I am sure there are legitimate people out there doing life coaching as a real job, and provide real value. I've met a few of them - mainly retirees who have spent a long time in the corporate sector C-Suite or as successful entrepreneurs who have made enough money and just want to help others. There's one who I engage with maybe once or twice a year who is a trained psychologist who spent a long time as a C-suite exec. All I do with him is talk through a business problem, and he generally can simplify what I need to do or why I'm feeling a certain way about a given business-related issue or how it's affecting my personal life.
The problem is, if you look on LinkedIn, most life coaches are not anything besides flavor-of-the-month grifters without legitimate experience. Since what a "life coach" is, is so vaguely defined, anyone can claim to be one without much pushback or certifiable training....my aunt is one - she has no training and just gives out advice based on what she reads on the internet (yikes!). Yet people have gone to her in the past for advice she's not even remotely qualified to give.
Real life coaching requires highly-customized and individualized advice depending on the situation a given person is in and what they are trying to achieve.
The fact that people who are actively seeking help or advice at practically any stage of life are susceptible to bullshit in hopes that it might help them is where things get a little worrying.
The danger is that people go to 'life coaches' with really difficult problems which the other person is not equipped to handle. It's completely unregulated which, where mental health is concerned, will give disastrous results.
“I realized about two months in that it was basically unlicensed therapy,” Susan* told me. On several occasions, when people wrote in to LCS about serious concerns – including anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts – they were encouraged to sign up for Scholars. “No referral to mental health help, no suicide hotline, no nothing,” someone familiar with LCS’s inner workings told me. (Last year, LCS began requiring students seek out and take a suicide prevention course.)
The problem is, if you look on LinkedIn, most life coaches are not anything besides flavor-of-the-month grifters without legitimate experience. Since what a "life coach" is, is so vaguely defined, anyone can claim to be one without much pushback or certifiable training....my aunt is one - she has no training and just gives out advice based on what she reads on the internet (yikes!). Yet people have gone to her in the past for advice she's not even remotely qualified to give.
Real life coaching requires highly-customized and individualized advice depending on the situation a given person is in and what they are trying to achieve.
The fact that people who are actively seeking help or advice at practically any stage of life are susceptible to bullshit in hopes that it might help them is where things get a little worrying.