What is life coaching? 

Professional coaching is an ongoing partnership designed to help clients do or achieve anything they desire in their personal or professional lives. Typically done through a long-term relationship, life coaches aid clients in creating visions and goals for all aspects of their lives or businesses, as well as multiple strategies, the necessary psychology, accountability and other resources to support the attainment of those goals.

How does life coaching work? 

Coaching sessions typically take place one-on-one between coach and client, but can also be conducted in group settings. Sessions are an hour long and can be held in person but most often are conducted over the phone (or Skype for international clients). We offer 3, 6 or 12 month coaching packages with the option of weekly sessions, every 10 days, or every two weeks (4, 3, or 2 sessions per month). The frequency and duration of coaching sessions depend on the client's unique situation and needs. The coaching structure can also be adjusted as the coaching relationship progresses and requires change.

Who is life coaching for? 

There is often a misconception that to work with a coach, your life has to be a mess or you can’t succeed on your own.  This simply isn’t true. We work with some of the most successful individuals in the world, including C-level executives, politicians, celebrities and professional athletes. The starting point varies client-by-client, but the common denominator is always growth.

There are four general categories of people who come to coaching:

1.     People who don’t know what they want and need some help figuring it out. These people typically feel lost, stuck, overwhelmed and confused—often manifesting in states of frustration, anxiety, dissatisfaction, anger or depression.

2.     People who do know what they want, but don’t know how to make it happen. They are either overwhelmed and can’t see the way forward, or they have tried some things in the past and haven’t been successful.

3.     People who know what they want, and know how to make it happen, but they just aren’t taking action on their own. These people are often hung up by a psychological block, such as procrastination, fear, a limiting belief, an internal conflict, or a general lack of motivation.

4.     People who know what they want, know how to make it happen, and are taking action, but want to be pushed out of their comfort zone and held to their very best. These people are high performers who often manage other people, but don’t have someone holding them accountable, providing an unbiased sounding board and helping them improve their own performance. 

While a lot of the industry's training originated from theory and techniques in traditional psychology, life coaches differ in many ways from social workers, counselors, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and other kinds of therapists. Coaching is not about processing your emotional history or diagnosing/medicating mental health issues. Coaching is action-oriented, focusing on the future and what steps are needed to get from your present self to your ideal self. Therapists often want to get to the origin of a behavior, while coaches are more concerned about assisting clients to change their present behavior so they can produce a desired result in the future. While life coaches, like therapists, value insight, coaches help move quickly from the realm of insight into setting goals and taking action. Unlike therapy, life coaching does not treat mental disorders as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While someone with a mental disorder can benefit from life coaching when used in conjunction with therapy, coaching should not be used as a substitute for assistance from a mental health professional and/or a medical doctor.

We would love to help your loved one change his or her life, assuming they want help. But unfortunately life coaching will not work forced upon people who are not ready and willing to change. We would be more than happy to set up a free sample session with your loved one, to talk more about how life coaching works, and better gauge whether it's something they are open to and interested in.