Do You Have Questions About Life Coaching? Here Are Some Answers.
What is Life Coaching?
Life coaching helps people get unstuck from limiting thoughts and beliefs that are holding them back from achieving their goals or the life they want to live. Coaching can cover issues with work, romantic relationships, family and/or money, among many other situations, that a person wants to improve. The question I often ask is “What is your area of least satisfaction?” and then we go from there. The ultimate aim is to help you become more comfortable and secure with your decisions and the parts of your life where you feel there needs to be movement. To help you align with who you truly are.
What Life Coaching is not
Life coaching is not advice giving. A coach works with you to help you make decisions for yourself that are aligned with who you are and who you want to be. The life coach provides thought-provoking conversations, questions and tools that help look at issues in a different way and to move forward. Fundamentally you are in charge of your decisions and choices - the life coach is your guide.
Life coaching is not therapy. While we may lightly touch on traumatic events and anxiety issues, especially when they are tied to limiting beliefs, life coaching does not treat mental illness. Sometimes therapy involves life coaching skills and sometimes life coaching involves some very light therapy skills, depending on the life coach’s training. Typically, therapy deals with the past and healing where you are now and coaching deals with where you are now and getting to where you want to be. If in coaching sessions, I feel that you would benefit from a therapist as opposed to a life coach, I will refer you.
What is a Certified Life Coach?
A Certified Life Coach is usually someone who has taken and tested through an extensive life coach training course and has put in a certain amount of paid and unpaid training hours with clients and mentors to achieve certification. I trained nine months with the Martha Beck Wayfinder Life Coach Training Program and logged 75 hours of unpaid training hours with clients before hanging my shingle. Logging 75 hours and doing an extensive review with a Certified Martha Beck Master Coach / Mentor were requirements in order to receive my certification as a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach. Continuing education is also important for coaching and I’m doing so by becoming currently training to become a certified Group Facilitator with NUSHU.
More Questions?
If you have other questions with life coaching, or what I offer as a life coach I would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact me at whitney@openspacescoaching.com. You can also schedule a free “getting to know us” session or simply dive into a 60-minute session. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
