fully embodying your success and self-worth.

Rebecca’s Story | The Power of an Integrated Approach

Rebecca first came across me during mental health training for managers that I was running at her organisation. After the training, she approached me to talk about her significant fear of public speaking, something that had become especially challenging since she’d just been promoted to the role of director. Her new position required a lot of public speaking, and she recognised that she needed a solution.

Rebecca had already tried working with a coach, who advised her to “just imagine people naked” during her speeches. I mean, seriously, is that the advice we’re still giving people?

For Rebecca, that approach did nothing to address her real issue. She wasn’t just nervous about public speaking—she carried deep fears of judgment and making mistakes. In her own words, she'd 'always been a bit of a perfectionist', with a strong need to do everything right.

Her fears became especially intense when she had to present to the board, a mostly male, senior group that included ex-military professionals and former Goldman Sachs executives. Even the idea of presenting caused her physical symptoms—tightness in her chest, a knot in her stomach, and extreme blushing. She worried about every detail; whether she’d prepared enough, if she’d say the right thing, if she’d sound over prepared or if she would be seen as boring.

The constant self-judgment felt like a vice around her stomach, squeezing tighter with every thought of her next presentation.

As we began working together, I recognised that along with imposter syndrome, Rebecca was holding on to past trauma related to public speaking experiences that hadn’t gone well. Her brain hadn't processed these events and just the thought of speaking to her board activated her survival response, bringing on the nervousness, palpitations, and blushing that only amplified her anxiety.

Using a combination of hypnotherapy and MAP we began working to process these past experiences. MAP is a powerful technique that works with the superconscious mind to treat and heal trauma and limiting beliefs, creating new patterns and a calm, empowered mindset. By using MAP, we worked to gently neutralise Rebecca’s past memories so they no longer had an emotional charge.

These memories were able to be processed through the hippocampus, which is the brain’s gatekeeper for long-term memory storage. The hippocampus only lets through memories that are neutral, without high levels of emotional charge such as fear. By helping Rebecca process and refile these memories, we were able to deactivate her survival response, so the thought of presenting no longer brought on the physical symptoms that had been so intense.

With these past experiences neutralised, Rebecca began the journey of building a new, empowering relationship with herself. Through hypnotherapy and EFT tapping, she started to rewrite her self-beliefs, recognising her worth and seeing herself as fully deserving of her role. She no longer felt she had to prove herself and began feeling at ease in the spotlight.

Rebecca’s transformation didn’t stop there. She started to feel more relaxed, confident, and secure speaking in meetings. She began trusting in her opinions and contributions, seeing them as valuable and valid. Her presentations became an opportunity to connect with her audience rather than something to endure. And these changes rippled into her personal life too. Rebecca began to value who she was in her intimate relationships, finding a newfound sense of confidence and ease beyond the workplace.

"Sara delivered outstanding leadership coaching around presentations skills which have significantly improved my ability to deliver. She is empathetic, knowledgeable, and has an incredible ability to get to the root of an issue or challenge. She is able to offer a broad range of different approaches tailored to the individual and the team and she’s an absolute pleasure to work with." - Rebecca

 

The Benefit of an Integrated Approach: Therapy + Coaching

Rebecca’s story highlights what’s possible when you don’t have to choose between therapy and coaching. By integrating both, we were able to heal past trauma, rewire her self-beliefs, and guide her to step into her role as a powerful leader—not from a place of proving herself, but from a place of knowing her worth.

In our work together, you’ll experience both healing and forward movement. Here’s what that looks like:

  • Deep Healing of Core Beliefs: We don’t gloss over the experiences and beliefs that drive self-doubt, fear, or low self-esteem. We address these issues at the root, creating lasting change.
  • Building a Vision for Your Leadership: With a coaching framework, we shift from healing to action, setting goals that align with your true self, reinforcing self-confidence and self-belief.
  • Navigating Challenges with Emotional Intelligence: I teach techniques to manage stress and emotional responses, so you can lead without being thrown off course by perfectionism or fear of not being good enough.

A Journey of Self-Discovery and Empowerment

When you work with me, it’s not about fixing yourself. It’s about discovering the confident, capable leader who is already within you. By combining therapy and coaching, we journey into self-discovery, healing old wounds, and paving the way forward. This integrated approach enables you to achieve success not by becoming someone different but by reclaiming your inherent worth and embodying it in all areas of your life.

With therapy alone, you might process trauma but lack direction. With coaching alone, you might feel progress but never quite free yourself from underlying doubts. Together, therapy and coaching offer a holistic path to transformation that addresses the whole you—past, present, and future.

The Next Step Toward Empowered Leadership

You don’t have to choose between healing and growth. With an integrated approach, you can experience both. If you’re ready to move forward, not by fixing but by freeing yourself to lead with confidence and clarity, let’s connect. The transformation you’re seeking is not just possible—it’s closer than you think.

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