Are you curious about life coaching but not quite sure what it really does or how it works?
I think this is a really reasonable question.
On this page I will explain a bit about what it is actually like to work with me as your life coach for 6 weeks.
I know that this is a question that I had when I was thinking about first hiring a coach.
The easiest way to get started seems like it should be with a single session.
That does seem like it makes sense. It seems like getting a single taste of ice cream before you commit to a whole cone.
Not all coaches offer a single session option.
In many cases, if they do offer a single session may actually be a consultation to explain how the coaching works. This is what I do. My first session is a get to know you session where I share a little bit of coaching along with information about my coaching programs.
In one session you will get to meet me and get a feel for my communication style.
In a single session you can expect to work on a single issue.
Many times clients experience a sense of awareness or a different perspective about an issue in their life after just one session.
But…
But …
To go deep and experience more profound change in your life and how you feel usually takes a few weeks.
A lot of coaches describe this as the time it takes to peel the onion. Peeling an onion is a weird metaphor for me because there’s nothing yummy in the middle of the onion. There are layers but there’s no bonus in the middle.
In life coaching when we peel back the layers we get to the good stuff inside. The outer layer is often something that is covering up the inner layer which needs some attention but you have to go through the layers to get to the good stuff.
Sometimes it takes a session or two before there is enough trust to get to the important stuff. This is why many coaches encourage their clients to sign up for more than one session.
What happens in Six Weeks of life coaching?
Here’s the nitty gritty.
This six week package is an entry level package of 6-weekly sessions. Each week we will connect 1-1 for an hour.
Some people come to coaching with a topic that they know they want to work on directly.
Other people have a general sense of dissatisfaction or unhappiness or a feeling that life should be better but they aren’t sure exactly where that is coming from.
Just to get nuts and bolts for a second is that one reason I started offering 6 week packages is simply so that a client could “lock in” that time slot for 6 weeks in a row.
This is 1-1 Coaching
We work on what is going on in your life. Each coaching experience with me will be distinctly different.
My specialty in coaching is working with adults in blended families.
I understand that you want to know how coaching is going to get you from where you are to where you want to be.
There are common elements that tend to come up in a 6-week coaching program.
What happens in an hour of coaching?
Within 60 minutes there is some time to connect and settle in at the beginning.
Coaching is a conversation. We talk. The coach asks questions.
The technical term for all this talking is narrative. My style of coaching is inspired by narrative therapy. I am not a therapist I am a coach but this is where the technique got it’s start.
Coaching is very much directed by you – the client. I will every once in a while make a suggestion or two but 99.999999% of the time you are calling the shots. We talk about your life. We talk about what’s bugging you. We talk about what you want and how you want to make that happen.
Tools you can use yourself
Each week we will also explore different self-coaching tools. These are tools that you can use, yourself to make forward progress on whatever is going on in your life in-between our 1-1 sessions.
The techniques will vary from client to client but they may include journaling, meditation or mindfulness exercises, exercises to explore the mind body connection, identifying and revising old stories in our minds and other techniques like thought work.
What result can you expect in 6 weeks?
It is challenging to describe what you can expect without knowing what your situation is.
Within 6 weeks you will achieve clarity on how life coaching works and you will get a sense of the benefits that can come from having a life coach in your corner.
One of the big differences between a single session and 6 sessions is that in 6 sessions you will get to know the coach pretty well and establish a sense of trust with that person. It is easier to connect with a person you trust on things that feel important or perhaps a little bit personal.
I can share some actual results from clients. Just keep in mind that I can’t guarantee what your exact experience will be.
Client Case Study
My client Sarah started with the goal to work on being more accountable to daily fitness activity. But within 6 weeks we talked about many things in her life she worked through a big block and landed a dream job.
That was definitely an unexpected result. Seriously, like many diet programs say in their ads these results may not be typical but having seen it myself … honestly, fantastic results.
Client Case Study
My client John felt that he was being called to share his personal experiences and life journey with others in a similar spot. He reached out to work on accountability with taking action to build this side business.
He felt stuck.
Over seven weeks we worked through some of the stories he was holding onto in his life.
He described it as after each session he felt like pockets of his mind were opened up that he didn’t even know were there.
At the end of our sessions he had filed paperwork to set up his new business and he had a vision for how it would fit into his life.
Why these different topics and tools?
As a coach the reason I choose to direct the topics a little bit is that experience has taught me that sometimes what we think is the issue is actually coming from another spot in our life. In sport we would call that compensation. One muscle is weak so another muscle overcompensates. An example of this in life coaching is when a client will start coaching with the burning desire to work on career counseling but after some discussions discover that this is really being driven by a relationship issue that they have been avoiding.
Over six weeks and focusing on the different areas of life during that time you may have a sense of what things are going well and what things you may want to apply a deeper focus on in the future.
I teach a variety of tools because different tools work for different people. Sometimes you might find a coach who exclusively works with one tool and that can be super helpful — if you vibe with that method.
OMG coaching is so expensive
The financial and time investment in coaching can sometimes seem overwhelming.
You may have questions like: why would you need or want to be coached for 6 months or a year.
Or you may just be thinking … holy crap coaching is super expensive, no way am I doing this.
My personal attitude towards coaching has always been that it should be the easiest bill you ever pay.
You should only make the investment if you feel very confident that it’s going to be worth each and every penny.
What can you expect after 6 weeks of coaching.
After 6 weeks you will have the knowledge and information to decide for yourself about whether life coaching is helpful to you. It will be very clear to you whether you feel better and if it’s helping you to make progress toward your personal goals.
6 weeks is enough time that you should be able to look back and reflect on how you were feeling before you started and see some changes in your life. If you start a fitness routine and you work on it for 6 weeks you should see change. If you make a goal to read 10 pages a day for 6 weeks at the end you will have finished reading a few books.
My point is that in 6 weeks you should be able to see the beginning of results.
You are not probably going to reinvent your whole current situation in 6 weeks.
Schedule a call to kick the tires
This is the next step.
All coaching relationships start with a call (or a zoom) Click the link to set up a quick call with me to see what I’m really like and ask any questions you have.