When Coaching Isn’t Enough
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Executive CoachingWorks on the person-in-role, typically tied to performance and outcomes, often with mixed or dual accountability.
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Executive PsychotherapyWorks with the person, under single accountability, holding the organizational field in awareness while explicitly not intervening in the system.
Similar language. Different work.
Senior leaders often encounter executive coaching and executive psychotherapy and reasonably ask how they differ. Both work in the present. Both involve reflection, awareness, and change. The difference is not about time orientation or “depth for its own sake.” It is about what the work is accountable to and what kind of understanding it produces.
1. Executive Coaching
Who it is for
Executive coaching works for the person in their professional role.
The focus is on how the individual functions as a leader: decision-making, communication, performance, influence, and effectiveness.
Accountability
Executive coaching often involves mixed or dual accountability:
to the executive
and, implicitly or explicitly, to the organisation, board, HR, or sponsor
Even when confidentiality is emphasised, coaching typically exists within an organisational mandate.
System mandate
Coaching has an explicit mandate to influence behaviour and outcomes in the system. The coach is authorisued to support change in how the leader operates within their role.
What coaching does well
Executive coaching helps leaders:
clarify goals
identify patterns of action
adjust behaviour
improve effectiveness
navigate complex situations more skillfully
Coaching is pragmatic, focused, and outcome-oriented.
2. Executive Psychotherapy
Who it works for
Executive psychotherapy works for the person, not the role.
The client is the individual human being who happens to carry authority, responsibility, and power — not a function to be optimised.
Accountability
Executive psychotherapy operates under single accountability:
to the individual client only
no sponsor
no reporting
no organisational mandate
Even when a company pays for sessions, no dual accountability is created.
System mandate
There is no mandate to intervene in the organisation.
Organisational dynamics, power, and consequences are held clearly in awareness, but the therapist does not advise, direct, or act upon the system.
What executive psychotherapy does
Executive psychotherapy focuses on why the present is the way it is.
Not as history for its own sake, but as structure:
how earlier adaptations shape current perception
how emotional patterns organise present decisions
how authority, conflict, or responsibility activate lived experience now
When the past appears, it appears only because it is alive in the present.
The core difference (without clichés)
Both coaching and psychotherapy work in the present.
The difference is this:
Coaching primarily addresses how you function.
Executive psychotherapy addresses why you function that way — now.
That difference matters when insight alone has not led to freedom.
A simple comparison
| Dimension | Executive Coaching | Executive Psychotherapy |
|---|---|---|
| Works for | Person-in-role | Person |
| Accountability | Often mixed or dual | Single |
| Organizational mandate | Yes | No |
| Primary question | “What would work better?” | “Why is this how it is now?” |
| Use of history | Optional or minimal | Only as it manifests in the present |
| Orientation | Performance & development | Meaning, structure & freedom |
When coaching is not enough
Coaching is often the right place to start.
It becomes insufficient when the same patterns persist despite insight, motivation, and effort — when decisions feel constrained, reactions seem disproportionate, or authority carries an unexplained emotional weight. At that point, the question is no longer what to do differently, but why doing differently feels difficult or impossible. Executive psychotherapy offers a space to understand and loosen those constraints — without agendas, sponsors, or performance expectations.
Beginning an Engagement
Start with a private consultation (50 minutes) to clarify context, boundaries, and fit, then decide whether to continue.
