Online Life Coaching
We've all heard of life coaching and traditionally it's been where the coach and the individual meet in person for sessions to discuss the client’s problems and how they can move forward with their lives. Coaching is a process whereby a coach helps someone to discover how they want to develop their life in the future and guide them towards achieving their goals and aspirations.
Coaching works by raising awareness and by getting people to take responsibility for their lives. It challenges people’s beliefs and inspires them to reach their full potential. Coaching can be hard work and requires a great deal of commitment from both the coach and the client. It can also require a high degree of rapport and trust between the coach and the individual being coached. Typically, coaching sessions will take place once a week and last around one hour. Coaching can go on for many months, depending on the needs of the individual.
Online coaching
You might think that online coaching is too impersonal to be effective -- how can e-mails and phone calls be as good as face-to-face meetings? Actually, recent research has shown that virtual therapy -- online coaching -- can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy. It can be much more convenient since the client can chat to his coach from home, or anywhere else for that matter. Also, the process of writing an e-mail can be therapeutic in itself and people can be much more open and honest when the coach is not personally present as they are in a face-to-face meeting. There are many benefits to virtual therapy and online coaching, so it is becoming more and more recognized as a legitimate and worthwhile way to provide help.
Clients and individuals will typically use e-mail, instant messaging, Skype and traditional telephone calls to conduct sessions. The initial session may be conducted over the phone to establish the issues that need to be covered and the goals that need to be set during coaching sessions. After that, e-mails and messaging can be effective, with the occasional phone call to maintain a more personal touch.
How can an online coach help?
An individual client can talk to a coach about challenges and problems in his life without fear of being criticized or judged -- a coach should never offer an opinion, but help the client to reach their own conclusions and solutions to their problems. Essentially, the role of the coach is to help a client to explore their issues and come up with their own solutions, much like traditional counseling.
A coach can also help a client to focus by challenging their beliefs and helping them find alternative viewpoints about issues which are causing resistance to positive change.
A coach will set exercises and topics for the client to work through and he may offer suggestions where appropriate.
Who can be a coach?
Coaches are normally mature individuals with appropriate life experience. There are plenty of coaching courses available and some training in coaching techniques is advisable before attempting to help others.
Coaches are available for many different areas, including general life coaches, business coaches, weight loss coaches, relationship coaches, financial coaches, coaches for family life and so on. A coach will generally specialize in a particular area where he has some degree of expertise. For example, a successful businessman may set himself up as a business coach in order to help individuals wanting to start their own business.
If you feel you have the necessary maturity and expertise to coach others in a particular area, it can be a very fulfilling way to make money and profits. Fees vary widely that you can expect to earn around $60-80 per hour.
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