With regard to resolving issues around intimacy, sexuality, relationships, and companionship, you will often see that therapists and somatic practitioners offer coaching and/or counseling services.
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Think here of domains and treatments like Intimacy Coaching, Sex Coaching, Somatic Sex Coaching, Intimacy & Relationship Counseling, Sex Therapy & Counseling, and so on.
In fact, it’s fairly common that the labels “coaching” and “counseling” are used in rather synonymous ways, but actually there are subtle and also important differences between coaching and counseling.
Now, coaching is rather about receiving support from a professional to reach the goals you have already set before you, which for instance includes motivational care, guidance in planning your future actions, and pointing out the techniques or tools you could deploy.
By contrast, counseling is more about a professional who helps you with exploring who you are and what you emotionally or mentally want or need, and subsequently giving advice about using appropriate tools and techniques to identify blockages and problems and to resolve those.
Nonetheless, in practice, coaching and counseling sessions are often combined or intermingled, and many coaches are likewise counselors, and vice versa. For instance, counseling would typically lead to setting specific goals, after which coaching becomes an appropriate continuation.
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On the other hand, what starts as a coaching session may become counseling, for instance, because one discovers certain inner emotional or mental blockages that first need to be explored and resolved before coaching can really become fitting and helpful.
Coaching and counseling can work in a number of ways. For instance, sessions may consist of talks, exercises, visualizations, roleplay, interactive and functional games, psychoanalysis, and/or a range of embodied practices (i.e. somatic practices).
In addition, there are different methods in offering coaching and counseling sessions: they can be given live in-person at the therapist’s workplace or at your home, live online over the Internet, or through written communication, for instance, via email.
Workbooks, readers, and streaming video may also be among the options. It’s likewise not at all uncommon that practitioners offer group coaching and counseling sessions in the form of retreats, workshops, and/or training courses.
