According to the International Coaching Federation, there will be approximately 93,000 health and fitness certified coaches in the world by 2023. You've probably encountered coaches in many different niches, including executive, wellness, career and relationship coaches. It can be useful to know the scope and expertise of different fitness and wellness leaders when considering becoming or working as a coach.
This article will cover:
What is a Life Coach?
What is a life coach?
What is the difference between wellness coaching and life-coaching?
What type of coaching would be best for you?
Do you want to learn more about wellness coaching and how it works? NASM's Certified Wellness Coach Course is a great place to start!
What is a LIFE COACH?
A qualified life coach is someone who has studied coaching health such as motivational interviewing and behavior change. A life coach will also have a coaching niche, which is a specific area of expertise. Leadership coaches with a background in leadership, management, and entrepreneurship. Relationship life coaches study how to cultivate high-quality relationships and work through conflict in order to help couples and individuals connect more deeply.
Life coaches are available in a wide variety of specialties. They help individuals, teams, or groups to identify goals and obstacles, then work to resolve any tension or ambivalence that may arise as they implement their plans.
They do not tell clients what to think, as a strategist would, but instead empower them with information, and provide a safe environment to help them examine their behavior, so that they can make the right decisions. Clients create internal change through their collaborative work.
What does a LIFE COACH do?
Life coaches who are ethical work within the scope of their education, experience, and training to help clients make sustainable changes.
A relationship coach, for example, would not likely focus on career changes or entrepreneurship unless it was part of their expertise. Life coaches usually work with clients to address various aspects of their lives, including their career, home and relationships, their family, their finances, their spirituality, and their financial situation.
A life coach can work with clients one-on-one, in groups or corporate structures to help them set goals that are aligned. This often involves asking the client open-ended, insightful questions to help them understand themselves and achieve more authentic goals.
The coach will then help the client identify intentional, aligned behaviors that move them closer to their goals. Intentional action increases autonomy - the feeling that they can make their own decisions - and self-efficacy - the belief that they can solve problems and grow towards the life they desire.
Life coaches are not therapists. A therapist is licensed by state and bound by an ethical code. They treat mental health conditions. Coaches don't diagnose or treat mental health conditions. They focus on promoting positive behaviors, thoughts, and habits with an eye towards the future.
The Difference Between Life Coaching and Wellbeing Coaching
A life coach may be able to help clients with a variety of sub-specialties, depending on their expertise and education. These include personal organization, time and career management, relationship building, financial planning, career development, finances and starting a new business. Life coaching's broad focus can support a 360 degree view of a client's life and help them navigate through major transitions. This broad focus often focuses on a specific goal that is related to a life coach's specialty.
The education of a health coach or wellness trainer is much more focused. NASM defines wellness as the facilitation of "mental, emotional, and physical betterment of life". This is done through domains such as movement, sleep and nutrition.
The scope of wellness coaching tends to be more narrow, so the coach and the client focus on specific aspects of the client’s wellbeing. It is likely to include sharing evidence-based knowledge on wellness domains with the client, helping them to overcome ambivalence towards change and creating sustainable and health-promoting behaviors.
SUMMARY
Life coaching has evolved and will continue evolving since its conception in the 1980s. Every year, hundreds of thousands individuals and companies hire coaches in order to promote authentic growth. No matter the coach's specialization, they all create a relationship based on trust, ethics, reliability and a safe environment where clients can examine their lives, habits and beliefs. To find the right coach or to become the coach that you desire, you must first be clear on the changes you wish to make.
Life coaches often start out with a broad perspective of all aspects of life. However, their expertise in a particular niche is what makes them so valuable to their clients. It's also the education of a wellness coach in the specific domains of health that allows them to help their clients make lasting, meaningful and positive changes on their wellness journey.
