What is Life Coaching about?

A Life Coach is a fairly new profession which includes individuals who have an expertise in various pursuits, choices, and life-choice directions.  A life coach is often an elder with similar traits to a wise aunt or grandmother, an insightful uncle or grandfather, an esteemed teacher or career mentor.  A life coach can help you identify and recognize challenges and problems, and explore solutions.   Coaching features guided conversations in which the client finds inspiration to move forward in pursuits, dreams and goals.  It can be great for children and adults of all ages. 

A life coach can often be a great starting point for people to get help on their life path, and can play a strategic role in making directed and appropriate referrals for people who seem to have problems which could be better addressed by clinicians, therapists and doctors. 

A life coach can also be a great landing place for someone who has successfully moved out of therapy and clinical counseling, and now needs some more concrete and defined guidance.

Some issues that can be helped by a competent life coach include but are not limited to:

Parenting strategies

Career changes and decisions

Major life changes and relocations

Resuming education

Dealing with others at work

Creative problem-solving

Life coaching is not “clinical or therapeutic” counseling.  It is not “curative” or necessarily “healing”.  It does not promise results.  It is not licensed or regulated by any statutes or government agencies, so you have to carefully select competent, safe and reliable coaches with good references and local reputations. It can often be a conduit to further clinical, professional and other kinds of help.

Many of us remember our childhood, the ups and downs, challenges and struggles and have strong memories of our detachment from our parents in teenage years. For many of us, the last person in the world we would confide in or talk to would be our mom or dad.

We were one of the last generations to have aunts, uncles, grandparents and older cousins living nearby to bridge the “generation gap”.  Elders were often our confidants, our mentors, our advisors and coaches.  They often lived in the same neighborhood or nearby.  By the way, they didn’t charge a fee and their session wasn’t limited to 50 minutes.

Psychologists and psychiatrists were specialists used mainly in extreme mental health situations and definitely not commonplace.  Doctors dealt with medical issues and mental health “pharmaceuticals” were rare, had many side-effects and unpredictable results.  People with “mental illness” were often sent away to sanitariums or psyche wards.

As the 20^th century moved on, the growing dispersion of families and clans ensued and therefore were less accessible on an ongoing basis.  Psychiatrists and psychologist began to become mainstream, and a new brand of “social work” called “counseling” and “therapists” began to grow.  Over the years, these new ‘professions” began to become more conventionally accepted, then regulated and licensed.  More research in mental health medications led to new, safer more predictable remedies for depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.

Today, we have many support choices in mental health, labels for almost every kind of mental and psychological condition.  At summer camps across the country, scores children line up each morning to be administered their “meds”.

In so many cases, our mental health system has matured to accept mental illness as a real disease, recognize and validate emotional and learning challenges so they qualify for insurance coverage.  Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and other licensed counselors; these incredible professionals continue to make strides in understanding the complexities of mental and emotional health.

Consultants have now made their way into every profession, as mindful vendors of guided advice.  This is not limited to the business and commercial world.