Become A Life Coach

You've heard about life coaching and want to pursue a career that can make a profound difference in people's lives. But where do you start and what do you need to know?

First Things First

If you're thinking about becoming a life coach there's a few things you'll need to consider. In order to become a life coach you will need to obtain the right certifications and qualifications from reputable providers like iPEC, EMCC or Association for Coaching (see bottom for links).

As with any other professional job, life coaches are required to possess specific skills, adhere to certain standards of conduct, and undertake a set foundation/schedule of training in order to qualify.

What Skills Are Required?

Even if you think you have enough life experience and you know you're good at talking and listening to people is largely irrelevant. Although the key skills you will need to possess are :

• Good listening and questioning skills
• The confidence to challenge your clients thinking
• Be able to inspire and motivate clients
• Be willing to do more listening
• Be able to bond with your client to build trust

Without the relevant training, certifications and qualifications behind you, you are unlikely to secure the business you need in order to become a full-time life coach and make a living from the job.

What Will You Do?

A life coach helps their clients take more control with things in their day to day lives like relationships, careers, fitness, work-life balance and even self-confidence. There's a number of ways they can do this including :

• Talking about their values, attitudes and beliefs
• Helping to set achievable goals to change the status quo
• Discussing ways to overcome hurdles and barriers to success
• Keeping them motivated to achieve their goals

Clients will probably include individuals, couples and even corporate clients.

What Qualifications Do You Need?

To this end, the first thing that you will need to do if you want to become a life coach is to find out more about any set standards for professional life coaching ethics, training and practices from the companies we have provided below.

Generally speaking, you need to attend an accredited professional school and follow a set training schedule in order to receive life coaching accreditation. Don’t be tempted to lie about training, certifications and qualifications – if you do this you are deceiving your patients and you could also be breaking the law.
Budget

Naturally you will need to budget for any training that you may require to become a life coach, but once you have completed the relevant training, you will be in a good position to start looking for business.

The Personal Chemistry

Don’t underestimate the importance of building a professional level of personal chemistry with your clients. In many cases, potential ‘patients’ will look for a life coach that they can get on with (i.e.. talk to very easily about their personal issues) and trust in addition to one who has the relevant training and qualifications.

It is vital to build a professional relationship with clients to not only ensure that they return to see you, but also to ensure that are able to help them resolve with any issues that they may have. This may sound like a simple process in concept, but life coaching can be a very demanding and difficult job at times.

Finally, be prepared to answer any questions or address any concerns that a potential client may have. Naturally, clients will want to find out more about you and how you can help them, so take the time to chat to clients, either on the phone or by meeting them in person, to make sure that you are in a position to help them.

Useful Resources

IPEC Coaching - https://ipeccoaching.com/
EMC Council - http://www.emccouncil.org/
Association for Coaching - http://www.associationforcoaching.com/