Coparenting Coach vs Family Therapist

Both Coparenting Coaches and Family Therapists focus on working through emotional discomfort and setting life-enhancing goals. Although both professions can help, there are several differences:

Coparenting Coach:

1. A professional who provides collaborative, solution-focused, topically relevant guidance to clients.
2. Views parents as the experts on their own child/children.
3. Works with parents to discover their values and incorporate them into developmentally appropriate strategies.
4. Adopts a future-focused and goal-oriented approach.
5. Conducts sessions that are typically short-term and based on each family’s unique goals.
6. Focuses primarily on the coparent partnership and the relationship between the parent(s) and child/children.
7. Teaches lifelong strategies and techniques so coparents know how to reinforce positive behavior, set clear boundaries, and appropriately hold children accountable.
8. Usually more cost-effective than family therapy, as the typical relationship lasts less than six months and the techniques provided can be applied as the children grow.
9. Does not accept insurance.

Family Therapist:

1. Trained to treat mental illness, tackle emotional concerns, and identify and address underlying issues.
2. Facilitates sessions with the entire family, as well as individual sessions with child/children without parents.
3. Helps families identify and address negative patterns of interaction and communication that may be contributing to the child/children's behavior. Parents work on their underlying issues prior to addressing the child/children’s behavior.
4. Takes a more comprehensive approach, working to identify and address underlying issues within the family system, including providing diagnoses for family members.
5. Conducts sessions that typically involve a longer-term, process-oriented approach.
6. Considers the broader context of the family and how each member's experiences and behaviors impact the whole coparenting experience.
7. Uses a variety of therapeutic techniques to address the emotional and psychological dynamics within the family.
8. Most often more costly than Coparenting Coaching because there is usually no predetermined goal or timeframe for resolution.
9. Some accept insurance.