Life Coach / Mentoring

The term 'life coach' came into existence in the last decade when it became professionally recognised that having a mentor could more effectively bridge the gap between a persons present self-worth, achievements, and personal goals, and what they wanted to become in the future.

It was deduced that the expertise of a life coach in the form of empathy, understanding, support, and experience would greatly reduce the amount of time, money, energy required in this process of self transformation. Often repetitive, self-defeating, patterns would become a vicious circle making the ability to make these life changes seem inordinately difficult to break out of. The spin off from one to one life coaching is enhanced self-esteem, superior problem solving, greater personal reality and fulfilment, and the ability to achieve clients personal life goals.

To be able to live authentically as the life inside you longs to, and to be the best you can potentially be, is the purpose of the life coach initiative.

Life Coaching using CBT methods

CBT works by first assessing the areas of clients life they want to change. A problem list is drawn up with 5-6 problems they want to overcome with their life coach. A series of diagnostic tests are used to discover personality type (Myers-Briggs occupational test, Type A/B personality test, self esteem questionnaire). A stress map is used to discover anxiety/depression areas and clients internal and external stressors.

An individualised programme is developed collaborated between client/life coach covering the specific problem areas revealed by the diagnostic criteria, in the first session. Programmes can include:-

1. Stress reduction - physiology of stress. Identifying physiological arousal levels. Relaxation techniques, visualisation, breathing techniques, lifestyle issues (nutrition, exercise). Reducing by at least 25% the following variables:

• time urgency
• multi-tasking
• perfectionism
• irritability and hostility
• poor self-esteem
• left vs right brain activity
• achievement striving.

2. Increased self-worth using cognitive behavioural therapeutic techniques to challenge critical, punishing, guilt, and condemnatory thinking by learning to identify faulty thinking patterns and substituting more positive and balanced alternatives. This involves work at home to augment what is learned in the session These include bibliotherapy (reading materials, pleasure predicting activities, behavioural experiments, and a daily activity schedule recording thoughts, feelings and behaviours - and their CBT alternatives.

3. The third part of the life coach programme greatly reduces the possibility of relapse by looking at the deeper underlying core beliefs formed in the first fifteen years ("I'm never good enough", "I'm a failure", I'm not lovable" etc.) which act as absolutes or prejudices in the clients lives, and keep them from achieving their personal life goals. Core belief work modifies these deeply held beliefs using both Padesky and Greenbergers - Mind over Mood and Geoffrey Youngs Reinventing your Life techniques to achieve the long term objectives of the inner transformation of meaning and enhanced personal fulfilment.

The personal life coach approach has had an unprecedented success rate over the last decade and uses state of the art CBT techniques to achieve these goals.

There are four areas which clients come to a life coach to resolve:-

1. Personal - Parenting which gave lovability/worth mainly associated with achievement, produces low self esteem, fear of failure, and never feeling good enough.

2. Professional - The workplace environment gives low job satisfaction, no praise, approval, validation. Employees feel powerless to make decisions and have little responsibility. There is also either ambiguity of role or job insecurity.

3. Societal - A national character of self effacement and emotional inhibition where affection, praise, and demonstrations of affection are perceived as exhibitionistic and grandiose.

4. Cultural - Where stereotypes of body image in the media presenting virtual unattainable standards are used as the norm, and correlate with distorted values in beauty, success and popularity producing low self worth, inferiority, and distorted body image.

 

The fee for this service is £80 per 50 minute session and is available at the 68 Lombard Street office on weekday evenings and Saturdays. Sessions can be arranged through either Centre for CBT office.