Life Coaching; Frequently Asked Questions
/Life Coaching; Frequently Asked Questions
What does a life coach do?
Life coaches work with clients to support them in shifting their lives from good to great to excellent. Life coaches are trained first to listen well and to view the client as the expert in the session. During a session, a life coach will use specific questions and coaching tools to help the client connect to their own wisdom and find answers to the issues that are authentic to them.
How is life coaching different from therapy?
It can be helpful to think in terms of physical health to understand the difference between therapy and coaching. A life coach is to a therapist what a personal trainer is to a physician. Physicians and therapists are trained to help people move from illness to health. Personal trainers and life coaches are trained to help people move from okay health to great health. If during coaching you find an issue that is more appropriate for therapy, it’s important to talk with your coach about it so you can chose the best path forward for you.
How many session are need for life coaching?
Coaching can happen in one session, a few sessions or for multiple sessions over many months, depending on the needs and goals of the client. One benefit of committing to multiple sessions is the built-in accountability of knowing that you’ll be checking in with your coach regularly. You may also find that the issue you bring to coaching is tied to a larger issue or pattern you’d like to address in your life. Problematic thoughts or patterns take a long time to develop and the healthy thoughts and patterns need time to develop, too.
How do I know what to talk about in life coaching sessions?
At the beginning of each session, you’ll be asked what is happening in your life that you’d like to change or improve. You may have a very specific issue ready before session and you may find that you need to talk through what’s happening for a bit before you can nail down exactly what the issue is. Life coaches are trained to help you identify the issue so it’s totally okay to come to a coaching session with some confusion about what to work on.
How is life coaching different than talking to my friends and family?
It’s a gift to have wonderful friends and family in our lives who listen and are helpful and supportive. You may notice that sometimes because of your history together, it can be hard for your friends and family to separate who they know you to be from who you want to become. They may subconsciously worry about you changing or they may slip into advice giving based on their own beliefs. This is completely normal in close relationships. The difference when you work with a life coach is there is a professional boundary and your time and work together stays focused on your beliefs and what you want to accomplish. Life coaches have been trained to listen, ask questions and utilize coaching tools professionally to support you in your growth. Family and friends are irreplaceable and invaluable. They simply play a different role than a life coach.
How will life coaching fix my life?
Aw! A trick question. Life coaching will not fix your life but it can help you fix your own life. Back to the personal trainer analogy; you have to do the heavy lifting in order for change to occur in your life. A life coach can guide you through the process and show you all of the tools to help you along the way. In the end, life coaching will change your life in proportion to how much work you do. Real change will mean something different for every client. Too often in our culture, we think in terms of pounds lost or dollars made or romances gained as measurements of real change. Those things may happen but they are results of the change that occurs within. Real change, in my opinion, is feeling the way you want to feel more often and feeling more at home with yourself. Creating this foundation can help you know what you truly want from the outside world.