I’m Ro, a certified life coach trained in NLP, EFT, TIME techniques & hypnotherapy. It is my passion to help other women break free from limiting beliefs and find self-love within themselves. I’ve helped countless women find confidence, kick bad habits and take their power back — and now I’m here t…
Hello and welcome to my landing page for the over 50 years young man or woman who wants to lose weight, gain muscle, have increased energy, reverse chronic illness, stabilize your mood, and be that active person you used to be or want to be again. Feel free to contact me directly at myhealthcoachka…
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I am a graduate in Occupational Therapy from the College of St Catherine class of 1990 with a specialty interest in pediatrics. I have thirty plus years of experience working with diverse age, culture, gender identity, physical and mental diagnosis and medical settings. I've promoted occupational t…
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My mission is to inspire others to live their best life by kindly helping them to plan the best dietary and lifestyle changes to live the best life possible. A mutual faith and determination between myself and client will enable them to have the best day ever, every day!
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Izabela Marić, certified teacher of yoga and yoga therapy, ITEC alumni, certified Holistic Life Coach, founder of Verbasana yoga studio, president of the Croatian Yoga Association, B.Sc. Indologist. Namaste, my name is Izabela and I encountered yoga more than twenty years ago. I am a certified y…
Hi!! I’m Hali. I am an integrative wellness expert, a certified women’s health coach, an integrative nutrition coach, a lactation education counselor, and a yoga & barre fitness instructor. I help busy, overwhelmed women struggling with their hormones, fertility, and the postpartum period. To…
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Hey beautiful! It’s so wonderful you’ve dropped by. Once upon a time, I was a boss babe like you on the run. I wasn’t taking care of myself and my skin was suffering. I wanted to look as confident as I felt but I tended to hide under makeup, self conscious. It wasn’t until I learned the secrets …
Hello, come on in! I am a holistic relationship coach. I help womxn (women, non-binary, trans) navigate relationship changes. This could include: Status • Single due to bereavement or infidelity • Exploring opening up your relationship • Exploring closing your relationship • A change in…
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Kristen Soltis-Tyler MD, MPH, DipABLM, MA HWC, RYT-500, RCYT is a board-certified Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine physician and a Health and Wellness Coach. She recently retired from the Air Force after over 20 years of military service. Life experiences led her to discover her passion for…
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Mental Health Advocate, Socially Conscious Entrepreneur. I place high value on strengths of fairness, kindness and bravery. My lifelong love of learning and curiosity about the world around me have given me invaluable social intelligence, cultural awareness and perspective. My myriad profess…
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My name is Julia. I practice a holistic approach to health and wellness, meaning I look at how the different areas of your life are related to your overall well-being. I believe in bio-individuality, which is the concept that everyone is different and we each have unique needs that are constantly c…
I've worked with teens as a teacher in middle school, in high school, a high school librarian, and now as a life coach. The reason for my commitment to teens is simple - I really like them, and teens need fans. My passion for coaching comes from knowing that teens have too many people giving them a…
Hi, Hi, I'm Karine Zbinden, PhD. I am a Certified Life and Career Coach. I can help you: - find the clarity you need to define your goals - overcome self-doubt and build up your confidence - evaluate what skills you have and what skills you need to develop - make a step-by-s…
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Explore your aspirations and desires, whether they involve destinations or possessions. Even if you've achieved success in your career or business, feelings of being stuck, depressed, lonely, isolated, or having low self-worth and esteem, along with a sense of emptiness or meaninglessness, or exper…
FAQs:
What is a Life Coach?
A life coach is a type of wellness professional who helps people make progress in their lives in order to attain greater fulfillment. Life coaches aid their clients in improving their relationships, careers, and day-to-day lives. Life coaches can help you clarify your goals, identify the obstacles holding you back, and then come up with strategies for overcoming each obstacle. By creating these strategies, life coaches target your unique skills and gifts. By helping you to make the most of your strengths, life coaches provide the support you need to achieve long-lasting change.
What Does a Life Coach Do?
A life coach doesn't act as a therapist, does not give 'expert' advice, and does not tell their client what to do. Instead, they strive to be great listeners and communicators and use their positive energy, motivation, and inspiration to help their clients see a fresh perspective regarding certain situations. The assumption is that an individual is more than capable of generating their own solutions, and by asking specific and targeted questions, the life coach can provide a discovery-based framework that will help the client see things clearly and honestly. There is a strong emphasis put on an individual's action, accountability, and follow-through. Together, the life coach and client will discover a sense of purpose and a direction to go in. It is sometimes very difficult for people to make the necessary changes to move forward to bigger and better things, and they may feel stuck in a certain area of their life. A life coach can help a person to take an introspective view of their situation, sort out their feelings surrounding it, acknowledge any fears or trepidations that may be holding them back, attain mental clarity, and make a doable plan to forge through with attainable goals and a positive attitude. Life coaching supports professional growth, personal growth, and development that is future-focused and based on individually-initiated change.
What is the Role of a Life Coach?
The role of a life coach is to guide and support people in realizing their dreams. A life coach provides a safe place to explore thoughts, feelings, emotions, and goals. A coach is a partner to walk through life with. One that holds no judgment, no ulterior motives, and no attachment to your decisions. Coaches offer people the freedom to work through issues without the pressure to please anyone but themselves. Life coaches are skilled and trained to unearth what holds people back from living their best lives. Much of the training to become a coach is focused on unlearning flawed communication styles that are embedded in our culture. Coaches learn to listen for beliefs- not problems. They learn to ask questions to reveal information for the coach, not for the coach. They learn to hold space, not wait to speak.
What is the Difference Between a Life Coach and a Therapist?
Although there may be some overlap in the benefits of working with a life coach and participating in psychotherapy with a licensed therapist, these professionals have distinct roles and serve unique purposes. Unlike life coaches, therapists and other mental health professionals focus on healing, treating mental health conditions, and helping people work through trauma and other issues from their past. While working with a life coach may help you to deal with certain unresolved issues, life coaches cannot treat mood disorders, anxiety disorders, addiction, or any other mental health condition. Therapists have a degree and are licensed mental health professionals. They must follow an ethical code and adhere to regulations regarding confidentiality and ongoing education. Life coaches, on the other hand, are not governed by a board and don't have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and its privacy rules that help protect your personal health information. To that end, a life coach should never be considered a substitute for a mental health professional.
What Can a Life Coach Do for Me?
One of the main benefits of working with a life coach is the ability to gain a fresh, informed perspective on problems that you face. In addition to offering new insight into challenges, a life coach can help you zero in on negative patterns that could be standing in the way of your success. Many people view working with a life coach as a means of bridging the gap between your current circumstances and the life you’d like to lead. Additionally, people frequently pair up with life coaches in order to work through barriers that may interfere with finding a partner/mate. Many people also look to life coaches for help in identifying their passion and carving out their ideal career path. Since sessions typically take place on a regular basis over a prolonged period of time, life coaches can ensure that their clients are implementing what is necessary to experience significant change.
What Problems Do Life Coaches Solve?
A life coach first helps you identify your problems and their causes. While a life coach functions similarly to a therapist at this stage, It is important to note a life coach is not a Psychotherapist. In some cases, supplemental therapy sessions with a licensed mental health professional are necessary to overcome deep-rooted psychological blocks. Once a life coach identifies your problems, they suggest personally-tailored solutions for you to implement. Here are the most common problems a life coach can solve
Problem 1: Procrastination
The first thing a life coach does is help their client forgive themselves for procrastinating. Research has shown this to be one of the most effective strategies for reversing procrastination. Procrastinators feel intense guilt and shame when they finally have to confront the task in question. A life coach helps address these negative feelings. Then, life coaches help their clients prioritize their daily tasks and provide guidance in incorporating goal-orientated tasks into their daily routines. They solve the procrastination problem by holding their clients accountable.
Problem 2: Fear of Failure
Another common problem a life coach can solve is the fear of failure. So many people never leave their comfort zone because of their fear of failure. It is the number-one obstacle people face when trying something new. This is where the coach behaves as a teacher motivating a student. Life coaches help their clients adopt a rational perspective toward their irrational fear of failure. Research shows we learn early on in school to tie our ability to our self-worth. Those who fear failure think to try something out of their comfort zone and failure would damage their self-worth, so they avoid trying the activity at all. A life coach teaches you to focus on effort rather than ability. No matter what you do, you will always be better at it the second time than you were the first time. You can obtain any ability with the right effort.
Problem 3: Lack of Confidence
Lack of confidence is a problem that keeps some of the most talented people from reaching their full potential. It can prevent people from seeking a promotion, starting a romantic relationship, or embarking on a self-improvement initiative. This is where a life coach is similar to a motivational speaker. They serve as a source of external motivation for their clients until they can internally motivate themselves. Remember when you learned to ride a bike by first using training wheels? Using a life coach to improve your confidence is the same concept.
Does Life Coaching Work?
While some people may be a little skeptical about turning to a coach to help them with their life issues, the fact is that people are turning to life coaches in increasing numbers — which is a sure sign that they must be serving some useful purpose. The success or failure of the coaching often depends on people finding the right life coach for them — whether it’s someone to help kick-start a new career path or someone to help with more personal issues. A coach can help people to organize their priorities and decide which direction they want to go in. From their sessions, a person will agree on strategies with their coach to help themselves solve problems — and in this way, they will become much clearer about what they want out of life. A life coach will effectively act as a sounding board for ideas — rather like a brainstorming partner. However, life coaching is not a miracle cure for people’s problems — particularly if a person isn’t open to the possibility of closing the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Anyone visiting a coach needs to be open to new ideas and ways of doing things and needs to commit to the process. Life coaching is also not a solution for people with more deep-rooted problems such as depression, as these require more specialist help and therapy.
Who Pays for Life Coaching?
Many people seek out life coaches for guidance in navigating a significant life change, such as taking on a new career. In plenty of cases, however, people turn to life coaches simply for help in building a happier, more meaningful life. There are a number of indications that working with a life coach could be helpful for you. These signs include:
- Frequent irritability
- High levels of stress and/or anxiety
- Inability to break bad habits
- Lack of fulfillment in your social life
- Persistent feelings of dissatisfaction at work
- Sense of blocked creativity
In recent years, life coaches have acquired a considerable presence in the mainstream. Indeed, a growing number of creatives, executives, and entrepreneurs are now teaming up with life coaches to attain success in their professional and personal lives.
How Much Does a Life Coach Cost?
The cost of life coaching varies with the length and frequency of the sessions, the type of client, and the experience of the coach. The average individual coaching session costs between $100 to $300 an hour. Corporate coaching costs more—between $1000 to $5000 a month—because these clients often require more time-intensive interactions, on-site programs, computerized assessments, group presentations, and so forth.
How Many Life Coaching Sessions Will You Need to Commit to?
The number of coaching sessions you schedule is completely up to you. Some people have sessions with a life coach once a week, while others only meet with a coach every few months. Once you have explained your goals to your coach, the two of you will work together to come up with a plan that will be efficient and effective. Life coaches can work around your lifestyle, your needs, and your timetable. Many life coaches are also willing to operate over the phone or over the Internet, making the process as simple for the client as possible.
Is a Life Coach Actually Worth it?
It truly depends on what you’re looking for and what your overall goal is. As a more short-term option, life coaching is great for someone ready to hit the ground running. You’ll be working with a person who’s ready to look at your life from an outsider’s view and give you actionable steps you can take to reach your goals. Not sure what that goal even is? They can help with that too. On the other hand, if you’re looking for someone to help you deal with things that happened in your past a therapist might be better. While you might leave therapy sessions having talked about your life goals in the present, most of the work will be based on things that have already happened. This is a great option if you find yourself repeating self-destructive patterns you want to change.
What is Life Coaching?
Life coaching is aimed at helping people meet goals in their personal or business lives by guiding them in the right direction — much like a sports coach might do for a sportsperson — although the methods used by individual life coaches will vary greatly. Life coaching is a form of counseling that uses a series of individual sessions — which are sometimes carried out over the telephone or even via e-mails, as well as through face-to-face sessions — to help people solve their problems and achieve ambitions. It draws from a number of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, and numerous forms of counseling. While life coaching is frequently associated with the business world, there are also coaches who deal with individuals and their personal lives by helping them to explore the underlying causes of their problems as well as helping to find routes to success. This more personal kind of life coaching is frequently done face-to-face. The aim of life coaching is to help people break their negative belief patterns, act more decisively, and set clear goals toward achieving what they want from life. Most coaches are highly trained as generalists but many also specialize in areas such as relationships, stress, personal growth, business, careers, motivation, finances, creativity, and family — among many others.
Types of Life Coaches
Some life coaches take a more general, all-encompassing approach, but there are also many that specialize and focus on helping people in specific areas. Some of the different types of life coaches include:
- Addiction and sobriety coaching
- Business, executive, and leadership coaching
- Career Coaching
- Dating and relationship coaching
- Diet and fitness coaching
- Divorce coaching
- Family life coaching
- Financial coaching
- Health and wellness coaching
- Life skills coaching
- Mental health coaching
- Spirituality coaching
- Sports coaching
Benefits Of Hiring A Life Coach
Life coaching is not about spending, it is about investing your money. It is all about investing in yourself. If you are looking for solid reasons to give coaching a try, then you’re at the right place.
Below we will dive deep into the benefits of hiring a life coach.
1. Gain Mind Clarity about What You Need to Breakthrough and Prosper
Mind clarity will give you clarity of purpose. It will help you bundle up your most intimate passions, skills, and dreams. Your life coach will be there to assist you to declutter your mind and create the life you deserve.
2. Overcome Stress in Your Life in the Best Way Possible
Business clients, as well as individuals who are at the very start of their career journey, can benefit equally from managing to cope with stress (more) efficiently. And professional coaches are there to help!
3. Embrace the Most Exciting Opportunities for Personal Development in the World
Your life coach will guide you through the ocean of information. This will allow you to focus solely on what works best for you.
4. Learn How to Skyrocket Your Aspirations (Like Never Before)
Restrict yourself from chasing goals, and you may never learn how to be content with your life. Focusing on your aspirations instead is a game-changer. Life coaches possess the knowledge to help you skyrocket your most sincere hopes and ambitions.
5. Focus Better on Your Awesome Ideas (With Confidence and Joy)
Being able to focus all your dedication and passion on the ideas that truly matter. Life coaching is helping clients recognize and cultivate their most brilliant ideas.
6. A Life Coach Will Show You How to Reach a Targeted Goal More Quickly
Working with a life coach can help you target and reach any goal faster.
7. Receive Professional and Friendly Support on your Life Journey
Life coaching allows you to learn what you can do with what you already have. By hiring a life coach, you can connect with a supportive professional and get an unbiased perspective. Coaches treat their clients right by providing individually-tailored, invaluable advice.
8. Become the Future You Who Lives a Life Full of Magic
A life coach can help you manifest the future that resonates with your soul in the most beautiful way.
9. Manage Your Time More Efficiently (Yes, You Can!)
When we work, we trade our time for money. When we are in a relationship, we trade our time for love. Time is the most precious currency and a life coach will help you manage this currency.
10. Connect With a Person Who Will Hold You Accountable (And Learn the Importance of Accountability)
A life coach is a person who will hold you accountable for your actions. Creating a culture of accountability is all up to you. But life coaches can greatly speed things up. Your coach is your partner in learning the importance of accountability. Coaches give their clients actionable, unbiased guidance that helps in reaching goals faster, moving the business further, and improving anything they may feel needs improvement.
11. Find Balance in Your Professional, Social, and Intimate Life
By working with a professional life coach, you can apply proven tools for living a balanced life on the emotional, physical, and spiritual plane.
12. Develop a Better Relationship With the People Around You
Hiring a life coach can help you look at the people around you from a brand new perspective. And that’s why the benefits of a coach extend way beyond the personal level.
13. Learn How to Ask Questions That Will Really Help You Grow
Life coaches build their entire careers around the art of asking the right questions. And they do have plenty of knowledge to share with you on that note.
14. Understand What Success Actually Means to You (and How to Achieve It)
Life coaching is about learning how to establish your very OWN idea of success (and sticking to the plan that will get you right where you want to be).
15. Find the Answers You Need to Define Your Destiny
Coaching helps you take real action to write the best chapters of your life.
16. Become More Productive (by Discovering How to Manage Your Time More Efficiently)
Life coaches know the difference. And they will gladly share their expertise with you so that you can increase your productivity immensely.
17. Access Expert Advice to Start Creating the Life of Your Dreams
Life coaches can succor you reason what matters the most, helping you become the best version of yourself.
18. Unlock Your Hidden Potential (Change Your Life for the Better!)
Life coaches cannot unlock your potential for you. Only you can. But they do have the keys, and they will show you the doors you want to focus on.
19. Find the Right Job to Gain More Money and Fulfillment
By hiring a life coach you can focus on the right job for you instead of spending your precious time and efforts in the wrong direction.
20. Experience Improved Health (Starting Today!)
A life coach can give you the exact bits of advice to enjoy improved health in every meaningful way.
11 Techniques That Life Coaches Use
Life coaches are a lot more powerful than they are often credited for. Life coaches are trained to use and teach techniques that can change the direction of people's lives and keep them in continuous growth, prosperity, and expansion. These coaches hold the keys to ever-expanding happiness, and they have access to tools that can help people find success and bring an end to life-long pain. Each life coach is trained with a unique set of skills to help their clients reach success and good health, but there are a wide variety of techniques that life coaches use when working with clients. Here are 11 of the most powerful mental techniques employed by coaches:
1. Open-ended Questions
Life coaches are trained to help us figure ourselves out in ways that are not easy for us to do on our own. One of their most effective strategies is to ask us open-ended questions rather than questions with a limited range of answers. This allows us to enter new areas of thought never visited before and encourages us to contemplate our true dreams and desires.
2. Guided Meditation
One of the most healing and beneficial practices in existence is meditation. Meditation is widely known for its ability to increase focus, improve health, reduce stress, and even add years to a person's life. If you are new to meditating or are only familiar with certain forms of meditation, your life coach can introduce you to the different meditation techniques and practices as well as guide you through the process until you are comfortable doing it on your own.
3. Guided Visualizations
Visualization is a practice used by highly successful people. Life coaches utilize this technique to help their clients reach their goals. It is the process of vividly imagining your life the way you want it to be and picturing important scenarios turning out successfully. Life coaches can guide you through the practice to teach you the art of visualization as well as to help you choose the imagery that will lead you to the greatest happiness and success.
4. Positive Affirmations
One of the best tools when it comes to changing your life and restructuring your patterns of thought is positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are often utilized by life coaches to help their clients integrate more positivity into their lives as well as to help them refocus their outlook.
5. Shifts in Perception
A lot of the time, what causes our greatest stress is not the events that happen in our lives but our perception of the events. Our thoughts can work against us, greatly adding to our problems and making them bigger rather than working for us and making them smaller and more manageable. Life coaches delve into their clients' issues in order to help them identify where they need to make changes in perception.
6. Thought Refocusing
We can feel better instantly and in any situation if we focus on something that we like rather than things that are not favorable to us. If we shift our thoughts and emotions to things that we are happy about, we will soon find ourselves feeling happy too. Life coaches are well aware of this, and they help their clients break their emotional habits by training them to think happy positive thoughts.
7. Gratitude and Appreciation
One of the most powerful things that have the ability to transform lives is the practice of gratitude and appreciation. Life coaches encourage their clients to make lists of things that they are grateful for to help them alter their brain chemistry and refocus their thinking on the positive side of life. People who are always looking for things to appreciate overlook many of the things that they would normally complain about and experience higher levels of joy and happiness on a consistent basis.
8. Evidence Hunting
Once you establish what you want to experience in life and what you want to believe, the next step is to find evidence that backs up your desired experience and beliefs. Life coaches are often trained to help their clients seek and gather evidence for beliefs that align with the lives they want to live.
9. EFT Tapping
Tapping is often used by life coaches as an alternative to traditional acupuncture in which certain acupressure points are "tapped" on repeatedly until a negative emotion or sensation of pain subsides. This method has resulted in success for many different users with a variety of ailments, and it is both safe and natural.
10. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
This type of coaching/therapy helps clients manage their stress levels, improve their communicative skills, and break negative patterns in thought and behavior. The practice is conducted by utilizing and responding to verbal and non-verbal responses of the client to help root out the problem and establish better habits and behaviors. This type of therapy has been effective in treating phobias, depression, and even learning disorders.
11. Cognitive Behavioral Coaching
This form of coaching or therapy helps clients to change their thinking patterns which ultimately manifests in happier, healthier lives. The logic behind this approach is that negative thinking is learned, and it can also be unlearned. A trained life coach can help clients by guiding them through the process of replacing their irrational, negative thoughts with positive, uplifting ones. This practice has been known to relieve anxiety, depression, and phobias, and it is also effective in raising self-esteem.
All of these methods put life coaches in a powerful position to help their clients transform their lives and fulfill their dreams. Each life coach possesses a unique set of skills, so there is always a variety to choose from when it comes to selecting a life coach who is experienced in applying the techniques that sound most appealing to you. With all of these options before you, it becomes impossible to believe that there is no way out of a bad situation. Life can always get better.
When Should You Hire a Life Coach?
So when do you know if it’s actually time for you to hire a life coach? Your gut could be telling you many things, but here are some of the most common reasons why you may seek out a life coach:
- You feel stuck in your life: You lack direction and are overwhelmed when making decisions.
- You are frustrated with yourself: You find yourself procrastinating often, and then beating up on yourself for being lazy. Maybe you’re not satisfied with how you show up at work or in your relationships.
- You have a vision, but no plan of action: With the end in mind, how can you make steps toward your goals when you’re overwhelmed? A life coach can help you find the next step to take.
- You have trouble regulating your emotions: Perhaps you experience mood swings or don’t understand why a certain family member bothers you so much. An amazing coach can help you understand how to process these emotions and turn them into something productive.
- You struggle with self-doubt and confidence: A life coach is an amazing tool to help you find your confidence!
- You want to take your life from good to amazing: Maybe nothing is wrong in your life, but you want to make things even better. While a therapist can take you from dysfunctional to functional, a life coach can take you from functional to optimized.
- Life coaching can also be a great way to get your health on track, access more creativity, advance in your career, or find more joy in your life. All in all, they are there to help you live a more fulfilling life.
When to Not Hire a Life Coach
The benefits of hiring a life coach can be endless, but here are some indications that show it’s not the right time for you to hire a coach:
- You want someone to solve all your problems: That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, a life coach is merely there to guide you while you solve your own problems. If you want someone to give you concrete instructions, you probably need to hire some other professional.
- You don’t have time to invest: Many people are concerned about the financial cost of hiring a life coach but don’t consider the time it takes to work with their coach. If you don’t have time to work on improving yourself with your coach’s guidance, you could be wasting your time. You need to be prepared to do homework like you would with any class.
- You’re not ready to trust a professional: Good life coaches challenge you. They may ask you to confront some things that are uncomfortable or unpleasant for you. A good coach will be nonjudgmental, but if you’re not ready to follow their guidance, it’s not a good investment.
- You’re overly attached to concrete results: If you’re hiring a life coach to help you become a millionaire next year and marry a prince, you might want to reframe your expectations. A life coach helps you reframe your mindset around your current circumstances, not wave a magic wand to change them.
What Not to Expect from a Life Coach
If you’re thinking about hiring a life coach, make sure you’re not looking for one of these things instead. A life coach is not:
- A therapist: Therapists are amazing and necessary professionals to have in everybody’s life at some point. The difference between a life coach and a therapist is that a therapist specializes in making someone functional by understanding and working through their past. A life coach will largely focus on the present and future to create the results you want.
- A close friend: Although it’s wonderful to have a close relationship with your coach, and friendship may result from it down the line, don’t select a life coach from among your close friends. A close friend may not be able to be impartial to the circumstances you need a life coach to examine.
- A mentor: A mentor will often look to your past and offer you advice or solutions based on how well they know your circumstances. They will likely offer up guidance based on personal experiences, whereas a life coach will remain more objective when guiding you.
- An influencer: Just because someone says a lot of loud words on TikTok or has a large Instagram following (or heck, even if they’ve written a book) doesn’t mean they are qualified to coach you. A proper life coach will have the credentials, experience, and testimonials to back up how effective they are as a coach.
What to Expect from a Life Coaching Session
The content of a coaching session varies based on the coach and the client. But we can give you a sample overview of the approach that many coaches take.
Life coaches typically start out using a series of questions and exercises designed to get to know you and the way you approach the world. Many coaches find it helpful to use a DISC test in these initial meetings, as DISC tests can give a very accurate measurement of personality, drive, behavior, and motivation. Once your coach has a clear idea of who you are, what drives you, and what your ambitions are, they create an action plan to help you reach your goals.
The pace of your coaching program will depend on your personality. If you are a person who is resistant to change (like a type S personality), the plan your coach will develop will be a series of small, manageable steps toward a larger goal. If you tend not to have the patience to wait for results and like the changes to come more quickly (like a D-style personality), your coach will be more aggressive with the program.
After the initial meeting, the content of a typical coaching session often includes:
- Completing a coaching plan before your session, which reveals what you feel you’ve been successful at during the week and where you felt most challenged. Coaches often like to see this plan before the start of their session with you, as it will help them track your progress on your goals and determine a plan of action for the future.
- At the start of a coaching session, you and your coach will use your coaching plan to review what you’ve achieved since your last meeting.
- Based on your coaching plan, you and your coach will determine what to work on together that day. The coach will ask you questions and provide an objective assessment of your situation, typically compelling you to make discoveries about yourself and to see the issue from a new perspective.
- Through a number of strategies and techniques, your coach will help you uncover the possible causes of your difficulties and assist you in determining the best way to approach or reframe the issue.
- At the end of the session, you and your coach will come up with an action plan for you to execute before your next meeting.
- After your session, your coach may ask you to create a follow-up plan that summarizes what you and your coach have discussed, what you need to work on, and how you intend to accomplish that goal. The goal of the follow-up plan is to keep you engaged and focused and to help you feel accountable for your goals.
Qualities of a Good Life Coach
So what should you look for in a life coach? Depending on your needs, you should look for a life coach with qualities like these:
- A great listener: An amazing life coach will be more interested in listening and understanding you than offering their own perspective. They are the observer of your life and your thoughts, not a commentator.
- Is passionate about their work: You can tell when someone’s heart is in the game for their clients, and when it is not. A life coach should be excited and curious about you, and eager to help you get to where you want to be.
- Is certified and experienced: You can’t just decide to be a life coach one day (I mean, you can, but doesn’t that seem a little untrustworthy?) You should be able to look up the credentials of a life coach you are considering hiring and hear about their previous work.
- If a coach offers a lot of free materials on their website or social media, this is a great way to judge their capabilities and see if they’re a good fit for you.
- Has worked with people like you: If you’re a mom, it’s a good idea to find a life coach that has worked with other moms before. If you’re a student, artist, entrepreneur, or athlete, find a coach that has experience in those areas. Ask your friends who they’ve used before.
What Should I Look for When Hiring a Life Coach?
Hiring a life coach can be a very personal process. After all, this is someone you’ll be working with when facing stressful and difficult roadblocks. You probably don’t want to tell someone you don’t vibe with that you failed, again, in securing funding for your business.
You should look for someone you can trust, and someone you enjoy working with. With that in mind, here are some things you can look for when hiring a life coach:
- Testimonials or reviews. This one is pretty straightforward but it’s important to see what other, unbiased people, are saying about their experience with this coach.
- How long they’ve been in business? While this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker (you can find amazing life coaches that are just starting out) it’s certainly something to look into. More time on the job means more time they’ve had to learn and improve their craft.
- Notable people or companies they’ve worked with. Similar to the idea of testimonials, if other big names have chosen them then they’re more likely to be knowledgeable and capable.
- Their methodology. Different life coaches have different styles of working. Some are more distant and won’t build a friendship with their clients. Others will. Find one that works for you.
- Their personality. As we mentioned above you want someone you vibe with. Someone that won’t make you feel self-conscious if you mess up or are feeling resistance to the process.
Sources:
Professional Leadership Institute
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