How to Become a Life Coach

Beginning the journey to become a life coach can be both daunting and exciting. By making this decision to support others you will be required to undergo the necessary training to achieve certification. While this may seem like a simple hurdle, there are actually many different courses that may be taken with variations, such as speciality and cost. Making this initial decision can be difficult without understanding how it may affect your chosen career. To help, here are a few things that everybody should know when looking to become a life coach.

Your Specialism

Essentially, what area of life would you like to coach? There are numerous ways that you can offer support to others. Specialism can extend from business to relationships or from health to financial, each area with its own required knowledge and skill set. Consider your own experience, as well as which area you feel you could make the most impact in. What teaching methods would you employ? Will you prefer to lead groups or individuals? Do you already have any specific training or speciality that may be useful? Once you have your certification, there will be many options available to you, but knowing your direction before you begin will help much further down the line.

Experienced Coaches

There is plenty of advice and information on life coaching as a career. However, meeting certified life coaches who have their own experience is invaluable. If you don’t personally know a life coach, then don’t worry. There are numerous communities, both online and offline, where life coaches come together to discuss their work and offer help to newcomers. Many websites of life coaching organisations will also offer details of their alumni with the intention of connecting them with those in training.

The Right Course for You

There are a huge variety of courses that you can choose from. The fundamental quality that you should look for is that they are accredited themselves. The Association for Coaching (AC) and International Coach Federation (ICF) are the two most prominent and respected certification boards. If you see their approval on a course you are considering then you can trust that it has been reviewed to a very high standard. It is highly recommended that, to become a life coach in the UK, you enroll on one of these courses as others may not have the same quality assurance.

The Path Ahead

The roadmap to becoming a life coach may vary depending on the factors we have mentioned. However, there are certain elements that are paramount to training. Expect to embark on a course that will have you both learning and doing. As much as there is to learn from the classroom, you will certainly have to commit to observation and practise placements. In addition, and since you will be supporting people directly, you will be trained and tested in your responsiveness and organisation. The courses will demand a lot from you and at times it will feel tough, but this is important to go through because, ultimately, you will be offering your skills and guidance to those who ask for it.