Module 1 : What is Life

Coaching? The Benefits to

Clients; the Differences
between Counselling and Life
Coaching

Objectives
Introduction to life coaching
The importance of life coaching and how it can help you
change your life
A brief history of life coaching and its rise to
popularity
Reasons for the rising popularity of life coaching; why
is it relevant to modern day living
The basics of life coaching

The videos in this course summarises the information in each

module, as well as including additional content, but you will
need to read the text to be able to complete any worksheets
and final test.

What is Life Coaching? – 05m 45s

1.1 Introduction
Life coaching is about analysing and closing
the gap between reality and dreams.

It is a process that focuses on the discovery of your goals

and is based on a holistic approach that involves planning and
action in several spheres of your life.

People need guidance in the form of life coaching, when they

need to resolve confusion, allay self-doubt, make decisions
and pave the path towards the realisation of their dreams and
goals.

Life coaching is a gradual process, whereby a life coach helps

someone to dig beneath the surface of their thoughts and
beliefs and helps them understand internal obstacles to their
success and wellbeing.
A life coach helps people examine different thoughts within
their psyche and helps them analyse what is important to them.
While the client will make all the final decisions on their
own, a life coach can help them clarify issues.

Increasing levels of stress are currently taking their toll on

work performance and job satisfaction, relationships, finance
and general wellbeing. We may feel lost or bewildered or may
simply be living life on a day-to-day basis. It is not always
practical or effective to seek guidance from loved ones, even
though they may have your best interests at heart. A life
coach is trained to help people upgrade their lives. Life
coaching is growing into an increasingly popular profession,
as people take responsibility for examining and improving
their lives.

There are different types of life coaches for every

requirement, age group, ambition and stage of life. Life
coaching is a general term that encompasses the addressing of
blocks and challenges in the areas of relationships, jobs,
business, finance, and so on.

Exceptional life coaches are trained to ask you key questions

that help unlock your potential and offer clues to your inner
motivation and beliefs. Life coaching also works to ensure
that we follow through on our commitment to a better life and
become accountable for our actions.

Being human can sometimes be difficult and challenging. Each

one of us has a different set of needs, fears and insecurities
that express themselves within a broad spectrum of stages of
life transition.

Fact

In the UK, career coaches can

expect to earn anywhere between £150 and £500 per hour,
depending on experience.
Source: telegraph.co.uk (2016)

1.2 What is Life Coaching?

The first step towards success is defining what it is that you
aim to do.

We face mental obstacles and hurdles at several stages in

life.

For example
We may have selected subjects in college that were not the
correct choices for us, or we may feel unfulfilled in our life
roles as a parent or caregiver.
Life coaching helps you examine your life choices from a fresh
and in-depth perspective.

Once our mental blocks, internal challenges and limiting

beliefs are unlocked, we develop a new-found sense of energy
and enthusiasm, and our relationship with ourselves undergoes
a paradigm change. We begin to view our lives in a different
way. For example, we begin to perceive loved ones as people to
be loved in their own right, as opposed to being people who
always owe us something, by way of support, advice or
assistance.

Please note that a life coach is different from a counsellor

or therapist, who is a qualified individual who offers
treatment. On the other hand, life coaches offer emotional
support and motivate and help their clients to identify and
make the correct choices.

We will summarise the differences between counselling and life

coaching as follows:

Counselling aims to heal and treat, while coaching is

orientated towards health, potential and wholeness
Counselling emphasises healing the past and releasing
pain, while life coaching helps you focus on the future
and motivates you to pursue your passion and dreams
A counsellor is perceived as someone who offers insights
and intervention, while a life coach is regarded as a
partner and guide
A counsellor helps reinstate functionality and stability
 in your life, while a life coach helps you progress on
your life path and discover your own calling

There may be a slight overlap between the objectives of

counselling and life coaching in that they both help to bring
about positive changes in an individual’s life and increase
self-awareness. Both professions also help explore barriers to
effectiveness and overall wellbeing, and, as a result, you
begin to feel fulfilled.

It would be accurate to say that coaching is more about asking

the right questions than providing answers. There are no
standard answers to begin with – every individual’s beliefs
and values are different, and what each individual wants is
different. There is no single ‘right’ path to fulfilment,
contentment and happiness. A life coach will help to analyse
the different aspects of a person’s life and then focus on a
specific area.

One of the main reasons for the rising popularity of life

coaching is the increasing amount of stress that people
experience, as a result of work pressure, difficult bosses,
lack of work-life balance and loss of motivation.
Life coaches are neither ‘agony aunts’ nor preachers, and
their primary function is not about giving advice. What life
coaches essentially do is to provide a framework, based on
your individual fears, beliefs and motivation that allows you
to examine different aspects of your life. By encouraging you
to take a closer look at your life, a life coach helps you
examine your life path and progress towards your goals.

Activity
Estimated time: 5 minutes

Think about your motivation to become a life coach.

What inspires you to coach others?

Are you interested in helping people achieve their
 goals?
Can you think of three specific goals that you are
looking to achieve in your career as a life coach?

1.3 A Brief History of Life

Coaching and Industry Trends in the
UK
The science of life coaching is not
associated with any specific date of origin.

There is no inventor or single founder of life coaching –

human beings have always nurtured a desire for improvement and
self-development through understanding and enlightenment.

This hunger for knowledge and self-awareness has been present

since the beginnings of civilisation.

The Bible and other ancient texts can all be considered guides
to better living for contentment and prosperity. They were
essentially self-help resources that advocated improved ways
of eating, living, behaving and thinking.
As a formal term and profession, life coaching came into
existence in the 1980s and began mainly as intervention in the
sports and business industries, whereby the coaches worked to
improve performance.

In the sports industry, experts discovered that mental blocks

and inner fears of failure were preventing sportsmen and women
from performing at their best. From there, it rapidly spread
to other fields because people observed the similarity between
a team of players on the sports field and a team of colleagues
in the boardroom or office.

This concept gave rise to the idea of coaching people to

become better at business, while maintaining a work-life
balance. Initially, it was only directors and senior
executives who received life coaching, but, over time, all
employees began to receive business coaching for leadership,
team building, management, and so on.

From here, it did not take very long for life coaching to
expand into people’s lives, relationships, hobbies and
finances. Our inner thoughts, beliefs and attitudes shape our
actions and behaviours and often create patterns that are
challenging to break out of. People soon found that life
coaching made it possible to verbalise many aspects that were
difficult and/or vague.

Modern life coaching incorporates some of the old ideas, as

well as innovations that are relevant to the problems and
challenges of the 21st century. The concept originally began
in the United States and began to be introduced in Great
Britain, in order to facilitate company growth and expansion.

Life coaching is an exciting, interesting and lucrative career

choice. It is an ethical career, whereby you are able to
commit to helping your clients enjoy tangible benefits in
their lives. The main objective of life coaching is to enable
and empower clients, so that they are successful in their
commitment to change their lives for the better.

The underlying concept of life coaching guidance is that we

can all strive for self-improvement and development and
eventually live richer, fuller and more meaningful lives.

To sum it up in one sentence: what personal training does for

your body, life coaching does for your mind.
A life coach’s invaluable services have the potential to
harmonise and balance people’s lives. As we grow as
individuals, we may experience a range of negative emotions,
such as guilt, resentment and insecurity, which prevent us
from moving forward towards personal and professional success.

Many people go through life, without stopping to define

themselves or take stock of their values and beliefs. This
leads to confusion and, eventually, we settle for less than
what we want.

A life coach can help clients to avoid feeling drained, bored

or uninspired by tasks that are not important to them. People
are able to reshape their lives around their values and make
their lives less stressful and more relaxing.

Life coaching is simply about assessing a situation and moving

forward from that point. We live accelerated lives and often
try to pack in more than we are able to. Hidden mental blocks
can often leave us feeling overwhelmed, stressed and
disillusioned with life. We often find ourselves chasing goals
and dreams that we never originally had. Similarly, we may
become too comfortable with our lives and get stuck in a rut
and lose the motivation to push ourselves.

Training as a Life Coach in the UK

If you’ve been interested in training as a life coach, this is
an excellent time to enter the industry. The life coaching
sector is booming and is currently valued at nearly £8
billion. Business owners in the UK are being forced to take
serious cognisance of their employees’ health and wellbeing.

Employee care initiatives are on the rise and life coaching is

becoming increasingly popular as a wellness tool. As opposed
to conventional therapy, life coaching offers proactive
options to improve your life and become happier, more
successful and enjoy a better work-life balance.

The life coaching industry began booming in the US but soon

became popular in the UK too.

There are more than 300,000 thousand people working in the

industry currently and the numbers are expected to grow
phenomenally within the next year.
The life coaching industry owes its increasing demand to the
increasingly complex lives people are forced to lead in terms
of job and family stress.

Popular life coaches make thousands of pounds offering their

guidance to organisations as well as individuals. Life
coaching for women is also gaining rapidly in popularity. The
life coaching industry is currently unregulated and it’s a
good idea to opt for training or take an accredited course
before you venture into the field.

You can refer to the Life Coach Federation UK for more

information.

1.4 Life Coaching Basics

One of the best parts about becoming a life
coach is that it is not dependant on your
educational qualifications.

Even if you have limited qualifications, you can aspire to

become a transformational life coach who is able to inspire
and motivate clients.

As you continue to work at your career, you can choose to

specialise in a specific aspect of life or continue to work as
a general life coach. You could perhaps choose to be a life
coach who helps working mothers return to the working world,
or you could help those individuals who wish to change their
profession. When you specialise your skills in this way,
clients relating to that specific area will come to you for
guidance.
One of the first things that you need to do is to explain to
your clients about what you do and what you do not do; for
example you may need to explain that life coaching is not
therapy (the differences are explained earlier in this
module).

You need to explain to your clients that you will help them
tap into their maximum potential and help them improve their
lives for the better, by working according to an action plan.
The main goal is to make your clients’ lives better over time.

To start, some of the important actions that you will want to

carry out for your clients are as follows:

Help them identify and uphold their values

Listen to their complaints, concerns and challenges, and
act as a non-judgemental sounding board for their ideas
Provide empowering emotional and motivational support,
especially during crucial decision-making phases and
times of opportunities
Help them identify and eliminate limiting beliefs
Help them form a clearer and more realistic vision of
their future
Work with them, to formulate an action plan, and
motivate them to stay committed to their progress
towards their goals

Your ultimate aim as a coach is to offer suitable tools, to

enable your clients to achieve their goals. You can also
consider using your own experiences and circumstances, in
order to help your clients get a better grasp of their unique
situation.

If you are the sort of person who has always been socially
orientated and enjoys helping others, this may be the perfect
career choice for you. There will always be a need for
competent life coaches.
Fact

In 2014-15, a Health and Safety

Executive study revealed that 444,000 people believed that
work-related stress had made them ill.
Source: hse.gov.uk

1.5 Benefits of Life Coaching: How

can you Help your Clients, and what
do Life Coaches Actually do?
Life coaching is an empowering profession
that brings joy to both the participant and
the coach.

Life coaching is about the client and their experiences,

feelings and beliefs, as opposed to the coach providing
opinions and advice and drawing conclusions. The entire
process involves understanding the client’s problems, mental
blocks, goals and dreams and helping them create a framework,
in order to examine their particular situation. This may be
challenging to do on their own.

It Enhances Clarity of Thought

We may often feel lost, confused or unfulfilled, without being
aware of why we feel that way. Sometimes, we may need a change
or we may need to change. To us, the cause may be obscure, but
a life coach can help bring about the answers.

Life coaching can help pinpoint the underlying reasons for our
unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Often, we may attribute the
reason to a particular cause, but, in actual fact, it may be a
completely different cause altogether.

In the majority of cases, people feel a sense of

disillusionment because they are unable to live lives that
reflect their values and beliefs. Their personal values may be
stifled or trampled on, and this may prevent them from moving
forward and achieving their goals.

It may not be our job, a difficult boss or an unsupportive

spouse that is making us unhappy – unhappiness results when
our values get ignored or neglected.

Life Coaching is an Excellent Option, when we are Happy

with our Lives!
You may wonder why we need a life coach when we are happy, but
this is one of the best times during which to opt for life
coaching. This is because we are receptive to growth and are
in a frame of mind in which to examine what else we can
pursue, in order to enhance our lives. You can provide
outstanding life coaching to clients who are in a happy and
receptive frame of mind.

A Life Coach can Help you Maximise your Potential and

Live Life to its Full Extent
Fulfilment is one of the main objectives of life. Whether it
is fun, play, travel, work, relationships or other activities,
ultimately, we all seek fulfilment in everything that we do.
Fulfilment is one of the most rewarding by-products of
exceptional life coaching, as is the client’s own commitment
to the process.

As a life coach, you can help clients feel more alive, live in
alignment with their values and purpose and share and connect
through meaningful relationships. You will get the opportunity
to suggest to your clients that their results are well worth
their efforts.

Help Clients Identify what they Really want in their

Lives
One of the most important tasks as a life coach would be to
help your client pinpoint what they want.
Most of us experience confusion and are unsure about what
really makes us feel happy and fulfilled. As a life coach, you
will have the opportunity to help clients understand what they
want and help them create value-based goals and then motivate
them to integrate them into their lives.

Life Coaches Help Clients Set Boundaries and Raise

Standards
People who take the proactive step of consulting a life coach
are aware that they may need to incorporate major changes into
their lives. This is often easier said than done, and this is
where life coaches can be particularly helpful. They work with
the client, provide guidance on setting boundaries, and
accelerate the client’s rate of change and growth.

Incorporating changes into someone’s life takes time and

effort, and a life coach helps reinforce consistency. As a
result, your clients are able to develop extra time for the
things that they want to do. Often, people spend time on
things that are not really important to them, due to unplanned
time and erratic management of their lives.
Life Coaches are Responsible for Introducing and
Maintaining the Accountability of their Clients
We are all responsible for our choices. As a life coach, you
will soon realise that your clients will tend to stick to
their commitments because they are dealing with a third party,
namely you. When we make commitments to ourselves, we often
have a propensity to break them, but, when we give our word to
someone else there is a greater likelihood that we will keep
our word.

As a life coach, you can enjoy experiencing your clients

keeping their commitments towards their goals. You can suggest
several unique forms of action plans that may have never
occurred to your clients, had they tackled their challenges on
their own.

Life coach training helps your clients obtain unique

perspectives on their problems. Undergoing life coaching
enables clients to progress towards their goals and improve
their creativity, imagination, motivation and commitment.

Clients Enjoy an Improved Work-life Balance, as a

Result of Life Coaching
‘Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.’ Hillary
Clinton

For many of us, jobs and careers play a crucial part in our
lives. Work not only puts food on our plates, pays our bills
and places a roof over our heads (all of which are fundamental
to life), but it also funds hobbies, leisure activities and
other interests.

Our work defines us in many ways, and there is no doubt that

it holds an important place in our lives. However, if you are
not careful about balancing different aspects of your life,
you will find that your hours and days are consumed by work
and nothing but work. As a result of the excess amount of
work, stress and exhaustion take their toll on your mind and
body and deplete your energy levels.

Life coaching can help you examine your motives and beliefs
and distribute your time, and therefore your energy, to tasks
and endeavours that are important to you. A work-life balance
differs from person to person and depends on priorities, age,
lifestyle, and so on.

These days, the lack of a work-life balance is a serious

issue.
Work does not always stop when you walk out of your office.
With smartphones and laptops, work follows us everywhere we go
and, often, we can never really switch off – quite literally.
We have access to emails, messages and other office
communication 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unless you
consciously work towards reducing the excessive amount of time
you spend working, you will experience an increased risk of
burnout.

Life Coaches can Help Clients Address and Resolve

Mental Blocks, Fears and Insecurities
Each one of us harbours our own set of limiting beliefs, fears
and insecurities. We may fear rejection or may worry that we
will not be able to meet parental expectations. We may also be
afraid of being alone or fear loneliness.

A good life coach will construct a space for you in which to

identify your fears, as well as the tools you require, in
order to resolve them. After interacting with your life coach,
clients may still harbour fears but will be able to better
manage them.

The client also enjoys higher confidence levels because the

coach and the client work together towards addressing blocks.
Once fears are addressed and resolved, the client will
automatically have more time and energy to invest in other
parts of their life.
Life Coaching can Help Explore your Life’s Purpose and
Vision and Integrate it with your Life Path
The most fulfilled individuals are those who live their
purpose and values each day. Life coaching can help you
discover your unique vision and follow a holistic plan, in
order to live your life to realise that vision. In fact,
clients can even create visions for different areas of their
lives and enjoy deeper, richer and more meaningful lives.

Overall, Clients Enjoy an Edge in Business,

Relationships and Life Success
As the life coach works with the client, the client will
definitely reap the benefits, in the form of general life
success, in terms of career, relationships and wellbeing. In
fact, even if the life coaching helps resolve blocks in just
one major area of your life, the positive effects will
automatically spill over into other areas.

For example
An enhanced work-life balance automatically results in better
career and business success, more harmonious relationships and
an improved sense of confidence and wellbeing.
A life coach can help you prioritise your values and introduce
balance into your weekdays and weekends. A poor work-life
balance can leave you feeling irritable, emotional and bad-
tempered. This is not good workwise, and it is also likely to
take its toll on your relationships.

As a life coach, you can help clients address and transform

counterproductive behaviours, manage stress and improve their
work-life balance. The process of life coaching can help
clients manage their career expectations in a way that means
that their career does not obstruct their life path. After
all, it is true that ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy.’
Activity
Estimated time: 5 minutes

In what aspects would you like to help clients who come

to you for guidance?
Would you like to specialise in any specific aspect of
life coaching, or would you like to be a general life
coach who can help with different aspects?

Take a Quick Recap Test

Assignment
What is Life Coaching?

Time: 30+ minutes

Hopefully, you took in as much of the information in this

module as possible. To find out how well you have done,
complete the following worksheet.

Download the worksheet below and complete.

Download Worksheet (PDF)

Module Summary
Modern-day living is incredibly stressful, fast-paced and
often overwhelming. The innovative and refreshing approach of
life coaching makes a welcome change from invasive therapies
that were popular in the past.

Unlike therapy, life coaching does not delve deeply into

repressed memories, and it does not involve complex
terminology or psychology.

A life coach is able to help you analyse and examine your

life. A trained life coach can help you address work-life
balance issues or even help you identify that there is a work-
life balance issue to begin with.

As a life coach, you provide your clients with an extremely

important service because unresolved stress often leads to
negative health consequences.

When we live lives that are not in sync with our values, we
feel drained because there is always a nagging sense that
something does not feel right. In fact, even the decisions
that we make may not feel correct, due to the inner conflict.

As a life coach, you have the opportunity to help people enjoy

happiness, health and leisure because all these aspects are as
important to our lives as holding down a good job.

Life coaching involves the creation of empowering life paths,

in order to achieve personal and professional goals.

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