Untitled Document

Life coaching is the process of engaging a trained professional to emotionally partner with you through your life path. A life coach can be viewed as a mentor or guide through your life goals and decisions and can also offer assistance in understanding how your individual behavior patterns do or do not work effectively work for you.

As human beings, we develop behavioral habits early in our lives. Often, these repetitive behaviors blend into our general persona and are not necessarily noticed by us consciously. Yet, these long instilled patterns drive our behavior every day in:

the way we view a particular challenge we may meet
the way we experience our interactions and relationships with others
how we make career and business choices
how we ultimately feel about ourselves

Frequently, these longstanding habits result in a sense of being “stuck.”Your life coach offers the comfort of an ally or partner during challenging times, the opportunity to have someone in your camp and provides the ability to bring objectivity in learning to think outside of the box. A life coach:

promotes personal growth
maximizes your strengths
assists in discarding your “old tapes”
develops realistic life goals with strategies for success
favors action over procrastination
determines behaviors that get in your way
strives for your emotional empowerment
develops improved communication skills
refines social skills
assists in developing judgment and the ability to making informed decisions
increases the ability to attract success in all aspects of life
favors action over procrastination

With roots in executive coaching, life coaching draws from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and various other counseling arenas. Generally, individuals seek coaching for improvement in relationships in their careers and personal lives. There is often confusion between the process of psychotherapy vs. life coaching. Life coaching is often an extension of psychotherapy. Coaching is most effective for individuals who have already resolved past issues and are no longer experiencing debilitating symptoms such as those attached to severe anxiety or depression.

There is some controversy surrounding the ethical aspects of life coaching because of the unregulated, unstandardized nature of the process. Many life coaches, while ‘certified’ or ‘credentialed’, do not have formal training or higher education in psychology, social work or mental health counseling. Critics fear that life coaches without a basis of formal education of at least a Master’s level will not be able to distinguish when an individual may be developing signs of requiring a higher level of care. In addition, a licensed therapist will also have malpractice insurance while, in most cases, a certified life coach will not. As such, one may wish to carefully consider the educational training and experience of the life coach you ultimately select.

Linda Berlin, Psy.D. & Psychological Associates