Women In Action: How To Become A Certified Life Coach
Contrary to popular belief, women are not inferior to men. They play a significant role in the community today as they are responsible for urban facilities, social relationships, and cultural activities. They also take the lead in helping their families adjust to challenges, especially when taking care of their children and elders.
For women who want to contribute more to their communities, working as a life coach can be an excellent option. Taking this career is beneficial as it allows you to support your clients in their professional endeavors and help them perform at their highest levels. Working as one can also become your platform to serve your life’s purpose and encourage others without any judgment.
Working as a life coach is a very rewarding career, but you need to undergo the following before you can be certified for the industry:
1. Choose A Niche
Before you can get an NLP certification for you to provide services as a life coach, you need to identify a niche first. Working as a life coach covers a wide variety of niches, and you should pick one or two that you’d like to focus on.
Choosing a niche is necessary because this will make it easy for you to streamline your efforts and identify what kind of training is apt for your chosen niche.
When you work as a life coach, you’ll get to choose among the following niches:
Academic issues
Aging
Business
Career transition and employment search
Health and wellness
Romantic relationships
2. Complete A Training Program
Your role as a life coach can affect the lives of your clients significantly. More often than not, your clients will follow all your pieces of advice and will predict the quality of their lives in the long run. Working as a life coach requires a lot of responsibilities, which is why you should receive the necessary training for the job.
Before you can work as a certified life coach, you need to complete a training program as this can become your platform to learn all about the psychological principles of life coaching. It will also help you determine how you can conduct a proper assessment of your clients’ needs.
A training program can also hone your skills in the necessary ethics in life coaching. Eventually, your communication skills as a life coach will improve.
For you to make the most out of your training program, make sure that you’re getting one from an institution that is accredited by the International Coach Federation or ICF. Earning your training program from these institutions will give you peace of mind that you’re learning from the experts who are following the industry standards.
3. Get A Credential
As mentioned, your role as a life coach can affect the lives of your clients in a lot of ways. Completing a training program necessary for life coaches isn’t enough for you to become one – you also have to practice your expertise and demonstrate high work standards as a life coach.
Generally, the International Coach Federation will require aspiring life coaches to have at least 500 hours of coaching experience and at least 25 clients. Before you can earn these credentials, you have to successfully pass the Coach Knowledge Assessment that will assess your knowledge on ethical guidelines and coaching agreements. Your accountability, active listening skills, and goal setting will also be tested.
If you’re looking forward to earning a Master Masteries Coach in the future, you should be prepared to complete a series of tests in order to demonstrate your knowledge of different life coaching principles. Moreover, candidates should also submit a few recordings of their sessions with their clients, as these will be evaluated by the association.
4. Set Up Your Business Classification
Before you can offer your services as a life coach to your future clients, you need to comply with the business legislation set in your country or state. As a life coach, remember that you will also be operating as a business owner. For starters, you need to get a business classification, namely a Corporation designation or Limited Liability Company or LLC.
Develop The Necessary Skills
Aside from making sure that you’re equipped with the necessary training, it’s also important that you have the skills to become a successful life coach. For one, you should know how to focus when working with a client and their issues at hand. Not having the ability to focus on your client’s sentiments will make it hard for you to come up with tailored-fit solutions.
Having organization, business, and marketing skills are also important for your career as a life coach to take off. These skills, along with your training from certified institutions, will make it easy for you to make a name in the industry as an effective life coach!
