Life coaching

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching

What it is

Life coaching is not a single therapy or manualised protocol. It is a field of practice: a collaborative, goal-focused conversation with a well-functioning adult about their personal life (purpose, values, relationships, career, transitions, wellbeing, balance), as distinct from executive or…

Format

• Life coaching has no fixed session count in the sources cited. The structure below is the engagement arc implied by ICF Competencies 3 and 8 and the Global Code (beginnings, ongoing work, endings), with GROW as the within-session sequence. Where I give typical numbers they are and.
• Format: one short exploratory conversation (: commonly 20–30 minutes, free or low-cost).

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: the ICF Core Competency Model (2019 text, with the 2025 revisions noted) as the professional standard for any life-coaching session; the GROW model (Whitmore, Coaching for Performance, 1992; as presented by Performance Consultants) as the session sequence; the Co-Active model (Whitworth, Kimsey-House, Kimsey-House & Sandahl, Co-Active Coaching, 1st ed. 1998, 4th ed. 2018; Co-Active Training…
• For a psychotherapist. Coaching bodies define coaching as not counselling, psychotherapy or medical intervention (EMCC/AC Global Code). If you offer life coaching, you are changing role, contract and focus, not just technique; Sections 2, 4.1 and 5 deal with how to keep that boundary.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• "shoulds" mistaken for values.
• summaries that slip in your interpretation.
• visions that are escapist rather than motivating.
• extended exploration of origins (therapy territory).
• reframes offered by you that minimise real constraints.

Problems the guide addresses

• The coaching–psychotherapy boundary, as the bodies publish it
• Concrete signs a coachee needs referral to clinical care
• Stuck coachee (no movement over several sessions)
• "Yes, but" and resistance
• Non-completion of actions
• Overwhelm, tearfulness or dissociation in session
• Ruptures (coachee feels judged, pushed or misunderstood)
• Dependency
• Coachee declines referral
• Coachee is already in therapy

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.