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How to Find a Mentor or Life Coach

It is said if you get lucky enough to meet a good life coach, don’t let them go, because a good one is hard to find. Life coaching is not just about methods and techniques, but also the relationship between the client and the coach themselves. Even if you make sure a life coach has an accredited online certification, with so many coaches in the field, it’s important to choose the right one for yourself. Finding the right coach will teach you strategies you need to achieve your dream life.

Tips to Finding the Right Life Coach

Find One That Specializes in the Area That Suits Your Needs

Many people become life coaches when they have problems and find solutions they want to share with others. It could be that their life lacked meaning or that their career path was not satisfactory—depending on your problem, you need to find a life coach that specializes in the area you want to deal with.

Choose One That Understands You

Finding a life coach is a personal choice—you’re looking for help improving the most important aspects of your life, not changing the oil in your car. If you’re wondering what to look for in a life coach, you need to look beyond first impressions–you can get a lot of information through their website and client reviews, but be sure to talk with two or three different life coaches and choose the one you feel you connect with the most. 

Look for a life coach that:

  • Instills confidence that they can help you improve your life
  • Understands your situation
  • Has similar values to you
  • Relates to your situation
  • Understands your goals

Proper Training

The life coaching industry is fairly new and largely unregulated. This means that anyone can call themselves a life coach, even people with zero training; therefore, you should look carefully for a life coach with adequate training and certification.

Consider Coaches From Outside Your Area

Finding a life coach and meeting them in person is important to establish rapport, but it is not totally necessary. Life coaching is different from other in-person services because it is based on conversation, so it can be accomplished remotely. Many life coaching meetings take place by phone or video chat; in this day and age, there’s no reason to let geography control these kinds of decisions—do not choose a life coach just because they live near you. 

Suits Your Budget

Getting a life coach is an investment in your success, but you don’t need to go bankrupt. Choose a coach that charges fees that are within your budget.

What Are the Qualities of a Good Life Coach?

Growth Mindset

A good life coach will always have a growth mindset and inspire you to progress and achieve things that you would otherwise not be able to. You have the ability to accomplish great things, and you need a life coach who knows that and can help you embody that belief.

Effective Communication

As you search for a life coach, find one that asks important questions that lead you to think about your issues in new ways. No one has all the answers—a good life coach will help you identify your problems and find solutions on your own. Experienced life coaches can also alter their communication style to connect with you more easily and ensure you understand them.

A Good Listener

Communication involves deep listening, and good life coaches are willing to listen so they can learn from and fully understand your perspective. They should maintain eye contact, offer nonverbal cues, and follow up with important questions to show they were listening and connecting.

The journey to finding a life coach who empowers you takes focus and care, but it’s worth it. The right life coach can help you reach your biggest life goals, and those at Symbiosis Coaching are ready to help you take the next steps in doing just that.

If you’re thinking about following this career path for yourself, check out our recent article on why you should study life coaching.

Certified NLP Coach

Program Description: The Certified NLP Coach program allows you to incorporate very powerful NLP techniques you’re your day-to-day coaching practice.

ICF Training Hours: 65

Duration: 25-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Organizational Development Coach

Program Description:

The Certified Organizational Development Coach program is an exclusive and very unique program, designed for coaches who wish to coach entire organizations with their Organizational Development and Change Management goals. This program provides you with 65 ICF training hours - more than enough for the ACC credential. Over a series of 25 weekly lectures, it prepares you to deal with volatile group dynamics across entire organizations. Topics including OD interventions, Team Engagement, Buyer Behavior of internal customers, The Tripod of Success, Ensuring Sustainability, Performance-Retention correlation, Strategies to influence behavior - and many more - are covered in detail.

Coaches are introduced to the ARCS Model, as well as to the Organizational Culture Audit Toolkit. Employee motivation, satisfaction, and productivity are discussed, as well as their impact on the performance of the organization as a whole. Students are introduced to various Change Management models including Lewin's Planned Change model, the ADKAR Change Management model, and Kotter's 8 steps of Change Management. Resistance to change and its manifestation are discussed, as is Behavior Modification.

Upon completing this program, Certified Organizational Development Coaches will have all the tools they need to affect positive transformation within organizations, and will be able to coach teams and personnel at all levels - including initiators, decision makers, influencers, and intervention implementers.

In addition to coaches who are launching their own Corporate Coaching practices, this is an essential program for HR professionals, Training and Development Professionals, Managers, and Corporate Leaders who wish to implement internal policies and OD processes to guide their companies and people through ongoing change.

ICF Training Hours: 65

Duration: 25-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Executive Coach

Program Description

The Certified Executive Coach program has been designed for coaches who wish to coach managers, executives, and corporate leaders. The goal of this program is to cultivate a deep understanding of how the executive coaching process works as well as some of the challenges that come up in executive coaching conversations.

This program has been approved by the International Coaching Federation for 32 hours, and it comprises of 12 live, instructor-led, fully interactive virtual classes offered over zoom. These classes cover various aspects of executive coaching including, but not limited to Effective Collaboration, Performance Management, Upskilling, Conflict Management, Effective Collaboration, Developing Team Members, and many more.

This program has a very unique, hands-on, experiential structure. Classes are focused on active participation by students through real life Coaching Challenges and discussions of real life executive coaching situations.

ICF Training Hours: 32

Duration: 12-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Life Coach

Program Description:

The Certified life Coach program is an essential program for anyone considering coaching as a profession. The goal of this program is to create a deep understanding of the coaching process, along with how and why it is effective in catalyzing shifts in the mindset to create positive, sustainable transformation.

The training is based on the ICF’s core coaching competencies. It focuses on skills that lead to effective coaching conversations and that are required to build a successful coaching business. It evokes awareness about how identity, thoughts, and feelings determine mindset; and why a change in Think Feel Do impacts the achievement of goals though a change in this mindset.

This program is approved by the International Coaching Federation for 95 hours and comprises 24 live, instructor led, fully interactive virtual sessions offered over Zoom. These lectures cover all aspects of coaching – topics such as Human Emotions and the Brain, Coaching through Emotional Intelligence, The Belief System, Coaching Process and Structure, Deep Listening, Setting Worthy Goals, Asking Insightful Questions, Addressing Client Resistance, Coaching Groups, The Business of Coaching, and many more. These are complemented with a library of reading and reference material, coaching challenges based on various real-life coaching situations, extensive hands-on coaching practice, and assignments designed to trigger reflection on and mastery of coaching skills.

ICF Training Hours: 95

Duration: 24-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Class Schedule
ProgramStart DateClass TimesClass Schedule
Certified Life CoachMonday, Dec 11th9:30am ET
2:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 24-weeks
Certified Organizational Development CoachTuesday, Dec 12th9:30am ET
2:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 25-weeks
Certified Executive CoachWednesday, Dec 13th9:30am ET
2:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 12-weeks
Certified NLP CoachThursday, Dec 14th9:30am ET
2:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 25-weeks
Level 1/2 - ACC/PCC
Mentoring
Friday, March 22nd10:30am ET
2:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 1-hour
for 6-sessions PLUS 4 one-on-
one sessions with mentor