Motivation

Life Coach Degree

A Life Coach degree is something of a misnomer. You see, no university offers a Bachelor's degree in "Life Coaching." Unlike counseling, which requires at least a Master's Degree, a life coach can set up on her own with no formal training or education.

What is generally referred to as a "Life coach degree" is a certificate offered by a for-profit life coaching company. These life coach degree programs are sometimes as short as half a day long. Other programs require more extensive training and require you to pass certification tests.

A good life coach degree has three components, in most cases. The first component is a general counseling training course. You'll learn to listen and to guide people to solutions. This goes beyond "common sense" and involves real skills.

The second component of a life coach degree is developing your program or specialty. The idea in coaching is "niche and grow rich." There are coaches who target adolescent girls who need to develop their self esteem and other coaches who target men recovering from divorce. Some coaches even broach the traditional theraputic realm and offer coaching for recovering addicts. But whatever niche you choose, you need to develop a program that will cover a specified number of sessions and your life coach degree program should help you do this.

The final portion of your life coach degree program will be developing your business plan. Since life coaching has such low barriers to entry, it's easy to get into coaching, but it's also easy to fail. You need to have a plan to succeed. Good coaching programs help you to develop one.

Many people pursue a life coach degree because it is relatively easy to set up your business from home. You do not meet your clients in person. All work is done over the phone. You don't even have to have long distance as your clients call you.

Additionally, most people like to tell other people what to do. In life coaching, this is put more gracefully. A coach "guides" a coachee to solutions in their lives. But there is still the aspect of being able to help people by giving them advice that appeals to so many people. Everyone wants to be Dear Abby.

Whatever your motivation for getting a life coach degree, research the schools and make sure they give you all three components: general counseling, niche development, and coaching business skills.

Article Published: Monday 17th December 2007