1) What is life coaching?
2) How does life coaching work?
3) What kind of topics are covered in a coaching session?
4) How long would we work together?
5) What results can I expect with coaching?
Are there any guarantees?
6) How is coaching different from therapy?
7) Why work with a life coach?
8) How do I find a life coach who's right for me?
9) Are you certified or accredited?
What is your educational background?
10) How do I begin coaching with you?
1) What is life coaching?
Wikiepdia defines life coaching as “a practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals.“ A life coach can help in many areas, whether you want to advance in your career, improve your relationships or achieve a greater work-life balance, for example.
A life coach can offer you accountability to help you stay focused. Though your success is ultimately dependent on you, a life coach can act as a catalyst for change and as a collaborative partner along the way.
2) How does life coaching work?
Life coaching is typically done over the phone, but can also be through email or in person. Phone and email tend to work well for a number of reasons:
There are no geographical boundaries. When the coach and client decide they want to work together, phone or email sessions can take place at any time without the need to worry about physically getting there.
Some people also find it easier to open up and be themselves with someone they connect with by phone or through email instead of in-person.
But for others, in-person coaching can work. It’s really just a matter of individual preference and what works best for you.
3) What kind of topics are covered in a coaching session?
The coach session is all about YOU, so we can discuss most any topic that is vital to you. Before and between sessions, I will ask you to identify any goals and objectives you’re working on. I'll also ask you to pinpoint any obstacles or roadblocks you're facing.
After the initial session, we will want to talk about what has happened with you since the last call, any thoughts or insights you’ve had, what has worked or not worked for you since then.
We’ll also want to talk about what you’re presently working on, what you’ve done already and are proud of, what you are still struggling with and need to work on more.
Usually, we’ll also go over what your next short-term or immediate goals are and how to best accomplish them.
I will also ask you to tell me how you can benefit from my support as your coach -- whether it’s by motivating you to keep going, helping you to clarify something that’s confusing you or coming up with a workable action plan to help you move forward.
4) How long would we work together?
Since change doesn’t happen overnight, most people like to allow an initial period of 3-6 months to see if coaching works for them and is something they want to keep doing.
But it all depends on the individual. There are no hard and fast rules. Some people get all the benefit they need in just a few months while others may wish to continue for a year or more.
The bottom line is you need to feel comfortable and confident that you are seeing results. Coaching is not for everyone and if it’s not working for any reason, we’ll both know and can decide where to go from there.
You might be able to work better with another coach, in which case I can try make an appropriate referral if you wish. Or the timing might just not be right for you to commit to coaching at the moment, which is ok too.
In that case, we can put things on hold and you can decide if you want to try again in the future or not, depending on your specific situation and needs.
5) What results can I expect with coaching? Are there any guarantees?
Your coach will care and be committed to you; your happiness; success; sense of balance, fulfillment and well-being. You will learn to clearly identify your personal and professional goals.
You will also learn to recognize stumbling blocks that are preventing you from making progress. In addition, you'll learn to develop specific action plans and strategies for eliminating obstacles standing in the way of your success.
Your coach will provide you with unconditional support, objective feedback and guidance in clarifying your vision and focus on achieving success.
I guarantee that I will give 100% to our coaching partnership. You can count on me to be open, honest and dependable. As for specific results, there are no guarantees as that also depends on you.
As much as I’m willing to invest in you, you also have to invest in yourself and take responsibility and accountability for your actions in order to accomplish your goals and dreams.
6) How is coaching different from therapy?
While coaching is like therapy in some ways, it different in many others. Coaching deals with the present and the future, but does not dwell on the past.
The purpose of coaching is to enable and empower you to get from point A to point B and not to stay stuck in the present or past. Therapy is based on the medical model of treating illness.
Accordingly, most insurance companies and HMO’s typically only cover limited treatment when there is a diagnoses of a specific mental health disorder. This information can then be reported to a central information clearinghouse and can affect your future insurability.
Clearly, there are cases where therapy is more appropriate and coaching may or may not be appropriate. Coaching is not meant to take the place of therapy, when it is warranted.
Coaching is more about identifying and clarifying your specific goals and objectives and taking the steps necessary to move forward and make progress toward the desired outcome of achieving them.
7) Why work with a life coach?
There are many reasons finding a good life coach could be of great benefit to you. Maybe you need a sounding board to help identify some specific goals you’d like to accomplish.
Maybe you could use some help in reaching your goals and staying on track. Maybe you’re looking for more out of a life, but are not sure how to get started to make things happen.
Whether you’re looking to move ahead in your personal or professional life, with your career or business, relationships, sense of life purpose, time management skills, spiritual matters or other aspects of living, a life coach can help you work on the steps necessary for you to advance to the next level where you want to be.
A life coach can also help make the process quicker and more efficient so that you’ll be celebrating your success sooner and not lamenting being stuck, unmotivated and frustrated. After all, we’ve all been there and that’s hardly any fun.
8) How do I find a life coach who's right for me?
Because the success of life coaching hinges upon the coaching relationship, finding someone you’re comfortable working with is vital to your success.
The first thing you can do is to empower yourself with knowledge. Read and research a bit about coaching so that you understand what it’s all about.
As you do this, you will probably begin forming your own questions that you will want to ask prospective coaches. You will also get a sense as to what are some important things that you’re looking for in a coach.
Your next step is to contact some prospective coaches, which you can do based on information you’ve already found on your own (eg., through websites, news articles, books, lectures, personal referrals, etc).
Most coaches offer a free initial consultation and some are also willing to include one or more complimentary sessions for you to ‘kick their tires’ a bit and see if you’re a good match.
You should be able to tell within the first few sessions if the coach is someone who can help you long-term and whether you want to continue the relationship and commit to more sessions.
9) Are you certified or accredited? What is your educational background?
My bachelors degree is in Psychology, with a minor in Sociology. I have taken post-graduate and graduate level courses since completing my degree, but have not obtained another degree as yet.
I do not currently hold any special certification of accreditation, but for good reason. Unlike many other fields and disciplines, there is no standard certification or licensure required for becoming a professional coach.
While I definitely value the benefits of formal education, I firmly believe that it's not a substitute for real-life experience. I also believe that the personal nature of the client-coach relationship lends itself to develop more intuitively than through any type of classroom or textbook learning.
Now I'm not knocking any of the various credential programs out there. But part of the problem is that because there are so many of them and little -- if any -- uniformity among them, you often don't know what any of it really means besides somebody paid to enroll in a program that purports to have trained them as a coach and given them a certificate to hang on their wall.
That's why the best measure of a coach's skills and expertise is how well they relate to you and are able to help you with your own personal journey.
10) How do I begin coaching with you?
If you feel you now have enough information and are ready to get started, then first of all congratulate yourself and give yourself a much-deserved pat on the back!
The next step is simply to contact me. So if you're ready (or even if you aren't yet, but have questions or concerns), then please drop me a line and I'll be right back in touch!
My email is mike@aim-life.com.
Please be sure to specify if you prefer to be contacted by phone or email initially and if by phone, what the best time (and number, of course) is to reach you. Also, remember to include your time zone!
I truly look forward to hearing from you... All the best!!