What is Life Coaching

We all know people who help others achieve their goals, who inspire friends and family to persevere in the face of adversity and refuse to allow them to wallow in the seeming security of a mediocre job or life. They inspire others to greatness by gentle persuasion, constant encouragement, or a kind of in-your-face inducement. 

A Life Coach “partners with the clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

Coaching is Not Therapy Coaching which is sometimes confused with counseling or therapy. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Counselors assist people with personal, family, educational, mental health, and career decisions and problems.”

The primary difference is that therapy deals with what is wrong with the individual. Therefore coaches have clients as opposed to patients. Secondly, therapy digs into the past, in order to establish the roots of current problems. Life coaching occasionally explores a client’s past but does so to recall successes and sources of inspiration, not hang-ups. Life coaches start in the client’s present and work with them toward a better future. Finally, life coaches are their clients’ equals, their collaborators in success. They are not authority figures.

Examples: Some clients will want a coach just to be their confidante, friend, or sympathetic ear. Other clients want coaches who will be a little more forceful, who will “get on their case”, if necessary. Some clients may require a proactive approach to coaching with them and under some circumstances. If Jane, a habitual procrastinator, says that she is going to call a certain company about a job interview on Friday at 3:00 p.m., the life coach might call Jane at 2:50 p.m. and remind her, especially if Jane failed to do it the last couple of times.

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