Life Coaches and Therapists share a similar goal: to help clients lead a healthy and meaningful life.
As a Therapist, depending on your area of expertise, you’re qualified to work with people who are suffering from mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder or depression, or people experiencing an emotional crisis or life-threatening situation, like self-harm (ex: cutting) or suicidal ideation.
As a Life Coach, you typically don’t work with people who are experiencing severe distress. You work with people who are “mostly healthy and doing okay, but still struggling.” For instance, your client might be a busy working parent who is stressed out and exhausted and can’t figure out why she hates her job. She’s not in immediate peril, but she’s not exactly thriving either.
As a Life Coach, you don’t diagnose or treat illnesses. You also don’t “give advice” or “tell your client what to do next.” You help your client discover “the next steps” on their own, empowering them to accomplish goals and succeed even when you’re not around.
The hallmark of a great Life Coach is…that your client doesn’t need you anymore, because they’ve learned how to self-coach themselves.
Just like attorneys and physicians need to complete ongoing education to stay sharp, it’s a good idea for Life Coaches to do the same.
Our six month program is excellent for people who’ve never studied coaching before, and it’s equally excellent for seasoned coaches who want to hone their skills.
With our program, you’ll identify some of your uncovered spots, fill in your knowledge gaps, and bring your skills to a new level. You’ll also cover material on diversity, equity, inclusion, gender issues, racism, and LGBTQI issues—topics that probably weren’t covered (or, weren’t covered very thoroughly) by your original program.
In addition, we also offer two advanced training program for individuals currently certified as life coaches:
People are drawn to our program for all kinds of reasons.
Some want to start a whole new career.
Some want to gain skills that they can incorporate into their existing career.
Some are looking for greater purpose and meaning in life—and love the idea of learning how to coach others.
And some aren’t really sure why they feel called to enroll—it’s just a quiet intuitive voice saying, “You need to this program,” a voice that doesn’t make any logical sense at first, but the reasons become clear later on.
Whatever is calling you to study Life Coaching, we welcome you, and we’d love to have you in our program!
Even if you ultimately decide that you don’t want to work with paying clients, the skills you gain will hugely transform your own life, and make you an even better spouse, parent, community leader, and human being.
At ULCT, we do not require that you have a coaching certification to enroll in our Certified Life Coach program.
But if you have a coaching certification, we also welcome you into our program. Perhaps you want to fill the gaps in your knowledge, study with leading experts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, learn how to work with diverse clients effectively, or gain new tools and skills. All excellent reasons to enroll in ULCT.
We’ve put together this helpful guide outlining 23 popular life coaching niches. This guide will help you gain clarity on your niche and the type of clients you want to serve, both critical factors to your future success.
