No matter how you look at it, parenting is hard work. When you add to that the responsibility of earning money, developing a career, maintaining healthy family relationships and achieving some of your own dreams, life can get a little overwhelming. Life coaches are there to help you take control of your life and bring it into a shape that is healthy and balanced.
What is a Life Coach?
A Life Coach is an individual with a background in psychology or sociology who works with clients to help them identify goals and work towards positive change in their lives. Unlike traditional psychological therapies, life coaching is not focused on identifying mental illness or prescribing treatment, but rather works with clients as a motivator and sounding board, helping them to determine and achieve personal goals. Life Coaching is a new and rapidly growing area, which is not currently regulated by a government body.
How Can Parents Benefit From Life Coaching?
Parents often find themselves pulled in many different directions by the needs of their children or partners and their own needs for meaningful work, connection and financial independence. A life coach can act as an impartial observer who can help a mom or dad identify areas of imbalance in his or her life and work to help shift time and energy back into balance.
Life coaches can also help during major life transitions, such as becoming a new parent, moving to a new city or going back to work. A good life coach will be a positive listener when you need to talk, and he or she will help you identify areas you'd like to improve and help you come up with a plan of action to create that change in your life.
How Can Businesses Benefit From Life Coaches?
Life coaches also work with businesses by educating and motivating employees through speaking engagements and one-on-one sessions with managers. The principles of balance and goal setting apply equally to individuals and organizations, and a business that is sensitive to the needs of mothers and fathers who are looking for a healthy work life balance will have happier employees who are more engaged with their work.
How to Find a Life Coach
Life coaches typically offer sessions either in person or over the phone, so you don't necessarily need to find somebody local unless it is important to you that you are able to meet in person. Many life coaches specialize in coaching women and mothers, such as The Mom Coach, Lori Radun. Lisa Martin is a Vancouver based life coach who specializes in helping working moms and the companies they work for. She can be located online at Briefcase Moms.
Life coaching is for anyone who has an area she would like to improve in her life, whether that is transitioning to working from home or building healthier relationships between family members. Dads, working moms and stay at home moms alike can benefit from the support and guidance of a life coach, and the organizations and families they are part of will benefit as well.
The cost of regular life coaching sessions might seem like a splurge, but many clients have found that the cost is well worth the results they have achieved and the support of having someone to talk to each week who is totally focused on them and their lives.
Michelle Carchrae - Michelle Carchrae has worked as a Volunteer Phone Counselor at Childline and as a Training Developer and Call Centre Trainer, but the job ...
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