LIFE COACH'S CORNER

By

Life Coach Jim Horend

Column Number 1

Don't expect to find this column on the sports page 'cause it's not about sports - it's about the fastest growing, newest entry into the field of the human services arena: Professional Life Coaching. Its birth and evolution occurred during the last half of the 20th century and has become the means by which well people seek and find support in making positive changes in their lives. Like other branches in the human services field, Professional Life Coaching has become divided into two major specialties: "business coaching" and "personal coaching". And those two have further branched into sub-specialties such as career coaching, success coaching, personal life coaching, relationship coaching, religious coaching, health coaching and personal development coaching, to name a few. And all evolved in order to better meet the needs of people wanting to bring about very specific changes in their lives.

As a Life Coach, my role is that of a change agent helping people define their personal or professional goals and to achieve them faster and more readily than they could or would on their own. I work primarily with well individuals; with well people. I say "well" as opposed to un-well because coaching is not therapy nor should it be confused with those specialties that work to help people get well. I like to view the comparison between what coaches set out to do and what therapists attempt to do this way: on a scale of -10 to +10, with 0 being "normal", therapists usually work with people falling somewhere on the minus scale and attempt to help them regain or gain "normalcy" - get back to zero or on the plus side. Coaches, on the other hand, usually work to help people already at zero or on the plus side of the scale to move farther to the right towards becoming a +10.

If you have a question you would like me to address in a future column or want more information right now, please use the form on the Contact Us page of this web site. Thank you. Until then: Be positive, Act positively, React positively and Think positively,  "B A R T".