After I wrote an email to a life coach that my husband referred to me, I decided to meet different life coaches so I could compare their methods. I’ve talk to 6 life coaches and had several free coaching session to try. So let me explain how I choose my life coach.
What is a life coach?
A life coach is professional who will help you to achieve your goals and to create positive changes in your life (in relationships, life balance, time management, careers and so on) by helping you to discover yourself, by uncovering what’s holding you back, by challenging you to think bigger and by taking on real and concrete actions in your life.
Where to look for a life coach ?
Where? what are the criteria? I’ve never done that before and I’ve never heard of that. I asked my friend Google: Life coach Paris or coach de vie Paris. He didn’t find any interesting results.
Coaching/self development blog often advise to pick a coach who is credentialed by ICF International coaching Federation The coaches took a certified coach training and follow ICF core competencies. They have a directory of coaches.
My criteria
Self-development oriented
I’ve read few self developments books. I wanted to experiment and apply the concepts from self-help books. I needed my coach to be aligned with the concepts and ideas in the books. In France, coaches are often NLP practitioners or use transactional analysis. I don’t understand the benefit of those tools. I met a coach who advised me to stop reading self help books because I was over thinking according to her.
Get to know my coach
It was important that I know my coach before I contact them. I visited their blog/website and read through the blog to understand why they came to coaching. It was a way to get to know him/her better, to understand his/her style and see if it could fit me. Choose the life coach who makes you feel comfortable, it’s all about feeling. I am a passionate person. I need someone passionate by coaching, someone who is perfectly professional. I was craving for a passionate coach who truly believes in self-development and in coaching.