Life Coach

[Lotsofdifferentthings]

I help people solve issues in their relationships, with parenting, anxiety, stress and more

Biggest thing people come to me for is to get over trauma. My technique doesn't require you to relive the past or talk about the details of what happened in order to get over it.

Go for it. I'll try and answer as much as I can.

@WhichOneGoes - I’d say it’s a dead cert, sadly.
I’m by no means as qualified as your DC but a BA, 2 x MSc’s, and 20yrs at the coal face plus countless training courses on trauma / autism / safeguarding blah blah every year, membership of an accredited body, CPD requirements…. And I’d bet a pound to a penny this entirely unqualified, untrained individual is on 3 x my hourly NHS rate. I’m struggling to pay the mortgage on my own with kids, and I’ll bet anything the OP is using this income as pin money, and her role as a status symbol.

Actually makes me feel sick.

I'd like to join in the kicking of the OP but having seen the very unimpressive results of all that training in CAMHS psychiatry and their counsellors I wish I had the faith so many of you have in MH training and accreditation. It would br good to have that for life coaching but lots of them would still be a bit rubbish, just like the counsellors.

OP - can you in all good faith look at yourself in the mirror and think that you are a safe pair of hands to be dealing with childhood sexual abuse and relationship violence? Do you never feel terrified of how dangerously out of your depth you are. Do you never feel actually immoral?

A lot of NHS clinical psychologists and psychiatrists do private work.

Many of us ARE mental health trained and accredited. Whilst there’s failings in the system, the logical alternative would be a private MH professional…. Not a whacky unqualified untrained random with zero experience or knowledge.

@MuckyPlucky
It's a crazy situation isn't it 🫤

This has been very measured & reasonable thread,posters have legitimately asked @Lotsofdifferentthings to explain her techniques ⬅️ she’s not done so

Nothing in the questions posed is mean,or unreasonable. Nothing has been attacking or viperly. My motives are transparency & accountability. Life coach as a job is unregulated and unskilled in addressing trauma.

@Lotsofdifferentthings is in a for profit role purporting to able to treat trauma. Understandably, those of us who are trained,supervised and regulated have misgivings and queries

Yes, And have to maintain registration, have supervision, maintain a portfolio and attend CPD and training (often at own cost)

I did a 1 year psychology course online before I started working with people. I don't have a professional body.

This is terrifying.

Yes it is. Unregulated. Unsupervised. Unaccredited course working with trauma. Using techniques that cannot be described or summarised

I am by no means sticking up for the OP but would just like to share my experience.

I have been in one of the 'top' private mental health clinics.

The treatment I received from one of their psychiatrist ( who also works in NHS) was appalling.

They had a very qualified long standing CBT therapist who actually made my mental health so much worse with some of the comments they made.

And I saw a psychotherapist who was truly awful.

The person who helped me the most was a counsellor, fully trained but no where near the qualifications the others had.

Just wanted to point out that just because someone may have a list of qualifications, it certainly doesn't make them the best.

I would go as far as saying that the two different psychiatrist that I saw were the most arrogant, aggressive and totally lacking in empathy people that I have ever known.

@MuckyPlucky

Why are you being so facetious about Agony aunt's/Uncles saying they are just nonsense ect 🤔?

I have read Agony aunt type of problems pages in newspapers the down market ones such as The Sun,
to the more high brow ones such as The Guardian.

All an agony aunt is someone female often elder female, sometimes younger female,
like the famed one Claire Rayner, Dear Dearie The Sun,
giving their life's experinces they have learned along the way, and Claire Rayner was a former Sister Nurse too,

just like someone turning to a good friend or auntie or anyone else trusted confidant for advice or alternative perspective on a pressing issue ect,

Sadly sometimes not everyone has got close knit families ties, for whatever reasons, whether they have moved away ect,

also looking at an Agony aunt/ Uncle problem page could resonate with someone cause of their own personal circumstances or a friends or a someone their just happen to be working with,
and can sometimes can also help someone to gain an awareness or understanding of complex emotional psychological issues such as a topical subjects issues in the media, wider world issues too,

I am sorry you’ve had a bad experience with staff who were unempathic
In such cases you have routes to complain eg PALS, and for complaints regards doctors the GMC https://www.gmc-uk.org/concerns/raise-a-concern#:~:text=If%20you%27re%20not%20satisfied,violence%2C%20sexual%20assault%20or%20indecency .

with a life coach there is no regulation. Nadda, zilch, none
No regulatory body to sanction poor practice

Yes undoubtedly there are poor practitioners, unfortunately they cause distress. You can complain there are potential sanctions if case upheld

thats the difference between life coach and a psychiatrist. Oh and a fair few years training,plus supervision, plus exams and mock scenarios under timed conditions

@DuffDuff At least you would have the option to complain about those professionals though. You couldn't do that with the OP, it would be pointless as she is not part of any professional body.

@MuckyPlucky

Agony Aunt type of problem page gives someone who is afraid to talk to someone in real life case they judge or and ridicule them about a personal problems of theirs,

i don't see that much of a difference to Agony aunts in newspapers to someone on here on Mumsnet asking for good sound advice on any particular subject 🤔 such as my husband or partner is nasty to me,
do you think i am married to an Arsehole?

Cause he is nice to other people, but he is different when he is indoors,

Right, good night everyone. Interesting if somewhat terrifying AMA thread

I do understand what you are saying.

I did a complaints procedure to the hospital, I was 10days over their time limit.

I was told that the only thing I could do was to try and sue for negligence.

My insurance company had no interest and they are paying this hospital thousands and thousands of pounds.

Its very frightening when you are mentally unwell to fight these people.

I would hope that the OP wouldn't treat anyone who was obviously unwell. It is scary that anyone can set themselves up like this. But a lot of professionals I have been in contact with were truly awful.

Agree with you, a poor practitioner causes distress, potential harm,erodes trust. I’m sorry you’ve had such a ghastly experience at a time you were vulnerable. It takes huge effort and emotional energies to battle a system (esp hierarchical system) Unfortunately the dynamic of staff / patient can disadvantage a client when trying to assert self or challenge poor practice

Vast majority practitioners are good,unfortunately the minority who are bad leave a legacy and it’s unsettling.

You only have to look at the Jodi Hildebrant case to know why any kind of therapy or “life coaching” or whatever you want to call it, needs strictly regulating and supervising.

I’m sure you are a nice person OP but to offer any kind of service to vulnerable people after some online training and with no professional regulation, shows you haven’t grasped the severity of what you are doing.

I come from a long line of people with poor mental health and significant mental
illness. Can’t think of a single person who was cured by a mental health professional no matter how many qualifications they had. In several cases harm was actually caused by those professionals and the system they operated in. Most recently, CAMHS were fucking useless - how many years of study does it take to give an actively suicidal child a few badly photocopied handouts on self-care? The system is broken!

It’s no wonder people try other options. I got some relief from a course of hypnotherapy and attending a peer support group run by someone with lived experience but without a qualification to their name.

I actually agree that life coaching should be regulated and coaches should have safeguarding training and insurance etc but Instead of being so snippy about the OP why don’t all you MH professionals focus on sorting out your own profession?

To be fair most of the research indicates that the therapeutic alliance is the biggest predictor of recovery. Maybe the OP is just very good at rapport building and Roger’s fundamentals of empathy, congruence and non-judgement. I agree that qualifications are not synonymous with ability. I’ve had some truly awful clinical psychologists with qualifications coming out of their ears that made me 100 times worse, but then I also had a barley qualified counsellor who was kind and listened and I improved beyond recognition and owe my life to her 🤷‍♀️

Hopefully this Life coaching mumnet thread will sure start to sow the seeds that how Crazy🤪 it is to be able to to this kind of thing,
of just settling up after a year of online year of training of qualifications under your belt,

I even wonder how good is the online training course this is ?
what standard of training 😳 really is this then?
Who is the accredited body?

it really needs to be some kind of online campaign to highlight this,

this kind of Life coaching " proffession,
sounds very much like it's like equilvant of social experment with people's lives and emotions,
I really think it's like a fast track way of being involved in the field of emotional and mental health wellbeing services whithout having all the necessary experince and knowledge, training that other fields very much connected to mental health services are expected and need to have,
rightly so,

Life coaches such as yourself @Lotsofdifferentthings

have no right knowledge enough or experience to be playing at psychological mind games social experiments with potential extremely vunerable clients,

It's unacceptable and disturbing at the same time and needs to be looked at Eagle eyed ect..

Do you actually believe the agony aunt columns are real ?

See, it’s the fact that some peeps are gullible which makes me terrified that the OP is peddling snake oil and vulnerable people are believing it / buying it 😞

@Lotsofdifferentthings

The only thing Life coaches should be doing is stuff such as sign posting clients if they need help support with mental health issues as trauma based one's ect to the relevant qualified mental health services available out there on NHS and privately,

Life coaches should stick to things as encouraging people clients to explore options available out there for people at crossroads in their lives,
or
to have to more cofindence to believe in themselves that sort of thing

Maybe exploring potential careers or job changes how to navatigating this effectively and exploring these options,

If client comes to you with issues for day Breavement you need to sign post them elsewhere until you have the nessarey qualifications/experinces to do so,

I really thought Life coaching just meant for people at cross roads in their lives helping them be more aware and cofindence building career wise,

Well as someone who has nothing to do with the world of MH or psychology and has never seen a life coach, this thread has been an interesting read!
There's a lot of vitriol, possibly from independent psychologists who are being done out of work by life coaches, or NHS workers who feel underpaid?

I have seen qualified therapists who I didn't think were very good despite their training. You can train and not have very much insight into the world or people IMO.

Life coaching to me doesn't seem any different from the whole "wise woman in the woods" image, but contemporary. If a woman has the people skills and ability to connect that means she manages to successfully run a word of mouth business that leaves people feeling satisfied with what she's provided, then good for her.