Is now the time to find a career coach or a therapist?

Currently, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to ravage the world with no end in sight, several companies have been overwhelmed with new participants seeking advice about their next career step. Many need just some smart advice to expand their networks and to strategize for the future. However, a few have become totally unhinged by a lack of jobs. They need help that goes much further than what a career coach or support group can handle. This is when it's psychotherapy time.

Both coaches and therapists these days report being deluged with inquiries from current and past clients. If you are one of those people, and you think that you would benefit from some professional advice, what kind of advice would you choose? The response lies in an important contrast between what coaches and therapists are doing. A career coach is trained (and often certified by an organisation such as the International Coaching Association, the Human Resource Management Society, or GetFive) to brainstorm with you about your overall goals for work and how to achieve them. The discussion is entirely about your work life.

Therapists, on the other hand, concentrate on helping you overcome your past's emotional trauma and any associated psychological problems that can hamper your career 's achievement.

Since emotional problems can have a sneaky way of lurking just below the surface of our conscious minds, seeing what the empowerment coaching and consulting real problem is is not always easy. Career coaches often come across a psychological issue with which a client is struggling, and refer that person to a therapist for a closer look.

If all you need is some knowledgeable advice on tactics to move your career to the next level, a seasoned trainer is your best bet. But knowing that you may need to dig deeper is wise too. Signs of career-damaging emotional instability may be subtle, such as a history of overreacting to fairly minor job setbacks, or an inability to tolerate less-than-great feedback (even though your reasonable mind thinks it's correct).

Especially prevalent is psychiatric depression, which affects around 6 per cent of the U.S. population even in good times — and starts to escalate at times like these.

A that depression symptom is the feeling that you are frozen or 'stuck,' unable to step ahead with what you think you need to do. If that describes you now, get help for the rest of your life and career as soon as possible, to ward off episodes that may become more regular, and more serious.

Seeking help online

Fortunately, both coaching and therapy are available online and both types of practitioners recommend choosing a professional by contacting two or three and asking if they have experience dealing with similar situations to yours. Ask past clients for referrals.

We could all use a bit of professional assistance. The pandemic has caused so much tension and disruption that millions of people around the world are displaying symptoms that meet the "adjustment disorder" norm. Mayo Clinic describes the malaise as a mixture of depression and anxiety that triggers "nervity, fear, difficulty focusing or recalling things, and feeling overwhelmed."

In a normally functioning world , people only sought treatment for this if the symptoms were particularly chronic or severe. And in a pandemic like this? Nearly everybody is now dealing with the adjustment disorder.