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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why there are so many life coaches

130 replies

Eastie77Returns · 03/08/2024 20:06

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?

OP posts:
TipsyJoker · 05/08/2024 16:12

Eastie77Returns · 05/08/2024 16:02

I don't think the analogy with a Personal Trainer is accurate. If I tried to set myself up as a PT I'd be laughed out of town. It would be immediately obvious to any potential clients that I'm unfit, unable to instruct anyone in even basic never mind more advanced training manoevures and I'm basically completely unqualified. Ditto coaching in any kind of professional or specialised area. You can't bluff your way through as a Chess or Badminton coach.

On the other hand, I'm fairly confident that I could set up myself up as e.g. a life coach fairly quickly and it would be difficult for anyone to dispprove my alleged expertise. I can use ChatGTP to create a really good description of my skills and experience, complete any number of online courses that would enable me to appear qualified (or take up a MLM opportunity) and launch my website with a few clicks of a mouse. Since the whole business is unregulated I don't even need to do the courses.

Many coaches I know lay claim to expertise based solely on their life experience and nothing else. So if I say I know I can help you on your 'journey as you navigate your life post divorce' (and why is everything a 'journey' these days?) because I've been through similar, it's difficult for anyone to argue otherwise with me even if my own divorce has been a complete car crash and I'm in no way qualified to help, because I have this lived experience.

To be clear, I'm not denigrating qualified, professional coaches. My point is that it's quite easy for anyone to set themselves up in certain coaching areas and my original question was why has there been such a rapid increase in people doing this over the last few years.

And if you did do that, clients would realise fairly quickly that you were not very good and not qualified to coach them. With social media and sites like trustpilot nowadays, people will expose you if you are a fraud and rightly so. Thats not to mention word of mouth through which a lot of business is generated for coaches. You’re coaching career wouldn’t last very long. Again, this is why potential clients need to check a coaches credentials, just like they would with a counsellor, (another unregulated professions) before working with them. There are always going to be grifters out there in every profession or even qualified people who just stink at their job but if you ask around and do a little bit of research then you can hopefully avoid them. And if you did go to a coach who seemed like they weren’t very good, you simply stop using their service and find a better one. You’re not tied in to any kind of contract with anyone.

Bouledeneige · 05/08/2024 17:26

I know an unqualified life coach who was previously into MLM.

She has set herself up as a divorce, relationships and career coach on the basis that she went through one divorce and I'm not sure what brilliant career expertise she has. She spends a lot of time posting video thoughts for the day on Facebook and instagram.

In social circles she is known to be quite insensitive and snippy. I'm not sure how successful she has been - I wouldn't consult her myself.

TarantinoIsAMisogynist · 05/08/2024 20:10

Xmasiscomingearlier · 04/08/2024 09:17

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.

Edited
Show quote history

No I'm not. The 450 days a chartered accountant needs in order to qualify is based on hours spent on client work only. Training, exam study, admin etc are all excluded from that figure.

50 hours of hands-on client/patient work is simply not enough to make someone a truly competent professional, no matter what your specialism is. It's a start, but no more than that.

Can you imagine a doctor or nurse qualifying when they have spent only 50 hours with patients?

yourintentionalidentity · 17/12/2024 16:16

Eastie77Returns · 03/08/2024 20:06

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?

You're not being unreasonable. While some coaches offer real value, the lack of regulation means anyone can jump on the bandwagon, often without the expertise to back it up. It’s frustrating, especially when it feels like they're exploiting genuine struggles, particularly for women. A lot of it is common sense or readily available online for free, and the hefty price tags can feel like a cash grab. Always worth questioning credentials and experience before investing.

usere083042 · 17/12/2024 16:23

Mostly its a job for grifters who have failed in life and are casting around for something they can just 'do' with no qualification or regulation.

There are a handful of exceptions - people who have had real achievement in a particular field then gone on to train as a coach specialising in their field for burnt out professionals. These are very very rare.

Mostly it's losers who have failed at life and can persuade other guilible losers to part with their cash.

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