The Canadian Alliance of Life Skills Coaches and Associations describes a life coach, also known as a life skills coach or a personal growth coach, as a "trained para-professional who is able to facilitate groups, model and evaluate skills and support individualized learning." A life coach helps his clients to achieve their personal and professional goals by training them in various coping skills. In this sense, a life coach might be described as a type of applied psychologist.
Areas of Instruction
Life coaches deal with many different challenges that people commonly face, including relationships, stress management, spirituality, business development, career planning, motivation, time management, creativity, budgeting, health care, and parenting. Some principles, such as positive, thinking apply to all of these areas, while others are adapted more easily to some areas than others. Still other solutions offered by life coaches are individualized responses to unique problems. In all cases, the patient is responsible for developing the skills and implementing the solutions recommended by his life coach.
Skills
Life coaches will train their patients in a number of practical skills that apply to the particular challenges they face in life. These skills include positive thinking, which means a constructive but realistic response to all events and circumstances whether positive or negative; relaxation techniques such as meditation; visualization techniques; thought monitoring techniques that help you replace negative attitudes with positive ones; and consciousness-altering techniques such as self-hypnosis. Depending on the specific nature of your challenge, they may also teach classroom material such as principles of personal finance.
Qualifications
Since life coaching has not been established as a profession, most jurisdictions require no formal qualifications. Some life coaches hold psychology, sociology or counseling degrees. Several organizations, such as the International Coach Federation, offer private certification programs along with advanced certification programs for specialities such as career coaching. Because of the lack of any government licensing system, you should carefully check the qualifications and reputation of your life coach.
Methods of Instruction
Life coaches deliver their instruction in a variety of settings, including large public seminars, small groups and individual counseling sessions. They may deliver instruction in person, over the phone, or even by text messaging. In addition, many life coaches have written books and created audiovisual and multimedia materials.
Fees
Fees for life coaching vary greatly according to the reputation and experience of the coach, the particular area of instruction, and whether instruction is group or individualized. As such, fees may range from a few dollars to several hundred dollars per hour. Some life coaches require a minimum time commitment, the fees for which must be paid in advance.
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