Coaching, Therapy & Professional Boundaries
Clarity protects the work.
The Soma Alchemy Institute maintains clear distinctions between coaching, education, and psychotherapy. Although these services may sometimes explore similar aspects of human experience, they are different professional relationships with different purposes, responsibilities, and boundaries.
Clear roles protect the people we serve, the professionals providing the work, and the integrity of the work itself.
Coaching
A developmental, educational, and goal-oriented professional relationship.
Coaching may explore awareness, patterns, values, nervous-system regulation, embodied experience, personal or professional growth, relationships, leadership, spirituality, and intentional action.
Coaching does not diagnose or treat mental or emotional disorders and does not establish a psychotherapy relationship.
Psychotherapy
A licensed clinical health-care service.
Psychotherapy may include assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, clinical intervention, risk assessment, and treatment of mental or emotional disorders.
Psychotherapy operates within a formal clinical treatment relationship governed by applicable licensing laws, ethical standards, documentation requirements, and professional responsibilities.
Can I Work With Catherine for Both?
No. Psychotherapy and individualized coaching are separate professional relationships.
If you are currently receiving psychotherapy from Catherine through The Center for Conscious Community, you cannot simultaneously receive individualized coaching from Catherine through The Soma Alchemy Institute.
Ending psychotherapy also does not automatically create eligibility for a coaching relationship. Moving from one professional role into another can create boundary concerns, role confusion, and conflicts of interest. Any request to transition from psychotherapy to coaching will therefore be considered individually and may be declined.
Likewise, coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy. If clinical mental-health treatment becomes appropriate during a coaching relationship, coaching may be paused or concluded and referral for appropriate clinical care may be recommended.
Clear roles protect the relationship, the work, and the people involved.
