• Counseling is provided by counselors who attended graduate school for their field of expertise.

• Life coaching is provided by self-educated individuals with some training in life coaching.

• Counselors are mental health professionals trained to address any ongoing mental health issues.

• Life coaches are not mental health professionals.

• Counselors are trained to handle past and present traumas and substance abuse issues.

• Life coaches are not trained in treating trauma or addiction.

• Counseling tends to be both past and present focused.

• Life coaching is present and future focused.

Coaching is present and future-focused, oriented toward solutions and change while seeking to focus on overcoming non-mental health related obstacles and barriers in the way of life goals. Coaching is geared towards motivated people who are ready to make changes in their lives.

Counseling is focused on mental and emotional health symptoms that impair daily life functioning. The goal is to help alleviate such symptoms. Often the focus is on the past and how the past is influencing the present. Counseling also addresses past abuse or trauma. Counselors are mental health professionals with graduate degrees in their field of expertise.

You are having trouble overcoming hurdles or obstacles to get where you want to be. You are seeking some help to navigate such obstacles to get where you want to be in your life. You are motivated and ready to hit the ground running to accomplish your goals. You desire your faith to be incorporated in helping you get where you want to be. Feel free to contact us to determine is coaching is right for you.

You are experiencing mental health symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, severe worry, suicidal thoughts) that are debilitating to your daily functioning (e.g., impacting your sleep, work, and relationships). Also, if you have a history of trauma or abuse then counseling is the best fit for you. Feel free to contact us to determine if counseling is right for you.

If you choose to work with us you are getting the opportunity to sit across from a married who has had to navigate the ups and downs of marriage. We are very familiar with our own negative cycle of disconnection from which we pull from our personal experiences in learning to change a cycle of disconnection to one of connection. As coaches, we have more freedom to share our lives more openly with those we work with whereas counselors have restrictions and regulations that inhibit their ability to relate openly and personally with their clients. In addition, not many couples counselors work with another counselor of the opposite sex, let alone their significant other. Our approach to couples coaching is for those couples who desire to sit across from another couple who understand the struggles and trials of marriage. We have sought to grow and learn from the resources that helped us in our marriage to be paid forward to help other couples.

We use an attachment model that derives from such resources as How We Love and Hold Me Tight. Our work also incorporates a Biblical perspective and lens with which we seek to incorporate the Gospel. We seek to reorient couples to remember who created marriage and where their hope ultimately must rest. Couples coaching is present and solution-focused, which means our focus is on helping couples identify a cycle of disconnection impacting their present relationship and change it in order to have a better marriage in the future.