Life Coaching is a term that covers a great number of different services. I provide Life coaching London services and have many happy clients really achieving great results.
Once upon a time, many years ago, life coaching evoked naff-ness, American psychobabble-light and cowboy practices. You might come across completely untrained if well-meaning people, who could and unfortunately still can, in an as yet unregulated field, fashion a website and set themselves up in Life coaching, be that in London, online or anywhere else.
My life coaching background
As a fully trained and qualified Life, I have received expert training and have accreditation from UK governing bodies. In the over ten years that I have been practising, life coaching has come of age and in particular establishing my Life Coaching London practice has been key as the profession has gained respectability. Fortunately nowadays it’s very much more difficult for amateurs and charlatans to survive in the life coaching industry as there are plenty of good, reputable Life Coaches, especially in London and with it harder to rank high on Google, only the best survive.
Different kinds of life coaching in London
The following list is not comprehensive as different coaches provide all kinds of help and support. As with mine, most life coach’s websites will tell you what that coach offers and/or specialises in.
Life Coaching – to help you deal with problems and decisions about life, relationships and all kinds of everyday and sometimes overwhelming and complicated situations.
Career Change Coach – They will help you to think clearly about changing career, retraining, setting up as a business, from ‘I hate my job and It’s making me miserable’ or ‘I don’t know what to do with my life’ to ‘I’ve got an idea but I don’t know if it’s do-able’ and ‘how do I take the next step?’
Career Coach – may help you to identify what you want to do, help you set a direction and search for a new job or training, as well as providing help with CVs, job applications and interviews.
Business Coach – often works with new businesses or businesses in trouble as well as providing ongoing support and mentoring for start-ups, experienced business leaders and managers.
Management Coach – often works within an organisation to help managers develop skills, become more effective in their roles and perform better.
Executive Coach – usually employed on a freelance or contract basis by organisations to help and support senior managers, directors and CEOs.
What does a life coach do?
There is no particular way of life coaching. An experienced and confidant coach will have developed his or her own approach. Life coaching is about a relationship, not about using a mechanical, one size fits all system and not about tips and techniques or off-the-peg ‘how-to’s. There are hundreds of good books and Ted talks that can give you that, quickly and inexpensively, and there’s nothing wrong with either of those things to get you started, to inspire you and to give you a template or guidance.
Life coaching London services will give you rather far more depth, collaboration, support, and ongoing motivation. Coaching is about trust, exploration and working together to find your way through, not about superficial solutions. At my London practice I look at a person’s needs and wants, not about my agenda or ideas about what it best for you. It requires commitment and honesty from you, however many sessions you have, which is why you need to find the right person for you and why most coaches offer a free session or phone call to make sure the ‘chemistry’ is right.
You can expect a good life coach to:
- Guarantee confidentiality
- Listen to you without judging or making assumptions; focus on what you are saying and not saying; pay attention to how you feel and ask questions to understand you, find out more and help you clarify, explore and organise your thoughts
- Respect you as an equal and an individual, with your own abilities and qualities, who can make decisions and choices for yourself
- ‘Get’ you, believe in you and take what you say seriously and so build a relationship with you based on trust and understanding
- Encourage, support and validate you as you question your assumptions and motives
- Give you feedback about what they observe and about what you say to help you to develop awareness, insight and confidence in yourself
- Help you find your own way through, not give you ‘the answer’. A life coach may make a suggestion – some do and some don’t – and give an opinion if asked, but will always make it easy for you to reject it
- Encourage you to take the next step(s) and translate your thoughts and feelings into action
- NOT tell you what to do, bully you or boss you.
Find out more about Life coaching London services.
If you would like to see changes in your life, get in touch today to find out about my London life coaching programmes.