Understanding when Coaching Needs to Go Deeper

There's a moment in a lot of coaching conversations where the strategy begins to run out.  It’s not because the individual hasn't got the skills or the insight, they will usually have plenty of both however what's actually in the way isn't anything strategic. It's underneath.

That's usually where the word therapeutic shows up, and where people tense a little. Therapeutic sounds like therapy, and therapy still carries the old idea that you only go there when something's wrong.

So, what is therapeutic coaching and how do we define it?

First and foremost, it’s not a diagnosis, it’s a depth of working - one that draws on psychotherapeutic method to work with what's underneath the surface conversation, in service of the capacity you already have, not perceived damage that needs repairing.

What does the level of therapeutic coaching actually work with?

• Patterns that keep reappearing: in decisions, relationships, or how you respond under pressure, that no amount of new strategy seems to touch, because they weren't formed strategically in the first place.

  
  

• An identity that's outgrown its current shape: you've changed, or the role has, and the old way of holding it doesn't fit anymore.

  
  

• Instinct and knowing that's not yet trusted: the embodied intelligence and wisdom underneath the conscious plan.

  
  

• A nervous system carrying more than it's showing: the gap between how composed you look and how steady you actually feel, sensing there is more capacity.

  
  

This is what depth work is for, however, this work if unattended can become a pathology, so it’s important to know the distinction between the two and when to enter and exit this zone of working as a coach and when to recognise the moment before it may need to be handed over to an appropriately skilled professional therapist.

Where I sit with this

I trained extensively as a coach, and separately as an integrative psychotherapist (MSc, Clinical Integrative Psychotherapy).

Most people offer one or the other so working with both means I can bring real therapeutic depth into what remains fundamentally, coaching: forward-facing, capacity-building, focused on what you're growing into and becoming rather than what happened to you.

However, sometimes what surfaces in that depth genuinely needs therapy, not coaching – a longer, more clinical container than this work is designed to hold. Recognising that line, and naming it plainly rather than working around it, is part of what makes this safe to do.  

Therapeutic coaching isn't a way of avoiding that conversation. It's knowing where the edge is and being honest with you about it if we reach it.

If any of this is landing, the sense that you've outgrown your current tools, or that something under the surface keeps returning, that's usually the signal it's time to go a level deeper.

The literature and associated research agrees the boundary between coaching and therapy is contested, not resolved, while also recognising the emphasis on coaches requiring further training and self-development in this area.

References

Assagioli, R. (1965) Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques* New York: Hobbs, Dorman & Co.

Bachkirova, T. (2007) 'Role of coaching psychology in defining boundaries between counselling and coaching', in Palmer, S. and Whybrow, A. (eds) Handbook of Coaching Psychology. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bar-On, R. (1997) The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): A Test of Emotional Intelligence*. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.

Giraldez-Hayes, A. (2021) 'Different domains or grey areas? Setting boundaries between coaching and therapy: A thematic analysis', The Coaching Psychologist.

Maxwell, A. (2009) 'How do business coaches experience the boundary between coaching and therapy/counselling?', Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.

Rashid, T., cited in HEC Paris (2026) What Executive Coaches Must Know About Mental Health Boundaries. Available at: https://www.hec.edu/en/executive-education/news/what-executive-coaches-must-know-about-mental-health-boundaries (Accessed: 31 July 2026).

Whitmore, D. Psychosynthesis Counselling in Action. 4th edition, London: Sage.