Coach or Mentor? What Group Practice Owners Actually Need
If you've been running a group practice for any length of time, someone has probably told you that you need a mentor. Or a coach. Maybe both. The terms often get used interchangeably in the therapy world, but they describe two meaningfully different kinds of support, and knowing the difference will help you choose what you actually need right now.
The terms matter more than it might seem. The kind of relationship you enter will shape how you grow, what you're held accountable to, and whether you come away with clarity and momentum or just more information you're not sure what to do with. For group practice owners especially, choosing the wrong type of support at the wrong time is a real cost.
What Is a Mentor?
"Mentoring is when a trusted advisor provides guidance on long-term career development, personal development and leadership skills." — Chronus
A mentor is typically someone further along in a similar path as you. They are aa more experienced professional who shares their knowledge, perspective, and lived experience to help you navigate your own. Mentoring relationships tend to be less structured and more organic. The mentor offers wisdom rooted in what they have personally been through, and the mentee draws from that as needed.
Mentoring is often voluntary, informal, and long-term. It is a relationship more than it is a process. The Association for Talent Development describes it as
"an informal association focused on building a two-way, mutually beneficial relationship for long-term career movement." — ATD
A mentor might say: here's what I did when I was in your position. They share their story, open doors, and offer the benefit of hindsight. That kind of support is genuinely valuable and it is distinct from what a coach does.
What Is a Coach?
Coaching is a structured, goal-oriented process focused on your specific growth not the coach's experience. The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as
"partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." — International Coaching Federation
Notice what sits at the centre of that definition: the client's potential. A good coach is not primarily teaching you what worked for them. They are helping you think more clearly, act more intentionally, and build something that actually works for you.
Business coaching for group practice owners specifically tends to be structured and goal-driven. It is built around your challenges, your goals, and your next steps, not just a template someone else followed. As Careerminds puts it,
"coaching is a structured process where a professional coach assists individuals or teams in setting and achieving specific goals, typically focused on performance improvement within a defined timeframe." — Careerminds
Where a mentor passes down wisdom from their own journey, a coach helps you develop the capacity to navigate your own. The emphasis is not on what the coach has done, it is on what you are capable of doing.
The Difference Between a Coach and a Mentor
Mentoring leans toward a long-term, relational, and experience-based relationship. The mentor's own story is the primary resource. Coaching leans toward a structured, goal-driven, and client-centred relationship. The coach's role is to facilitate your thinking, build your capacity, and hold you accountable to forward movement.
Both are valuable. Neither is better than the other. But they serve different purposes, and conflating them can leave you in a relationship that doesn't actually give you what you need at this stage of your business.
If you're brand new to private practice and want to hear from someone who built something similar, you may benefit from a mentor. If you are a group practice owner navigating growth involving bringing on associates, building systems, protecting your time, looking at your finances, you most likely need a coach.
What Business Coaching for Group Practice Owners Looks Like With Me
Before I describe how I work, I want to name something. I know that for many therapists, the word coach carries some baggage, and that discomfort is legitimate. Coaching is an unregulated title. Anyone can use it. And there are people operating as coaches right now who are, in practice, doing therapy without the training, the supervision, the regulatory accountability, or the ethical framework that good clinical work requires. That is a real problem, and it is reasonable that it has made some of you cautious about me using this term..
I am a registered clinical psychotherapist. I hold that designation with care, and I do not blur the line between coaching and clinical work. What I do in a coaching context is business coaching and focused on leadership, operations, finances, team dynamics, and the decisions that come with running a group practice. I am not your therapist in our coaching relationship. I bring a therapeutic sensibility to how I hold space and how I ask questions, but that is different from providing therapy. If you are someone who would benefit from clinical support, I will say so directly and encourage you to find it.
I want you to work with someone you can trust. If the word coach has made you hesitant, I hope this gives you a clearer picture of what I’m actually offering…and what I’m not.
I want to be direct about something else: I am a coach, not a mentor. And I think that distinction matters, especially in this industry where so many business coaches are really just selling you their model.
I walk alongside you. I am not here to tell you how I built my practice and suggest you replicate it. I am here to help you build yours. I want you to find a way that fits your life, your values, your capacity, and your goals.
That means we talk about the things that actually run a business. Systems. How you are protecting your time. The conversations you have been avoiding with an associate, a co-director, or a difficult client. Your money, because ignoring the numbers does not make them go away. The moments where you are not showing up as the leader you want to be, and what is getting in the way.
I don’t sell pipedreams. I do not promise you a six-figure expansion if you just follow my five steps. What I will do is sit with you in the complexity of what you are building and help you find a way through it that is real and sustainable.
I am also not flashy. I am not building a personal brand around lifestyle content or trying to convince you that hiring me will transform your life overnight. What I am committed to is excellence..in the work I do with you, in the thinking we bring to your business, and in showing up consistently for the people I work with.
What I want for you is a group practice that actually works. One where you feel like a leader, not just a clinician who accidentally ended up managing people. One where the business serves your life, not the other way around. That is what we build together, through business coaching for group practice owners that is grounded, direct, and built around you.
Ready to Find Out If We're a Fit?
If you are a group practice owner who is ready to go beyond information and into real, supported action — I would love to talk. Book a discovery call and let's figure out together where you are, where you want to go, and whether working together makes sense.
