What is a Life Coach?

You have probably seen or heard of the latest self-help trend "experts" in America, called Life Coaches. Some are present on reality television, some offer ads on TV or on the radio, and many claim to offer the ability to help you organize and improve your life. Life Coaches report that they are not therapists, psychological experts or even consultants. But what exactly is a life coach? Could you benefit from one?

History
Life coaching reports that it has history in the psychodynamic/therapy movement. The actual history however is hard to find, and pinning a year or a date on when life coaching actually started is difficult. The person most often reported as the one who brought life coaching to the forefront is Thomas Leonard. Working as an accountant in the 1980's, he felt that he saw a need for clients that was not being met by his accounting services alone, including life planning and organization. Thomas created checklists and assessment tools to assist clients in reaching goals. Interestingly enough, Leonards mother is a psychologist. Others point to Stephan Covey and his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"

Credentials and Training
One of the major pitfalls and complaints about life coaching is that there is no licensing required to call yourself a life coach, compared to mandatory regulations for all mental health workers, doctors, teachers etc. No education is required, nor is any specific training or theory system, nor is there any professional ethics or guidelines.. The worst, and probably the scariest part, is that there is no regulatory committee. In easy terms, that means nobody is watching the behavior of these "coaches", nor is anyone held to a standard if you feel they have treated you unethically. Monetarily, you have little to no recourse to reclaim any money or payments made to these "coaches".