What Is A Life Coach?

What Is A Life Coach?

There are a lot of assumptions around what a life coach is. Some people believe that having a life coach is similar to having a therapist, but these are not the same thing. Generally speaking, a therapist is a healthcare professional that provides psychotherapy services that target mental health issues as they are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in order to assess, diagnose and resolve them. They focus primarily on analyzing past experiences to help explain or inform on current situations.

Life Coaches work in the present and the future. They do not diagnose or medicate any mental health disorders. A Life Coach focuses on current circumstances, conditions, behaviors, and actions to assist clients in their evolution and designing their future. A life coach guides clients through developing skill sets while identifying and achieving personal and professional goals. Coaches work with their clients to build the skills, tools, accountability, and support they need to create a firm sense of self and clear vision. This process assists the client in gaining the direction and focus they need to create the future they want. Coaching is described by The International Coaching Federation (ICF) as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

Takeaway; A therapist is to help you to process the past, A Coach is to help you design the future.

A Life Coach can assist a client in a number of different fundamental areas of their life including relationships, professional development, leadership, stress management, goal setting, planning, working through transitions, identifying purpose, breaking patterns, and more. Coaches work with clients to identify clear and concreate goals and partner with them to achieve them.

At Astra Coaching, LLC we focus on setting and obtaining goals while developing skills in key areas such as communication, emotional intelligence, leadership, and mental agility. Learning how to recognize emotions in yourself and in others is absolutely essential to effective communication and leadership. Without emotional intelligence, interactions become emotionally charged creating the perfect circumstance for miscommunication by eliminating mental agility and crippling our ability to accurately hear, respond, or understand. In this mode, energy, attention, and mental function become dedicated to the emotion, overpowering and eliminating the logical value of a situation or communication. This is how communication becomes inefficient, argumentative, abrasive, and damaging weather it be in the workplace or at home. Without proper communication there can be no growth, without growth there can be no success.

We work closely with clients to identify and develop a keen sense of self while identifying where they are going and how they are going to get there. Regardless of what your personal support network looks like, an outside source that is fully dedicated to your personal growth and success is often the key that unlocks the next door. Your coach is dedicated to your vision and is a partner in conceptualizing your goals for the future while being a steady source of accountability. It is our priority to make sure that we are bringing the tools, insights and skills necessary for your success to the table as we work with you to realize your ambitions.

In summary, Coaches aren’t here to “fix” you, we’re here to build you. We are navigators here to assist you in finding the roads to where you want to go and who you want to be when you get there.