In general, life coaching is focused on the future, whereas counseling is focused more on one’s past. Life coaching is also more action-oriented and focuses around goals, change, and results for the client, while counseling is focused more on inner healing and helping people move past psychological barriers and disorders. Lastly, life coaches give you the freedom on how you want to structure any given session, as well as the communication that follows; counselors often have a process or psychological model that they lead clients through on the road to overcoming trauma, mental illness, and addictions. While the two professions certainly have a lot of overlap, especially in the psychological arena, they are two distinctly different professions, and each individual has to decide which is right for themselves.