Sometimes, while we know what we want, we struggle to find the patterns and systems to get us there. Coaching, like for athletes, is a solution to helping you feel equipped with the tools and habits you need to build a more fulfilling life, faster.
Life coaching is a different kind of professional help. It’s similar to counselling, but it’s a more solutions-focused approach that looks to set achievable goals and produce measurable results in whichever areas of life you wish to give focus and achieve more. If the idea of counselling seems doesn’t seem relevant to you or feels a little daunting, coaching is a practical, low-intensity alternative to getting a bit of support on the things that matter to you.
A life coach will help you look at practical steps to push your life in the right direction, whether that be in your career, your relationships, or your sense of self.
A qualified life coach helps you figure out your goals and build concrete plans to achieve them, whilst also addressing some of the underlying issues that might be holding you back, as in a typical counselling session.
Life coaching benefits those who are looking for a maintenance tool – to keep their relationship fresh and growing, to maintain focus on their career ambitions, or to level up in how they relate to others. It can be used to inject energy into the direction you’re already moving in.
Life coaching can also be useful at a time when you may feel stagnant, stuck in a rut, or uninspired.
The benefits of life coaching are derived from its practical, solutions-focused nature. Life coaching can be a really helpful tool because it looks to the future and focuses on practical goal-setting, which is a useful way to build towards and measure success. Habits, good or bad, are key to being successful in any area of life- and you can think of a life coach as your very own habits teacher, there to guide and structure out what systems and patterns you can address to get to the goals you want.
Life coaching may be better suited to you than therapy or counselling if:
Session fees can range across coaches and types of sessions. At Life Supports, evidence-based coaches tend to charge within the $100-170 per hour range.
Myth – ‘life coaching is a new-age self-help fad’
Fact – It’s a reasonably common suspicion that life-coaching is a bit of a fad, rather than a solid, proven profession. Life coaching tends to be an unregulated industry - so lots of people call themselves a coach without having undertaken the proper qualifications. But really, when undertaken by talented, experienced professionals, life-coaching is a results-based practice, grounded in practicality and psychological theory.
Myth – ‘it’s just another type of counselling’
Fact – Life coaching and counselling, while on the same continuum of practice, are different professions utilising different tools. Where counselling is primarily about emotion, life coaching involves emotion but focuses much more on the practical side of life, and planning. Where counselling is more reflective, looking often to the past, life coaching is about focusing on the future and building towards it.
Myth – ‘A life coach maps out your whole life, and tells you what to do’
Fact – Life coaching isn’t about your life coach telling you what to do and when to do it. It’s much more about teamwork, so your coach will look to work with you to develop goals and plans that suit your needs. There’s no pressure, no bossing around, and no quick fixes – it’s all about developing the resilience and motivation to improve things.
We have qualified counsellors and therapists can offer life coaching as a stand-alone service or in addition to evidence-based counselling. We have practitioners across Australia who can work with you face to face or virtually. For appointments or enquiries, please call 1300 735 030 or leave us an email via our contact page.
Appointments currently available
Open 8am to 8pm weekdays and 9am to 5:30pm weekends