Hard times fade. Good lives are made.
Mental health coaching is a structured, evidence-based alternative to therapy for people who want better mental health, relationships, focus, career, meaning, and purpose.
Adam Braus, PhD
Mental Health Coach · San Francisco, CA
As a professor, I watched students and colleagues get coaches — and saw it transform their lives. Curious, I took the plunge myself and worked with both a therapist and a coach at the same time. I got a lot out of both, but I got something completely different from each. The therapist helped me process emotions I had neglected or repressed. The coach helped me take action — action that drastically improved my relationships, career, and mental health.
The parallel that kept coming back to me was athletic coaching. I played football and swam competitively in high school, and worked with a personal trainer more recently. No serious athlete trains without a coach — not because they're broken, but because a coach sees what you can't see about yourself, holds you to a standard you wouldn't hold yourself to, and turns potential into performance.
I studied the research on what makes coaching effective, what distinguishes it from therapy, and where the two overlap. I refined a practice grounded in evidence-based methods and the same rigorous thinking I applied earning a PhD in Philosophy and Ethics. Then I built it out: I designed, launched, and ran a coaching program at my university, training eight coaches who worked with over three hundred clients
The outcomes were simply amazing. Retention at the school doubled. Student satisfaction doubled. Job placements and success went up by a quarter. By beyond the numbers, people were just happier, more fulfilled, and more purposeful because they were getting 1-on-1 support to unlock that fulfillment and purpose.
After that success, I decided to make this sort of coaching available to anyone that wanted it. So, if you feel like you need to change your life or want to unlock purpose and fulfillment, let’s have an initial conversation right away.
Client Testimonials
"I was stuck and I'd outgrown where I was and couldn't figure out my next move. Adam helped me get clear on what I actually wanted. That turned out to be tougher (but more fun). I quit, moved to NYC, and built a startup that eventually got bought out. Now I'm deep in my next one. That first coaching conversation was the pivot point."
— Avery Durrant, Founder, NYC"Adam helped me through a pretty crazy career transition leaving social media to produce films in LA. Lots of setbacks and distractions along the way but he always had a new framework to kept me focused on what actually mattered. Honestly I didn't expect coaching to work as well as it did. Highly recommend."
— Teddy Hawke, Film Producer, Los Angeles"I had a startup idea I couldn't commit to. Kept second-guessing myself, going in circles. Adam helped me cut through all of that and get genuinely excited about what I was building in AI and biosciences. I'm all in now. The coaching was worth every penny."
— Noah DeLay, Founder, Cambridge MACoaching v. Therapy
Coaching and therapy have some things in common. You commonly work 1-on-1 but it can also be done in groups. Both your therapist and coach are expert helpers that have your best interests at heart and follow a code of ethics. Both therapists and coaches keep what is said in sessions confidential. But there are significant differences between the two that makes them separate and complimentary.
| Mental Health Coaching |
|---|
| Forward-looking — focused on where you're going |
| Works with functional people who want more |
| Goal setting, planning, and accountability |
| You drive the agenda |
| No diagnosis, no clinical records |
| Like working with a personal trainer — for your mind |
| Flexible, ongoing, built around your life |
| Therapy |
|---|
| Backward-looking — focused on understanding the past |
| Designed for people experiencing clinical symptoms |
| Processing, insight, and emotional healing |
| Clinician guides the treatment plan |
| Diagnosis may be required for insurance billing |
| Like working with a doctor — for a specific condition |
| Structured sessions within a clinical framework |
Coaching can be complimentary to therapy but is not a substitute. A mental health coach is not a licensed therapist or psychologist. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, clinical depression, trauma, or other serious symptoms, please seek a licensed therapist or clinician.
Coach Braus’ Practice Areas
Mental Health Coaching
Mental health coaching is one of the fastest growing and most effective forms of personal support — and for good reason. For people who are functional but stuck, lost, or quietly unfulfilled, it offers something therapy often doesn't: a clear, action-oriented path forward.
We work across the full terrain of your life — relationships, career, purpose, family — mapping where you are, where you want to be, and exactly what's standing between the two. Then we build a real plan and hold you to it.
ADD/ADHD Coaching
ADHD isn't a lack of intelligence or ambition — it's a difference in how you direct attention. Research consistently shows that ADHD coaching is one of the most effective interventions available — more practical and more immediate than many clinical alternatives.
We build systems, routines, and strategies tailored to how your brain actually works, so the chaos becomes manageable, the distractions lose their grip, and your output finally matches your potential.
Ethics Consulting & Coaching
For leaders and organizations facing genuinely hard decisions — whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, moral injury, institutional integrity, or simply knowing the right thing to do when the right thing is costly.
We work through the specific decision or dilemma together — mapping the stakeholders, the values in conflict, and the consequences of each path — so you can act with clarity and confidence.
How to Get Started
Initial Conversation ($75)
A structured 30-minute conversation where you share what's going on in your life and what you're hoping to change, and I share how I work and what we'd do together — so we can find out if we're the right fit. If we are, the $75 counts toward your first session or program.
The Focus Session ($300)
A focused 30-minute conversation where you share what's going on in your life and what you're hoping to change, and I share how I work and what we'd do together — so we can find out if we're the right fit. If we are, the $75 counts toward your first session or program.
Discounts are available for people with financial hardship.
4-Month Program ($2250)
The core coaching engagement. Ten sessions over four months — three in the first month to build momentum, two per month after that, with one floating session to use whenever you need it most or added on the end. Designed to take you from where you are to where you want to be, with enough time to make change that actually sticks.
You will book this manually with me after your initial conversation or a focus session.
Schedule an initial conversation
A 30-minute conversation where you share what's going on in your life and what you're hoping to change, and I share how I work and what we'd do together — so we can find out if we're the right fit. If we are, the $75 fee counts toward your first session or program.
