What is a professional life coach?

A life coach is someone who is has been professionally trained to help you develop the skills to navigate life’s challenges, nurture your passions and develop resiliency. Hiring a life coach gives you access to someone who has the tools, processes, and know-how to help move you forward toward a more fulfilled life.  Your coach will be your champion during when things get tough, a sounding board when making choices, your motivator when big actions are called for, unconditional support when you fall down, a mentor and co-designer when developing and creating your future, the wake-up call when you don’t see or hear it yourself, and a maker of space to celebrate your success.

What types of people have life coaches?

People from all walks of life engage with coaches to help them through all kinds of transitions in their lives. What they all realize is growth and living up to their full potential, establishing a kind and compassionate relationship with themselves, and closing the gap between where they started and where they want to be. People come back to coaching throughout their lives as the need arises to get guidance, consistency of practice, and championing to become their best authentic selves. The best candidate for working with a coach is someone who wants more, is willing to make changes, and is open to possibility. Life coaches can work with people in any area of their life, the only requirement is that you are committed, willing to dig deep, and show up authentically.

How will coaching help?

The results vary depending on what brings you to coaching and how committed you are. Life coaching will help you focus on managing and improving the areas of your life where you want to make changes the most. Having a life coach gives you the support and collaboration needed most during times of transition in both your professional and personal lives.

What happens in a life coaching session?

Our sessions will be a calm, safe, confidential space to unpack the complexities that influence growth, quiet loud fears, transform the beliefs that hold you back, strengthen your resiliency and ability to navigate challenges as they come up. They will be conversational in nature, tailored to you and will vary based on where you are and what you need.  You and I will collaborate to create projects inbetween sessions to help you nurture your goals. We will work together to acknowledge obstacles, explore alternate perspectives, and always celebrate successes. Together we will witness your transformation.

Do I really need a life coach; can’t I just do it by myself?

Even people who are committed to making changes can get stuck and don’t realize what stands in their way. Coaching gives you new perspectives to take you above and beyond your current mindset and thought processes. A coach can offer an unbiased and objective perspective, and help you see where your patterns and habits aren’t serving you. You will have the advantage of their training and experience helping people move through life’s challenges. Most people experience a deeper growth than they would be able to achieve on their own.

How is life coaching different from therapy or counseling?

While the coaching I provide can be therapeutic, it is not therapy or counseling. Life coaching is not designed to address psychological issues. While emotional issues may arise, the primary focus of life coaching is to help you identify your where you are now, where you want to be and in closing that gap. Coaches help you develop constructive habits and skills to support your commitment to making changes. There is little emphasis placed on the past with life coaching, but instead, the focus is on creating what you want now and in the future.

Sometimes life coaching isn’t the right fit and another helping professional might be. Here are some resources that may be helpful in that case:  Resources when coaching isn’t the right fit

How long do people generally work with a life coach?

Just as you wouldn’t expect results from exercising once in a while, digging deep to make lasting changes takes more that one session. To experience the full effectiveness of a coaching, I suggest you make a multi-week coaching plan. Periodically we will pause to evaluate where you are, what you want and your progress and can discuss options for continued coaching at that time. People will come back to coaching throughout their lives when they are going through a transformation time, as the need arises to get guidance, consistency of practice, and championing to become their best authentic selves.

Is life coaching confidential?

Yes, life coaching is a confidential and your personal information will always be protected. What we discuss will be held in strict confidence and not shared with anyone*.

*Please note that our discussions are not exempt from legal disclosure if a law has been broken or you are a danger to yourself. The legal privilege of confidentiality that exists for the clergy, therapists, and attorneys is not granted to life coaching professionals.