How to Become a Life Coach

Life coaching in Australia has become a growing industry…

An increase of 19% from 2011.

This number is continuing to increase as the career prospect of owning a coaching business and being able to help clients improve a specific aspect of their life is a fulfilling and rewarding career. Life coaching is a professional relationship between a trained coach and a client (whether it be an individual, organisation or team) to achieve a desired outcome or goal through a uniquely designed process.

If the ability to empower potential clients from all walks of life through your coaching niche seems like an uplifting and exciting career path for you, discover how you can become a professional coach through a variety of life coach training and online life coaching courses.

Before you consider the variety of coaching courses online, consider your career options. Do you want to become a certified life coach or do you want to start up your own life coaching business? It is important to also understand the type of coaching services you would offer, what would your business card say?

All lifestyle coaching courses cover the general theory you need to start your new career path, but to be a successful life coach you need to specialise in your own niche. This will help during your coaching sessions and give your clients confidence that you can help them with their own challenges.

Some of the most common areas that life coaches specialise in include:

• Business
• Careers and Job Search
• Weight-Loss
• Health and Well-being
• Relationships

Owning your own coaching practice and/or working full-time or part-time as a life coach requires you to have a number of coaching skills such as excellent communication skills, patience, and listening skills. The most common pathway Life Coaches take is to start your own business.

The best way to do this is to:

1. Create your business name unique to your niche and the coaching industry.
2. Get a fully functioning website where potential clients can see your accredited life coach certificate online; make sure you can be easily found on social media platforms, Google and on LinkedIn where you can market yourself to your target clients
3. Create a variety of coaching packages, these should demonstrate your capability and allow clients to choose how many sessions they wish to book with you.

The 2016 Global Coaching Survey also highlighted that there is large importance of coaches undertaking accredited and recognised lifestyle coaching programs; this reasoning is due to being able to provide a positive change in someone’s personal or professional life in the best ways possible.

Gaining a life coaching certification through an online coaching course is one of the most popular ways for new coaches to understand what it takes to be successful in the coaching industry. If you’re considering starting up your own business, it is important you do more than just achieve a certificate in life coaching to make the most out of your professional life coaching clients in your preferred area.

Life coaching courses can be found at a variety of educational institutes, but don’t just pick any online life coaching course. A training program should teach you the psychological principles of coaching, how to conduct a coaching assessment of a client, and the ethics of life coaching.

To make the most out of your life coach certification, it is important that you:

• Look at the reputation of the educational provider.
• Research the recognition of your life coaching certification.
• Length of the life coach training.

You can gain a life coach certificate online or find a specified online coaching course from any website, but it is important that you ensure the educational provider is legitimate and the life coach courses (online or in a classroom setting) they offer are right for you and your professional life.

A potential client is seeking your advice to help improve their own life, and thus it is important that you gain their trust by being a certified Life Coach through completing accredited life coaching courses online.