Life coaching is a relatively new profession that falls under the general branch of a counselor.
If you often find yourself giving meaningful advice to your family and friends, you may be suited to a rewarding career as a life coach. Life coaches are extremely popular today and help their clients get through difficult times in their lives with as little damage as possible.
What Is a Life Coach?
A life coach is a professional that advises their clients on the best way to manage difficult situations. Life coaches don’t tell their clients what to do but instead give their clients perspective on their situations and give them the tools they need to do things the right way. A life coach needs to be very skilled in working with people and needs to be extraordinarily knowledgeable about all aspects of life. Many clients will ask their life coach about many factors of their life.
Life coaching is a relatively new profession that falls under the general branch of a counselor. Since it is a developing career, there are no specific requirements for a life coach and life coaches can come from all walks of life. However, a life coach usually needs to be a very experienced individual who can connect with people on a deep level.
What Does a Life Coach Do?
Life coaches usually begin by meeting with their clients in a way similar to other counselors. The client will discuss the pressing issues within their client’s life and the things they need help working through. Often a client will need coaching on something fairly general, such as how to organize their home or develop their career. Success, in particular, is often a concern that is brought to life coaches.
Coach Inc. states that many people visit life coaches to obtain balance within their business and personal lives. Coaches may need to help their clients adjust their lives so they can devote equal time to their personal success and to their families. Coaching well requires that a life coach take advantage of all the knowledge and resources they have and appropriately assess issues using the information they are provided. Many coaches will meet with their clients often and regularly gauge their progress and their personal fulfillment.
How Do You Become a Life Coach?
A life coach can become certified through an institution such as the Coach Training Alliance. While this isn’t strictly necessary, it can give a life coach more insight into how the profession operates and how to interact with their clients. Life coaching can be very complex and there are many elements that a life coach will need to juggle to ensure they are advising their clients properly and are not crossing any professional barriers.
Life coaches do not need any particular type of education, though a Bachelor’s Degree or Associate’s Degree related to psychology or counseling can be extraordinarily beneficial. A life coach without training or certification will usually need to acquire their clients on an individual basis through advertising or through word of mouth.
How Do You Advance as a Life Coach?
Life coaches usually work as self-employed individuals that maintain and grow their own base of clients. Advancing as a life coach means getting more clients, and this can be done through advertising. Comprehensive online and print advertising campaigns can direct more clients to a life coach, but life coaching is also centered primarily around major metropolitan areas and success-oriented areas.
There are also related fields to life coaching, such as becoming career counselors or guidance school counselors. These related fields usually require at least an Associate’s Degree but operate in a very similar fashion.