When I first heard about Catholic coaching, I was skeptical. It sounded like New Age manifestation nonsense with a religious spin. But I was wrong. And discovering what coaching actually is changed my life.
The Short Answer
Catholic coaching helps you name a goal and develop the practices and skills to reach it.
Think of a sports coach: they don’t play the game for you, but they help you see what you’re doing, what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve. They can point out repetitive motions you’re not even aware of, or make suggestions of practices to try that can strengthen your muscles.
That’s what I do as a Catholic coach, but for life goals rather than athletic ones.
How Is It Different?
People often confuse coaching with therapy/counseling or spiritual direction. Here’s the distinction:
Therapy and counseling heal past wounds. It’s about processing trauma and pain, and improving mental health.
Spiritual direction deepens your relationship with God through prayer and spiritual practices.
Coaching helps you move forward toward a specific goal, whether that’s building a prayer habit, navigating a difficult relationship, or finding purpose when life hasn’t turned out as planned. It might involve processing emotions or deepening prayer, but these serve your specific goal rather than being the focus themselves.
All three are valuable. They’re just different tools for different needs. You may need or want all three at the same time, or they may hit at different moments in your life.
One caveat: I am never going to tell you what to do. Instead, I’ll help you figure out your own next steps through questions and observations in our conversations.
What Makes It “Catholic”?
Catholic coaching is grounded in how God actually made us. That’s Catholic anthropology, if you want the fancy term. We draw heavily on St. Thomas Aquinas (one of my favorite saints!) to understand how our intellect, will, and emotions work together.
We also always bring God into the conversation, listening for his voice and learning to distinguish that from the devil and all his sneaky ways of keeping us separated from God’s love and mercy.
Coaching is partly to help us learn to align our will and desires with God’s will and desire for our lives – and to recognize that those are not necessarily in conflict!
How Does It Work?
Here’s the key insight most people miss: We think our emotions drive our actions, but it’s actually our thoughts that create our emotions, which then lead to actions.
Want to change what you’re doing? You have to go deeper and examine what you’re thinking. We do this together; I can teach you how to do it yourself; and we always do it by invoking the Holy Spirit.
So What Happens in a Session?
Mostly, you talk and I listen! Recently, I coached a college-aged woman who was overwhelmed and stuck. We started by naming her goal for that session, then she did a verbal brain dump of everything swirling in her head that was getting in the way of that goal. I asked her to identify the thought that felt heaviest.
Then we worked through that thought together: not me giving answers, but me holding up a mirror so she could see what she was actually thinking and feeling. Several times during our conversation she suddenly recognized a common theme in her thoughts that she knew existed, but hadn’t seen the extent of, how often those thoughts were coming up. By the end of the session, we had reframed the situation and she’d identified a new thought that completely lightened her load.
She leaned across the table and said, “How did you do that?! Can you teach me the steps?”
I couldn’t help but smile. That’s coaching: helping you see what you couldn’t see before, so you can move forward with clarity and purpose.
What Kind of Goals Can Coaching Help With?
Honestly? Almost anything:
- Building a consistent prayer practice
- Navigating grief or family transitions
- Finding meaning when life looks different than you imagined
- Making a big decision with confidence
- Stopping patterns that are making life harder than it could be
I specifically work with single Catholic women 40+ who feel unseen and stuck waiting for “real life” to begin. I help them find meaning and purpose right where they are.
Your Turn
If you’re curious about what your mind can do – and how God designed you to think, feel, and act – I’d be honored to walk with you.
Book a free discovery call to explore how Catholic coaching might help you reach your goals.