Life Coaching
There are times in our lives when we all need a bit of extra support, motivation or clarity. Coaching is a process of being able to work, confidentially, on what's important to you with someone who is trained to facilitate you to finding the right way for you. Life Coaching is called as such because you can use it to explore any area of your life. People have coaching for many reasons, they might want to find balance in their life, work through some career choices, learn more about themselves and how they can reach their full potential, work on health and fitness goals or just find out how to get more out of life.
The purpose of coaching is to facilitate your growth and development by helping you find your own solutions and what's right for you in your life. A good Coach will use the tools at their disposal to help you discover where you are, who you are, who and where you want to be and how to get there.
Life Coaching is usually available in blocks of, normally six to eight, sessions. The key is to find a Life Coach who you feel you can be open and frank with and the profession is currently unregulated so here are some useful questions to ask your potential Coach when doing your research:
What qualifications do you have and how many hours of face to face training have you had?
Face to face training is essential for good coaches to develop their skills and practice. There are some qualifications which are available by correspondence or online, these are not bad in themselves if the Coach has also had other training and practice.
Do you have any areas of speciality?
Important if you want to work on career, sport, health or relationships for example where someone with experience in the field is useful.
How do sessions work?
Make sure you are comfortable with how it will work, whether there are blocks of sessions or review points. How spaced out do sessions need to be? Many Coaches will have an initial session with you first or a phone discussion where they will give you an indication of how long they think it will take.
Karen Meager is a NLPtCA Accredited Psychotherapist (DipNLPt), Counsellor and Life Coach