I was working on someone that I do trades with today, and they made an interesting statement. They told me that I should become (or was it call myself) a life coach.
A life coach? I have heard the term before, but never really looked into it to know what it truly was. Most of that comment came from the fact that I do more things than massage and Reiki. With this person I have been trading with, I have done a lot of different things to help her. I have done massage from regular stuff to Temple Lomi. To help with emotional issues, I have done Reiki and Myofascial Unwinding. I have also taken her through meditation to help deal with emotional issues and gruesome dreams.
When I thought about it, I realized that she is quite right about what I do. I don’t just do two things. I help people through problems with a variety of methods. I use my intuition and guidance from spirit to point each person in the right direction.
But a life coach? I’m not sure I have enough tools. At the same time, tools get invented based on needs every day. I guess my concern is that if I threw another title onto my name, I wouldn’t be able to live up to it. (This was also how I felt when I became a Reiki master. It took me a long while to get comfortable with the title. And I really wasn’t comfortable until I forced myself to so I could teach my first class.)
I looked on the internet and found there are several courses that one can take at home to learn how to do this. Of course they range around $3,000 for the materials. Uhh, no.
I took the definition of a coach off of Wikipedia and put it below. I’m not sure I fit the definition, but I might. At least there does not seem to be any government regulation involved with it. I guess I’ll have to think about it a while.
Life Coach (definition)
Life coaching is a future-focused practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals. Life coaches use multiple methods that will help clients with the process of setting and reaching goals. Coaching is not targeted at psychological illness and coaches are neither therapists nor consultants.
Life coaching has its roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training. Life coaching also draws inspiration from disciplines including sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring and other types of counseling. Contemporary life coaching can also be traced to the teachings of Benjamin Karter, a college football coach turned motivational speaker of the late seventies and early eighties. The coach may apply mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting and other techniques in helping their clients.
Government bodies have not found it necessary to provide a regulatory standard for life coaching, nor does any state body govern the education or training standard for the life coaching industry; the title of "coach" can be used by any service provider. Multiple coaching schools and training programs are available, allowing for many options (and sometimes causing confusion) when an individual decides to gain "certification" or a "credential" as they apply to the coaching industry. Multiple certificates and credential designations are available within the industry.
Some assert that life coaching is akin to psychotherapy without restrictions, oversight or regulation. The State legislature of Colorado, after holding a hearing on such concerns, disagreed, asserting that coaching is unlike therapy because it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Instead coaching focuses on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior. Additionally, life coaching does not delve into diagnosing mental illness or dysfunction.
According to a survey of coaching clients, "sounding board" and "motivator" were the top roles selected for a coach. Clients are looking for a coach "to really listen to them and give honest feedback." The top three issues in which clients seek help are time management, career and business.