Coaching vs Therapy. How do I know what’s right for me?

When you decide that you need additional support, it can be very overwhelming to decide what kind of support you want and who you want to work with. We want to make that decision a little easier for you. First off, let’s dive into the differences between therapy and coaching.

Our staff offers two options for support: we offer therapy through Woven Together Trauma Therapy (California residents only) and coaching here at Traumastery.

Therapy: Therapy sessions and the course of therapy treatment is very collaborative and relational. If you work with one of our therapists, they will help you identify your goals for therapy. It takes time to build a therapeutic relationship, especially if you have experienced relational trauma, but it is a crucial part of trusting your therapist as you work to reach your goals. We offer weekly therapy sessions with our therapists at Woven Together Trauma Therapy, and the schedule can be adjusted to suit your needs (bi-weekly, weekly, bi-monthly. Your therapist will help you decide on the schedule that works best for you.)

Therapy tends to be more long-term than coaching. We don’t have specific timelines for what therapy will look like, but it will take time to build trust, identify goals, and process through trauma. Because of licensing regulations, Woven therapists can only work with clients who are located in the state of California.

Coaching: Here at Traumastery we offer 1:1 intensive coaching. This coaching experience is short, intense, and goal-oriented. To start with, we schedule two coaching sessions. In the time between your sessions, you will work on the curriculum that your coach created specifically for you. The two areas we primarily focus on are Religious Trauma & Cult Recovery Coaching and Family support for Cult Survivors. Our intensive coaching is available for individuals anywhere in the US. We offer examples of the coaching experience below.

What does coaching look like?

Ruth Gatt, PhD offers both therapy and coaching sessions. She is a skilled coach and a warm, relational therapist. You can read more about Ruth here.

“In a nutshell, therapy with me is highly process-oriented, and coaching is highly goal oriented. In therapy, we start by laying a comprehensive foundation and engaging in deep, exploratory processing of your identity development, trauma, and pain points. In coaching, I generally recommend starting with two intensive sessions so that we can identify your goals right away and get right down to it. We might role-play, practice boundaries, map your nervous system, or do other activities together. We do this so that you walk away from that first session with tangible skills and knowledge to empower you in moving toward your goals. Then I create a “curriculum” for you based on your particular goals and send those materials to you to work on before our next intensive coaching session. We process through the work that you did and what you found helpful, confusing, inspiring, etc. After processing, we figure out the next steps so that you can continue your growth. This might mean additional coaching sessions, exploring other types of support, or developing a plan for you to carry out independently. My favorite thing about coaching is how we get right down to business so you can start seeing real change in your life and relationships.”

Curious about the details of the coaching that we offer?

Religious Trauma & Cult Recovery Coaching:

• Two personalized and private 2-hour coaching sessions: We break up our coaching intensive into two parts so that you can digest and put skills into practice before coming into the second coaching session. These intensive sessions are packed with goal-setting, behavior modification, boundary practice, and other necessary skills for recovering from religious trauma and cult abuse.

• Deconstruction Mini-Course: We walk you through the basics of religious trauma symptoms and the five stages of deconstruction. 

• Trauma assessment at the beginning of coaching: This helps us know your starting point and the issues you’d like to address in your religious trauma coaching experience.

• Unlimited emails for two weeks: This helps you stay on track and get your questions answered between your two separate intensive coaching sessions.

Family support for Cult Survivors:

• Two personalized and private 2-hour coaching sessions: We break up our coaching intensive into two parts so that you can digest and put skills into practice before coming into the second coaching session. These intensive sessions are packed with goal-setting, behavior modification, boundary practice, and other necessary skills for recovering from religious trauma and cult abuse.

• Features of Extremist Beliefs Mini-Course: We walk you through the basics of religious trauma symptoms and the five stages of deconstruction. 

• Discounted access to future cult and religious trauma courses: We are constantly creating education to help people understand these dangerous and traumatizing experiences.  If we create something in the future that speaks to you, we’ll give you a 20% discount to register for that course.  

• Unlimited emails for two weeks: This helps you stay on track and get your questions answered between your two separate intensive coaching sessions

Not interested in coaching through a religious trauma lens? We also offer codependency coaching and can personalize a coaching intensive just for you. You can schedule a free 20-minute coaching consultation call with our coaching matchmaker here. She will help you answer any questions you may have, and will help you find the best coaching match.

We have therapists that specialize in helping people leave traumatic communities and recover from their impact. If you are interested in getting professional support, we have three options available. If you are looking for ways to get both education and support, we’ve created our no-pressure community led by a clinical psychologist that specializes in religious trauma and cult recovery. You can read more about and register for A Year of Non-Magical Thinking here.