If you're passionate about helping others improve their lives, life coaching can be an ideal career. Life coaching, unlike other careers, doesn't require a university degree. Life coaching certifications take a few days to two years and cost between $1,000 and $12,000.
Whether you want to enter coaching as your first career or make a career change later in life, these five programs provide the skills and accreditation to succeed as a life coach. Taking into account training time, courses, and accreditation, here's the five best life coaching programs to launch your coaching career.
5 Best Life Coach Programs
How to Choose the Right Life Coach Program
When you're looking for the right life coaching program, you'll want a program that prepares you with the comprehensive skills and training to become a successful life coach. This includes extensive coaching skills and business and marketing instruction. Look for:
- Qualified instructors
Professional instructors with extensive real-life coaching experience are essential for a good life coaching program. Select a program with instructors whose skills and experience match your coaching goals.
- Supervised coaching hours
Does the program offer mentorship in coaching so you can learn and improve your technique? How much personalized instruction will you receive?
- Business coaching services
If you plan to start your own coaching company, you'll need the business skills and marketing objectives to successfully build and grow your business. The best life coaching programs provide you with the skills to successfully manage the business while coaching.
- Short program
We choose life coaching programs that can be completed in three days to one year. You will learn while coaching and can continue to earn additional certifications while starting your life coaching business.
How to Become a Life Coach
Becoming a life coach requires only a few steps:
Complete one of the IPC certifications above.
Select your niche or area of coaching.
Set up your business structure and register your business.
Purchase insurance as a life coach.
Begin offering life coaching, or work in collaboration with another life coach.
Promote your services online through social media, local newspapers, and message boards.
Follow-up with clients and offer exceptional service to build your reputation as a life coach.
With these steps, you can start offering life coaching services online. As your business grows, you can consider an office space and collaborate with other coaches for a shared coaching service, such as business, health, and life coaching together.
Other Ways to Become a Life Coach
There is no specific degree or education required to become a life coach. While you can become a life coach without an IPC certification, the certification offers valuable education and better services to your clients.
Other pathways to become a life coach include a degree in psychology, education, wellness, or business. An associate, bachelor's, or master's degree in any of these fields, combined with specific training courses for greater learning, can be a practical path to becoming a life coach.
For those enthusiastic about higher education, a combination of degrees in psychology, education, and business can provide the broad base for successful coaching without the IPC certification.
