To wonder why there are so many life coaches

[Eastie77Returns]

My Linkedin feed is awash with former colleagues and acquaintances who have become life coaches. It seems as if every other person is now qualified to guide me through whatever life stage I'm at even though there is no official credential necessary to call yourself a coach. My extrememly toxic former manager has set herself up as a fertility coach - an area she has zero experience in.

Another coach pitched her services to me the other day via LN. She coaches 'Senior Female Professionals' and offers a package for £485 consisting of a few sessions in which she helps women cope with burnout, manage your career with kids, elevate your personal brand and reach C-suite positions. All fine except her profile revealed she is about 25 years old and has 2 years professional experience😂

On the one hand it is great that so many people who want to branch out into self employment are able to do so. On the other hand, AIBU to think that this coaching industry is largely a lot of nonsense, targetting (mainly) women and persuading them to pay out £££ to receive common sense advice or stuff you can just download on the internet for free?

Avoid anyone who mentions NLP ( neuro linguistic programming) like the plague: it is pseudoscientific guff.

I’ve often thought that a life coach tells you to do the things you know you should probably do anyway, but if you’re paying someone £££ to tell you, you're possibly more likely to actually do them.

There are some good executive career coaches, they tend to be in their 40s and 50s and have a solid career behind them. You tend to access them via employer coordinated programs with umbrella organisations, they are heavily vetted, qualified and have good credentials or references from people they have worked with, and the employee doesn't pay.

There are loads of crap ones who have never done anything else. Anyone who gets a big slug of income training other people to also be life coaches is to be avoided.

Even though many NLP practices are effective? Even though plenty of NLP exercises are now being adopted by psychotherapy, both private and NHS?

During my stint in NHS therapy the therapist told me about a course she was going on, all pure NLP, although of course it was rebranded to avoid all the pseudoscience guff associations….
You may also be interested to hear that elements of Law of Attraction (yes, that pile of nonsense that MN loves so much) are also being rebranded and used very effectively to help depressed adults and children who fixate on the negative. Dismissing it as pseudoscience is very short sighted.

NLP, when tried and tested on people who are not at a point where they’re wanting to make changes, is useless (same as any therapy tbh, and I suspect this is how they’ve labelled it pseudoscience), but irl with people choosing to be there and engaging, it does actually work, which is why there is still money in being an NLP practitioner, and they are regularly sought out by individuals and by successful companies.

Is this just not a con. I started working at 16 and just learnt from those more senior to me and by motivating myself and applying for promotions moved myself up through my career to an area director position.

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.

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

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.

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

It beats working for a living.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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

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

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