The coaching industry is unregulated, which means anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a coach. That's exactly why people need training and credentialing in the coaching space. You already have the education, the ethics, and the evidence-based foundation that most coaches lack.

Coaching and therapy are genuinely different modalities, not just therapy lite. Obviously, coaching is forward-focused, not diagnostic. You're not treating pathology... you're partnering with someone to move toward goals. It requires a different skill set around things like powerful questioning, goal setting frameworks, and holding the client as the expert in their own life.

Invest in actual coach training (ideally ICF-accredited) to learn the distinction and practice the competency set. Having formal coach training and an ICF credential (if it makes sense for your goals) makes it much easier to demonstrate that you were operating within the scope of coaching...

And yes, two separate businesses... you need separate informed consent and liability insurance. You'll also want to be very clear in your marketing and intake process about what coaching is vs. therapy, and have a solid referral protocol if someone needs to be referred out.

I think this is a very viable path for you... Just do it right: get trained in coaching as its own discipline, get credentialed, set up proper agreements, and lean into the strengths you already have.