Let’s say you’re in a rut, or feeling a bit stuck. How do you know whether therapy, coaching, or Reiki will benefit you?
Let’s compare the three:
Therapy can help you understand your own internal processes so you can rise above your current level of function and self-awareness. It’s a great way to change how you interact with the world in general. And “interact with the world” includes internal dialogue, aka “self-talk”.
Coaching is more goal-oriented. It will help you maximize your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take full advantage of external resources, all for the purpose of building momentum and overcoming specific, measurable challenges.
There is some overlap between therapy and coaching, with similarities in technique. A therapist can use coaching as a tool to help their clients raise self-awareness.
Enter Reiki. While therapy and coaching operate on the mental and physical levels, Reiki operates on the spiritual level. Reiki helps you release counter-productive, “heavier” energies. These energies may be the product of your own life experience and past choices, but you’re just as likely to be carrying external energies you’ve picked up along the way from the people around you. These energies can manifest physically in the form of limiting beliefs, stress, unwanted emotions, habits, or even pain and illness. By releasing all energetic vibrations which don’t support love, contentment, and happiness, Reiki allows higher vibrations which do support love, contentment and happiness to expand.

With all this in mind, how do you decide which of these approaches is for you?
First of all, consider your current challenge(s). Are they non-specific, or specific? Because the less specific, less well defined your challenges are, the more you should be thinking “therapy”. Coaching is a great tool for well-defined goals. While it can handle fuzzy problems, it’s usually not the best tool in those cases.
If you feel like the biggest problem in your life is iDRAMA!, confusion, or overwhelming emotions…or, if you can identify with statements like, “I’m a train wreck”, “I am in constant anxiety”, or “I feel like I have no control”, then again, you may want to start with a good therapist. “Good therapist” means someone you feel comfortable, content, confident, and safe with.
If you find yourself reaching for a dream, or facing a very specific challenge (like landing a better job), that’s when it’s time to work with a coach. If you know what you want, but aren’t 100% confident of what your next step should be, it’s coach time.
Whether you decide to work with a therapist or a coach (or neither!), consider trying a few Reiki sessions. You may just need to rebalance your energy so it’s working for you, not against you. If you feel like you have bad luck, or you’re at odds with the Universe, a Reiki session will get that gunked-up energy flowing in your favor again.
When you’re ready to take the plunge into therapy, coaching, and/or Reiki, I hope this article helps you find exactly what you’re seeking!
Take care & God Bless,
– Brandon
soil scientist, pure life coach, certified holistic cancer coach, & Reiki master
cancercoachb@gmail.com