To wonder why there are so many life coaches

Career coaches are not life coaches.
There are specific qualifications ( up your master level) in career guidance/development and a professional body.

Some people have no real talents but still need to eat, some just need a way to launder money in this increasingly litigious world.

It sounds like you’ve not had a very good experience with coaching. This person is obviously offering group sessions for professional environments. Probably as an executive coach. Thats not the only mode of coaching out there. There will be people who offer professional coaching that are much better than this fellow appeared to be.

To say that life coaches don’t have any specialist skills is quite insulting to the ones who have actually worked really hard,
spent good money to complete reputable training and gain accreditation, in order to become life coaches. For example, to undertake a diploma via animas, it costs around £6000. Then to become accredited, you have to do a minimum number of hours with clients. The more hours you’ve done, the higher your accreditation.

Also, many good life coaches have relevant experience before they decide to train as a life coach. My friend was a qualified, trained and accredited counsellor under BACP with specialist training in bereavement. My other friend who now coaches was a teacher for 20 years before retraining. Both of these have transferable, relevant experience and skills for life coaching. They also do lots in terms of CPD and self study. These people want to help others.

Unfortunately, there absolutely are bad life coaches out there, who haven’t done any training, who are selling snake oil and they are giving all life coaches a bad name. Thats why it’s important to do your due diligence before working with one. These people are completely unethical.

You're comparing totally different things.

The 50 hours is based on working with 5 clients for 10 sessions each.
That's roughly the amount of time a client has.
And that excludes the theory. The whole course took me a year.
All sessions annotated in detail and submitted for feedback.
That's just one example of training. There are degree-level courses as well.

I already had a degree and additional professional training in a relevant area which is on my CV for potential clients.

Many coaches already have degrees or experience in psychology, HR management, management consultancy, etc.

What's surprising about this thread is that the role of a coach is being 'knocked' by posters who have misconceptions.

not all NLP is guff but when your in therapy - your therapist shouldn’t be there telling you about courses she is on… so i think you had a terrible therapist

That's a bit mean-spirited. Presumably she's still a single mother when not working, and it's not like she can take the kids to work

This is a podcast about Lighthouse that was mentioned in the NY Times article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kvf7

A distant relative has set herself up as one of these and it’s so clearly an MLM type scheme. Her shtick is lifestyle and health advice for busy working mums, but it’s all just the most banal and obvious stuff. Also I know for a fact that she gets huge childcare support from her parents, so she’s not exactly practising what she preaches!

I know one, a friend of mine. To be fair, she is the most perfect person I know! Highly successful career, house worth millions, friends all over the world, intrepid traveller, fit and active, hobbies galore, and a lovely person to boot. She also raised her son single-handedly and he has just graduated with a First from a Russell Group University. She's never boastful and always down to earth.
She retired relatively young and doesn't need the money from this.
So if I was going to listen to anyone, it'd be her!

50hrs is not a lot - barely one and a half working weeks! It may sound impressive, but for someone that is claiming to be a professional, it's not nearly enough to ensure competence.

Compare that to the hours you need to log during training to qualify as, for example, a chartered accountant (450 days spread over a minimum of 3 yrs) and it's miniscule.

Two people I know had life coaching and “discovered” they really wanted to be life coaches (both went back to their original careers eventually). So I was interested to read this

www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/business/life-coach-debt-savings.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AU4.X6Gj._NZC6mJDMLo9&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

My friend has run an executive coaching business for over 20 years, but she’s usually hired by companies to work with their employees rather than individuals hiring her. She has a degree in psychology and professional qualifications. She makes a very good living from it.

My point is that good coaches exist and are valued, but many people offering these services are not worth your time.

I am on a group,which at the time of my DC being at school and doing exams, was quite a useful resource for finding places that did extra lessons and that sort of thing.

My DC are many years out of school now, and I just never left the group but had the feeds hidden. I stumbled across it recently, and every third or so post is a parent looking for a life coach for their child. As they have finished school now and had a gap year and now 'are lost'. So basically the parents are going to pay someone to tell their kid to get out of bed before noon and go look for a job.

I could have passed on the info of a friend's ex husband. I never really knew what he did all day every day, his wife was the breadwinner and he seemed to tinker around doing random things. Upscaling furniture, wrapping cars, taking photos etc. The next minute I saw he'd posted a video as he was now a successful Thought Leader. I didn't have a clue what this was, but it seemed he was a speaker at a few of his wife's work events. Now it seems he's a life coach. Problem is, they recently went through a horrible divorce, his kids refuse to have any contact with him and he's back home living with his father. I'm not sure I would want any coaching from him thank you very much.

The op was about the quantity of life coaches , not about their sucess or how good they are.

Do you think all these life coaches have their shit together without room for improvement?

I’ve seen one at work and she’s been a godsend. Truly transformative.
But on the other hand there are plenty of charlatans out there. As an example, I came across My Inner Friend recently on Instagram - did a bit of digging and the ‘friend’ behind it did one of those nonsense Institute of Integrative Nutrition courses 🙄🙄 and now deems herself a life coach. A fool and his money springs to mind.

I've had a career coach, he was good, helped me with some specific issues.

I had 2 mental health therapists, one was helpful one was not.

I wouldn't see a general 'life coach'. For a career coach, I want someone who has had a long decent career (in something other than coaching) plus several years coaching. And for a therapist at least an MA in a therapy related field.

For finding a therapist I'd be particularly wary. I had a work colleague who qualified as a counsellor. The thought of an unwary individual going to her for counselling is horrifying, she was one of the most unempathetic, chaotic people I've ever met.

For the last time- coaches do not not tell clients what to do.

This is the very first thing you learn as a coach.

This thread is quite depressing because 99% of posters seem to misunderstand the whole concept of coaching and what happens in sessions.

Life coaches don't tell anyone what to do.

I am a coach. I've coached for 20 years. many of my clients have made massive changes to their work or personal lives.

It's about setting a goal (for yourself) and being accountable with someone who is supportive. Coaches do not set goals or tell clients what to do. They help you unpick your emotions, work out what you want, and you set your own goals.

One comparison is using 'weight watchers' or any other means of support.
Everyone knows how to lose weight, but people go to slimming clubs for accountability . Or people have a personal trainer.

It's like all careers- you get good and bad in them all.

I don't call myself a life coach. I am a personal development coach.

Because it's easy to tell someone else what they should be doing.

People often listen to the guidance of someone outside of their friends/ family.

Preying on the insecurities of middle class, middle aged, middle managers. Seems everyone who works in corporate HR eventually pivots to this after being made redundant.

It beats working for a living.

Life-Coaching is the new Counselling. Ah, MLM, I see. Another Ponzi.

IME they're usually women who have just absorbed shit at work until they were physically unable to any longer, had a breakdown and want to use their experiences to help others.

It’s a load of bollocks but there are so many total wimps with “mental health issues” that they’re probably killing it.

I agree with this. You could argue that a PT is a waste of money- there are loads of free resources online/apps to teach you how to get fit, how to lose weight, how to target different muscle groups etc but people still pay for PTs to keep them accountable.

I dont really see any difference tbh- you can get bad PTs just as you can get bad life coaches. There are poor examples in any job.