Life Coaching Success: Why Trust in Your Coach is Vital

The term ‘life coach’ is popular enough these days for pretty much everyone to have come across it at some point.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about life coaching, but you’ve been holding back because you’re not quite sure how it all works. Perhaps, and you’re not alone in this by any means, you’ve not taken that first step because you’re worried the life coach won’t understand you. That you won’t click. Or that you won’t feel like you’re in a safe enough space to share your feelings and innermost concerns.

It’s natural to worry about confidentiality. Privacy is one of the most important human rights we have. But I’d like to assure you that, when you work with a qualified life coach who abides by the ethics of their training accreditor, confidentiality is top of the agenda.

I thought it would be useful to share a few insights into life coaching, to help you decide if it’s something you’d like to pursue further. What you can expect from a life coaching session. How a life coach should make you feel and, crucially, why it is so important that you can trust your life coach.

Firstly, what is a life coach?

Sometimes, life coaching gets confused with counselling, mentoring or therapy. But none of those define it. The role of a life coach is to help you get to grips with what’s going on your day to day life, and how it may be impacting upon your relationships, your performance at work and your general mood and well-being.

A life coach draws on a deep base of knowledge, experience and training to help people achieve clarity in their aims and ambitions, both personal and career related, and to recognise anything that may be holding them back from achieving what they aspire to.

Life coaching is all about empowering you to take charge of your life, to maximise your full potential, and to reach your goals.

All sorts of people work with life coaches. From homemakers to managers, entrepreneurs to actors, and small business owners to sportspeople. And their goals will vary a great deal. Some will be seeking financial independence. Others may be looking to achieve a good work/life balance. Others still may want to improve their communication skills, accomplish promotion or success, or ace their diet and fitness goals.

The great thing about life coaching is that it can help you in any area of life, and with any goals you choose.

What should you expect from a life coach?

Trained to know just what questions to ask, a life coach has the expertise to help you discover your true desires in life. To find out what could be holding you back, and to work out what you need to do rise above it.

Whether it’s limiting beliefs, practical challenges, lack of confidence or something else, once your life coach has helped you identify what’s standing in your way of your aspirations, they will help devise a tailored plan of action to achieve specific outcomes in your life. They’ll then continue to support you, keeping you on track and making things less of a challenge by breaking down bigger goals into smaller, achievable chunks.

You shouldn’t expect a life coach to give you all the answers. They won’t tell you what to do. Their role is to help you unlock the answers within yourself, and encourage you to take the steps you’ve identified as being crucial to achieving what you want.

Life coaching supports your own self-discovery and growth, motivates you to make your own choices, and helps you become accountable for your own progress and success.

Life coaching is empowering, because it prompts you to find your own solutions. And this level of independent thought and problem solving will help you in so many areas of your life.

That’s not to say your life coach will leave you to your own devices. On the contrary, because they’ll be checking in with you to see how you’re getting on with your action plan, you’ll feel accountable to them, as well as to yourself. And this will help considerably with your motivation.

How should a life coaching session make you feel?

A life coach will always make you feel like you are in a safe space. A place where you can open up in complete confidence. And where you never have to worry about being judged.

Life coaches are natural empaths. So you’ll feel understood, and confident to communicate at your own level.

A life coach will always remain fully focused on you during your session. So you’ll feel like you really matter. You’ll feel a great sense of positivity and encouragement, and genuinely respected, with everything you disclose treated with the utmost sensitivity.

Why is it so important to be able to trust your life coach?

Trust makes it possible to share our genuine selves with people, and to do so without fear of judgement. It also allows us to be vulnerable, yet still feel safe. To depend on someone, and have confidence in them and their suggestions.

What’s more, without trust, it is impossible to form a relationship. And without a relationship, you will never be able to properly open up and share your fears and failures, as well as your dreams. Which means you’ll find it difficult to discover your true ambitions, and identify limiting obstacles. Which is the whole point of life coaching.

All of this is why being able to trust your life coach is absolutely vital.

What should you look for in a life coach?

A good life coach will be qualified, having completed a course accredited by an official body, such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Such bodies have a code of ethics, which all qualified coaches must abide by. This provides reassurance for their clients in terms of confidentiality, accountability and professionalism.

You should be looking for strong listening skills, together with high levels of empathy.

Testimonials will provide evidence of successful client relationships, and an enhanced DBS check will offer you additional peace of mind.

And of course, there’s the trust factor. The ICF identifies establishing trust and intimacy with a client as a core competency of a life coach.

You’ll also need to feel completely comfortable with your life coach. Chemistry is essential. You need to click.

Personally, I always take time to have an informal chat with my potential clients to see if we are a good fit before booking in any coaching sessions. It needs to work for both of us.

One-to-one life coaching you can trust

My name is Jenny Kirrane, and I’m an ICF-qualified life coach specialising in positive psychology. I pride myself in making sure my clients feel they are in a perfectly safe space during our sessions, and in building deeply trusting relationships. As I abide by the ICF Code of Ethics, my clients are assured of the highest levels of professionalism and care at all times.

As I get to know your dreams for the future, as well as your fears and challenges, I’ll help you gain clarity on where you’d like to take your life, helping you set and achieve goals, walking your path side-by-side with you, supporting you all the way.

If you’d like to discover how life coaching could empower you to make positive changes in your life, to find out more email hello@tinyleapscoaching.com