*A 4-part series for EURweb.com · Black Mental Health Awareness Month (July 2026) By Dr. Loren M. Hill, Ph.D., PCC · Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Executive Coach, Founder of Acclivity
Part 1 — Coaching While Black
“Just get a coach.” “Just go to therapy.” People toss both around like they’re the same thing. They aren’t. Knowing the difference is its own kind of survival skill.
I see the confusion all the time. A client tells me, proudly, that they’ve hired a coach. Then they describe what they’re actually carrying, and it’s clear the thing they need first is a therapist. Other folks sit down in therapy and say, “Just tell me what to do.” That isn’t what therapy is for. That’s a coaching question.
So let me make it plain. A therapist helps you heal from what happened. They tend the wound. A coach helps you build what comes next and keeps you moving toward it. Neither one means something is wrong with you. Both are tools that high-functioning people use on purpose, and you are allowed to use both.
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Plenty of my clients use therapy to process the past and coaching to strategize the future. A good coach won’t compete with a good therapist. We’ll tell you honestly which one you need right now, and when it’s time for the other.
If you’ve never seriously considered either, I understand. In our community, asking for help can feel like handing someone ammunition. We have inherited a history of being dismissed and misdiagnosed. We have also been the subject of unconstrained and unethical experiments. The result is a generational cautiousness and a suspicious nature in our culture. But carrying it all alone was never a strength. It was the only option we were handed.
For the record, coaching isn’t soft. A 2023 review of 39 randomized controlled trials found that coaching produces real, measurable gains in performance, confidence, and well-being. That’s data, not a pep talk.
Early on, a client came to me who was certain that they needed a coach. They were burned out and overwhelmed, and work was genuinely a part of it. But as we talked, something heavier surfaced. They’d recently lost a parent while raising a kid at home and helping to care for aging parents, all at once. That wasn’t a coaching problem. I steered them to a therapy consultation first, and once that support was in place, we built a plan where the coaching continued as the second layer rather than the first. Both, in the right order.
Over the next three segments, I’ll walk through what that kind of pressure does to us at work, and how the right support changes the game. For now, consider one question. If support were a strategy instead of a last resort, what would you finally stop carrying alone?
Read the full piece → theacclivity.com/coaching-while-black
Loren M. Hill, Ph.D., PCC, is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified executive coach and founder of Acclivity.
Learn more at Acclivity | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Podcast
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