If you like helping people and are a charismatic and energetic individual, then life coaching might be a good career choice for you.  Let’s first explore what a life coach is and does, then we will go into more detail on the process of how to become a life coach.

Life coaches help their clients discover what is most important to them, help them perform at optimum levels, and accomplish what it is they most desire.  They work one-on-one with their clients, either in person or over the phone, and help them set and accomplish personal goals.  Life coaches are not therapists or consultants.

Life coaching evolved out of executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in leadership training and management consulting. Life coaching also borrows from disciplines such as sociology, psychology, career counseling, mentoring and other types of counseling. Coaches may apply mentoring, behavior modification, behavior modeling, values assessment, goal-setting and other techniques in their practice.

Some say that life coaching is similar to psychotherapy, but without restrictions, oversight or regulation. The State legislature of Colorado disagreed, and ruled that coaching is unlike therapy because it doesn’t focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Life coaching focuses on changing the client’s current and future behavior. Neither does life coaching delve into diagnosing mental illness or dysfunction.

According to a survey of coaching clients, “sounding board” and “motivator” were what they were looking for most in a coach. The desire that their coach “really listen to them and give honest feedback.” Time management, career and business are the top three areas in which the surveyed clients sought help.

Before travelling too far down the path to becoming a life coach, you should first decide on a specialty, or a focus for your practice.  Besides the three areas already mentioned, you could also specialize in finance, health, relationships, career management or a variety of other areas.  Decide on your specialty, then pursue further training in that field.

Next you should attend a life coaching seminar.  This will give you a good overview of life coaching as a whole, and you will have the opportunity to see how coaches interact with people in the crowd.  A seminar might have one or numerous speakers.  Approach one of them after the event and ask how best to break into the field.

After attending a seminar, you should have a pretty good idea of whether or not becoming a life coach is something you really would like to pursue.  You want to be sure of that before you invest your time and money into life coach training.

There are hundreds of coaching training programs that range from $100 home study programs, to $15,000 two year life coach certification.  The value and cost of life coach training varies widely and is something you should research thoroughly.  The most comprehensive list of coaching courses and schools can be found at www.peer.ca/coachingschools.html

It’s important that you pursue a program of instruction that results in accreditation.  Without a coaching credential you’ll have a hard time convincing potential clients that you are the real deal.

You are now armed with a basic outline of how to become a life coach.  Make certain you invest plenty of time in researching the topic further before you open your wallet.