What is Life Coaching and Will It Help Me?
Christian Counselor Redmond
Life coaching is a service provided by a wellness professional (counselor, therapist, social worker, certified coach, minister, etc.) to help clients achieve higher functioning and enhance their quality of life in different ways. Life coaching can occur in one-on-one settings as well as in groups. It can occur in professional settings where there are offices or informal settings, depending on who is delivering the services.
Life coaching can help individuals, or a group of individuals set and clarify goals, work through life transitions, and overcome career and personal obstacles. Life coaches help their clients improve their relationships and career by focusing on their client’s strengths to give clients greater confidence in their abilities to navigate all aspects of their lives.
In life coaching, the coach works as a partner with the client to focus on the goals the client wants in life and provides the necessary support to help the client achieve their goals successfully. By working together to determine the quality of life desired by the client, the life coach implements practical steps to make these goals a reality.
The coach works as a guide to help the client achieve goals related to their wellbeing. The client must trust the coach as a guide and voice of reason to work on their presenting issues. This ongoing relationship is what allows the client to adjust goals when needed or continue to build on the strategies that are working.
Life coaching is different from counseling and therapy, in that it does not focus on past experiences and behaviors. Life coaching is very much focused on the present and the small steps that can be taken to create a more positive, greater impact on present experiences.
While sessions can be delivered by a counselor, sessions are not focused on processing feelings and emotions but on maintaining skills and habits to create positive, sustainable change. Life coaching will not treat mental health disorders typically diagnosed by a therapist. Life coaching will give you the support, encouragement, and perspective you need to make the best decisions to improve your life.
Will life coaching help you? Consider these reasons why it might benefit you. If you are going through a life transition, it may be helpful to you. Whether you are entering a new career role, starting a new business venture, or adjusting to a new city; life coaching can help you navigate these transitions.
Life coaching can help you home in on the skills you need to be successful in your new job role, help create an efficient new business plan, or help you learn to network and make the connections you need. Life transitions can be overwhelming, especially if you have multiple things happening at once. In life coaching sessions, your life coach will give you the tools necessary to navigate transitions effectively.
Another reason you may benefit is if you have a goal that you’re ruminating on but don’t have a plan of action to achieve it. We can often think about the things we want to achieve but get stuck when it comes to making those things happen. It’s great to have goals, but if you don’t have an action plan, those goals will remain in your mind.
Life coaching can help you discover the practical steps to make your goal a reality. You can learn how to move from the planning stage of your goal to the action stage with practical action steps related to your goals. Life coaching sessions will get you to your goals in realistic, doable steps.
Life coaching may also be for you if you’re having a tough time handling a stressor or many stressors in your life. Stressors can be the result of anything from work obligations to relationship expectations, and sometimes those stressors can coexist.
While it is normal to deal with stress at times, if the stress is preventing you from being your best self in your professional or personal environment, life coaching may be for you. It can help you prioritize your time. With the help of a life coach, you can make a realistic assessment of which things need to be addressed and in what order. Life coaching can help ensure you maintain a healthy balance between all of your many responsibilities.
Life coaching is also great for people who want to explore their creative outlets. Maybe you are wanting to try something new, but you’re unsure how to go about it; life coaching can help you with that process. Coaching can help you determine the set of skills you already have as well as the skills you need to develop to remove your creative block.
In sessions, you can learn to look at the different skills you already have and see how you can tap into them. It also helps determine if a new skill or hobby would be a desirable choice to occupy your time, as new hobbies can also be stress relievers.
There are many benefits including an increased sense of fulfillment, awareness of purpose, new life skills, better life balance, and more. Research shows that life coaching has many positive effects on mental health. Investing in life coaching can help you with the support you need to keep your momentum going when you’re focused on achieving a goal.
It can also be a tool to help you see the blind spots of which you may be unaware. It can help you learn how to better interact in your interpersonal and professional relationships. And because you have someone working on these things with you, you have someone holding you accountable to help you be consistent on your path to being a better you.
In a life coaching session with me, we would work on things such as job/career change, managing new job responsibilities or promotion, managing stress, balancing work and personal life, setting goals, creating productive habits, and more. You would enter a judgment-free environment, where I would help you work through the things related to your well-being.
The sessions would be led by you, as I guide you through making the best choices for your life. We would work together as partners, as I am not the expert, in making realistic, manageable goals for your personal and professional life. My goal in coaching you is to ensure you feel confident in presenting your best self to this world. I want to ensure you feel empowered to go after and conquer all of your goals.
If you are reading this article, you may be considering life coaching. If you were inspired to learn more about life coaching and find that one or more of the reasons for it that are listed above apply to you, I would encourage you to book a session. Life coaching can be just what you need to make a shift in your life.
Life coaching can give you the confidence to take on a new career role, socialize in an unfamiliar environment, overcome fear of trying new things, or give you the perspective you need to reach a new level of self-actualization. Life coaching with me will be an experience where we work together to create, adjust, and process your goals.
It may be challenging as you learn and apply new skills; however, you will leave feeling empowered to take on things you may have not attempted before. Keep in mind that you will have a person who will help you all along the way. We will work together to ensure that through our sessions, you will gain practical skills that you can apply to improve your everyday life. You can call or email me to book a life coaching session today!
“Begin,” Courtesy of Danielle Macinnes, Unsplash.com, CC0 License; “Crossroads”, Courtesy of Javier Allegue Barros, Unsplash.com, CC0 License; “Seedling”, Courtesy of Tanjir Ahmed Chowdhury, Unsplash.com, CC0 License; “Top of the World”, Courtesy of Roko Labrovic, Unsplash.com, CC0 License