What is the difference between a health coach and a therapist
A therapist treats. I do not. That is the whole difference, and everything else follows from it.
People ask me this in the first five minutes of a call, usually because they have been passed between professionals for years and nobody has told them plainly what each one is for. So here is the plain version, from someone who has been doing this for twenty five years and turns people away every month.
What a therapist does
A therapist holds a clinical licence. That licence lets them assess you, diagnose you where the law allows, and treat you. They work on grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, the loops that will not stop. They go into your history because your history is the material. They are trained to recognise when you are in danger and to act on it.
That is skilled work and it is not a lesser option than coaching. For a lot of people it is the first thing they need and the only thing they need.
What I do
Coaching sits outside clinical care by design. The scope is set by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching, and it covers education, accountability, and building toward goals you set. Nothing in it includes diagnosis or treatment.
Inside that scope, here is my actual work. I look at your body and your life at once. Gut, hormones, blood sugar, sleep, and the nervous system underneath all of it. What you eat, when you eat it, when you go to bed, whether you move, and whether any of that survives a hard week. I read your birth chart. I am a certified Hellenistic astrologer, and I read it for pattern and timing rather than prediction. Then I build you a plan with times on it and I hold you to it.
Most of my clients are working through one of three things: neurodivergence, usually ADHD, where routines have never held; gut and gut-brain issues; or hormones, including perimenopause. They have all tried the apps, the diets and the programs. They are not short of information.
Where I draw the line, out loud
I do not diagnose. I do not treat mental illness. I do not take you back through your childhood.
If any of those is what you need, I tell you in the first conversation and I send you to someone who can do it. Not after three months and a deposit. In the first conversation.
I am also not a doctor and not a registered dietitian. If your labs or your history need a clinician, that is where you go, and I will say so.
When to choose a therapist over me
Choose a therapist if you are in real distress. If you cannot get out of bed. If the grief has not shifted in a year. If the thoughts loop and will not stop. If something happened to you that you have never been able to put down. If you need a diagnosis, or medication, or someone licensed to assess you.
None of that is a small version of coaching. It is a different profession and you should go to it directly.
When to work with me
Choose me if you already know what you should be doing and you have not managed to do it for four years. If your energy is gone and your bloodwork keeps coming back normal. If every plan works for two weeks and then stops. If you are tired of being handed one piece of yourself at a time by a nutritionist, a trainer, a therapist and an app, and nobody has ever looked at the whole thing.
That is the gap I work in. Not because it is more important than therapy, but because almost nobody is doing it properly.
Plenty of people should have both
This is not a choice you are forced to make. A good number of my clients see a therapist and work with me at the same time, and it works well, because we are doing different jobs on different material. Your therapist works on what happened. I work on what happens tomorrow morning at seven.
If you already have a therapist, keep them. I will ask.
What the first conversation actually covers
I ask what you have already tried and what happened when you tried it. Your sleep, your digestion, your cycle, your labs if you have them, your medications. Your birth details, because I read your chart before we speak, which means you do not spend the first month explaining yourself to me.
Then I tell you what I see. Including the part you did not want to hear. And I tell you whether I am the right person for it. Sometimes the answer is no, and you get that answer for free, in the first conversation.
Questions I get asked
Can I see a health coach and a therapist at the same time?
Yes, and a good number of my clients do. They do different jobs. Your therapist works on what happened and what it did to you. I work on what you eat, when you sleep, how you move and whether any of it holds on a Tuesday. Neither one covers the other. If you have a therapist, I will ask you to keep them.
Is a health coach qualified to give medical advice?
No, and neither am I. I am not a doctor, a therapist or a registered dietitian. I do not diagnose, prescribe or treat. If something in your history or your labs needs a clinician, I say so and I send you. That is not a limitation I apologise for. It is the line that makes the rest of the work safe.
How do I know which one I need first?
Ask yourself what is actually in the way. If you cannot get out of bed, if the grief has not moved in a year, if the thought loops will not stop, start with a therapist. If you know exactly what to do and you have not managed to do it for four years, that is my work. If both are true, do both, and start with the therapist.
What happens in the first conversation with you?
I ask what you have already tried and what happened. I ask about your sleep, your digestion, your cycle, your labs if you have them. I read your chart before we speak. Then I tell you what I see, including the part you did not want to hear, and I tell you whether I am the right person. Sometimes the answer is no. I say it in that first conversation rather than three months in.
If you want to start smaller
You do not have to decide about working with me to get something useful. The 10 Day Reset is the method in your own hands: ten days with times on the page, a three day cleanse, meal plans, worksheets and 79 recipes, for $125. Or put your email in below and I will send you the 7 Day Energy Reset, which is free and takes about ten minutes a day.
This is general wellness education and not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is not a substitute for care from a licensed mental health professional. If you are struggling, please speak to a doctor or a therapist.