When we’re struggling with our own issues, it can feel like no one understands exactly what we’re going through. Not even our best friends and family.
That’s when it’s time to speak to a trained professional and benefit from personal coaching.
There’s a wide range of life coaching services today that you can choose from from health and wellness all the way to business and relationships. Let’s explore what these coaching specialties are and how you can find the life coach that’s perfect for you and your needs.
What Are Life Coaching Services?
A life coach is a person who can help you progress in various aspects of your life. People who work with coaches can get support to improve their mindset, personal skills, relationships, career, and so on.
Typically, coaches receive some form of training or coaching themselves, to become life coaches. There isn’t one universally accepted certification or standard, but several certifications exist to train life coaches, including:
- Life Coach Institute
- Health Coach Institute
- Integrative Wellness Academy
- Internationally Accredited Training Center – NLP & Certified Life Coach Training
- International Coaching Federation
The right life coach can help you:
- Set and clarify the right goals for you
- Identify what’s holding you back from achieving those goals
- Create a plan of action to get through those obstacles
- Make the most of your unique skills
- Unlock your full potential
The best part about life coaching services is that there’s a perfect one for everyone. No matter where you are in life and where you’ve come from, there’s a coach out there who can help you overcome your current challenges.
8 Types of Life Coaching Services
The life coaching services you can get vary wildly. Not all coaches have the same coaching style or specialty.
Here are just eight of the most popular life coaching services you can find.
1. Relationship coaching
A relationship coach can help you improve your interpersonal communication skills and navigate all types of relationships in your life.
There’s a common misconception that you only need a relationship coach if you have unhealthy relationships. But the truth is, anyone can benefit from relationship coaching.
There are always ways you can improve yourself and make the most of the relationships with the people you love. This includes your significant other, your family members and relatives, your friends, your coworkers, your kids, and even yourself.
2. Financial coaching
A financial coach can guide you through anything money-related in your life. Whether you want to learn how to budget or need guidance to plan for retirement, financial coaching can help you get there.
A financial coach can also help you heal your mindset around money and learn how to make better financial decisions. We often get stuck in certain patterns when it comes to earning, managing, and investing our money. A financial coach will help you uncover your blind spots and show you the areas where you have the best chances of improving your finances. It’s literally the best investment you can make in yourself.
3. Business coaching
Business coaching is ideal for anyone who either has a business or wants to start their own business. Even business owners who already feel successful can learn a lot from business coaching services.
Business coaches provide a fresh perspective that can empower business owners to find new growth opportunities. Businesses have to establish themselves both physically as well as virtually by building their personal website, marketing their services, and establishing strong client relationships. These are all specialties that a business coach can help with.
4. Personal development coaching
Personal development coaching covers a wide range of topics. A personal development coach can guide you towards:
- Learning better time management
- Becoming more empathetic
- Stopping procrastination
- Overcoming fear
- Gaining confidence
- Letting go of the past
Just like relationship coaching, anyone can benefit from getting personal development coaching services. You don’t have to wait until you face a difficult period in your life to start growing in the direction you want to head towards.
You might come across personal development coaches by many different names including lifestyle coaches or empowerment coaches. No matter the title, you can ask these professionals directly to educate yourself about the specific approach they follow.
5. Health and wellness coaching
Health and wellness coaches focus on your physical, mental, and emotional health. They can guide you to:
- Implement healthier eating habits
- Develop and stick to an exercise regimen
- Improve your mindset related to your health
- Become more mindful of any unhealthy habits
- Overcome stress and anxiety
- Deal with chronic illnesses
There is nothing more important than our health, yet it’s the area of our lives we most tend to neglect. Whether you’re dealing with multiple chronic conditions or you simply want to improve your overall vitality, working with a health coach can help you achieve lasting change in this area of your life — and might even add years to it.
6. Recovery coaching
It can be difficult and extremely lonely to overcome addiction on your own. Support groups can help, but some people need a more individual approach.
Recovery coaching services are there to support people through overcoming addiction and trauma, as well as the life changes that come with it. They provide ongoing support on your recovery journey from addiction or substance abuse, and help you maintain sobriety.
Recovery coaches also put great emphasis on educating people on what led them to addiction in order to avoid it in the future. Part of their process is to prevent relapse and achieve a lasting change in their clients’ lives.
7. Career coaching
Unlike business coaches, career coaches focus on helping you advance your career – or completely change directions with it. They can also help you develop valuable skills like leadership so that you can have an edge in the market.
A career coach can support you with…
- Helping you discover what your career goals are
- Getting better at interviews
- Understanding the job market
- Creating an effective resume
- Transitioning to a new field at any age
Our careers aren’t just about making money. We spend the majority of our waking hours at work and it’s the single biggest factor that influences how fulfilled we are. A career coach can help you find the type of work that’s most meaningful to you and explore ways you can monetize it.
8. Transitional coaching
As the name suggests, transitional coaching is designed to help you get through big transitional periods. Some examples of transitions that you can get coached through include:
- Moving to a new city, state, or country
- Starting a new career or making an important career change
- Graduating college (or going back to college)
- Having your first child
- Divorce
- Older kids leaving the nest
- Losing a loved one
These are all changes that can be overwhelming to go through alone. A transition coach can help you put things in perspective and give you the necessary tools to navigate these changes. They can also provide emotional support and teach you how to incorporate self-care routines into your everyday life.
When you look back, you’ll see how these tools helped you process difficult emotions, make the right decisions, and get to a good place in life quicker than if you did it on your own. You’ll become a more resilient version of yourself ready to take on new challenges.
How to Know Which Life Coaching Services You Need
With all the types of life coaching services available, how do you know what kind of coach to seek out? You can ask yourself some questions to uncover where you might need the most help.
Here are some examples of such questions that you can use to reflect on this and decide which life coaching services you need.
- Transitional Coach: Are you facing any important transitions in your life, such as a new relationship, a divorce, a new career, or a cross-country move? Consider looking for a transitional coach.
- Career Coach: How fulfilling is your career? Do you feel like you are making the most of it? If you feel uncertain or unhappy about any aspect of your career, look for a career coach.
- Relationship Coach: Take a look at the relationships in your life. Do you feel like they bring you joy? Or do relationships with other people seem to drain you? If this is the case, a relationship coach could help you out.
- Business Coach: Do you have a business, and if so, is it where you want it to be? Do you feel stuck and unsure of how to move past your current stage? A business coach can help you overcome these hurdles and maximize your potential.
- Financial Coach: Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Do you always feel like your money is disappearing faster than you can count it? Look for a financial coach who can help you build a better relationship with money.
- Recovery Coach: Did you go through any trauma? Do you feel like this trauma is holding you back from living as your happiest self? Or do you struggle to overcome addiction? A recovery coach can help you deal with this very important chapter in your life.
- Health and Wellness Coach: Do you feel confident about your health and wellness habits? If not, a health and wellness coach can help you create sustainable change and reach your health goals.
- Personal Development Coach: If none of the above resonates with you but you still feel like you have the potential to improve, look for a personal development coach.
How to Find Life Coaching Services Online
Feeling overwhelmed with the task of choosing a life coach? There are plenty of ways you can find life coaches online!
Follow coaches on social media
One of the best ways to understand what a life coach can offer is to follow them on social media. For example, you can search on Instagram for the type of life coach you’re looking for, then read their bios and follow the ones you feel you’d get along with.
Over a few days, look at their stories and read what they post. Watch any videos they may publish. This will allow you to understand a bit more about their life coaching philosophy.
You can also get a feel for how they speak and how they show up for their audience.
Look at testimonials
Whether you find a life coach on social media, a directory, or anywhere else, it’s a good idea to check out their testimonials.
Some coaches use social media to share testimonials. You can also look at their website to see if they have testimonials for specific packages or programs.
What if you can’t find any testimonials? It doesn’t mean this life coach isn’t well-suited for you. You can always ask the coach directly for testimonials when reaching out to them.
Use a life coach directory
Another way to find a life coach is to search through life coach directories. These are databases that help connect you with coaches across the world.
The great thing about a directory is that it allows you to filter for the types of life coaching services you want. That makes the task a bit less daunting. Check out CoachCompare for a wide variety of online life coaches to hire.
Make the Most of Life Coaching Services
With all this info in hand, you’ll be able to make a confident decision when it comes to choosing the best life coaching services for your unique needs.
But what if you want to become a life coach yourself? Our coaching software, Paperbell, makes it easier than ever to handle payments, contracts, scheduling, and all the other admin details involved in setting up and running your own life coaching business. Create your free account today to get started!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2021 and has since been updated for accuracy.
