Editing Coaching (section)

===Life===
'''Life coaching''' is the process of helping people identify and achieve personal goals through developing skills and attitudes that lead to self-empowerment.<ref name="CompleteHandbook"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Cognitive Behavioural Coaching: Distinctive Features |series=Coaching distinctive features |last=Neenan |first=Michael |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Neenan |location=New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2018 |isbn=9781351188555 |oclc=1012616113 |doi=10.4324/9781351188555}}</ref> Life coaching generally deals with issues such as procrastination, fear of failure, relationships' issues, lack of confidence, work-life balance and career changes, and often occurs outside the workplace setting.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Anthony M. |date=2005 |chapter=What is evidence-based executive, workplace, and life coaching? |editor1-last=Cavanagh |editor1-first=Michael J. |editor2-last=Grant |editor2-first=Anthony M. |editor3-last=Kemp |editor3-first=Travis |title=Evidence-based Coaching, Vol. 1: Theory, Research and Practice from the Behavioural Sciences |location=Bowen Hills, Queensland |publisher=Australian Academic Press |pages=1–12 |isbn=9781875378579 |oclc=67766842}}</ref> Systematic academic psychological engagement with life coaching dates from the 1980s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Anthony M. |last2=Cavanagh |first2=Michael J. |chapter=Life Coaching |editor1-last=Cox |editor1-first=Elaine |editor2-last=Bachkirova |editor2-first=Tatiana |editor3-last=Clutterbuck |editor3-first=David |title=The Complete Handbook of Coaching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqpODwAAQBAJ |edition=3 |location=Los Angeles |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |date=2018 |isbn=9781526453112 |access-date=26 July 2020 |quote=The roots of contemporary life coaching appear to emerge from humanistic traditions of psychology (e.g. Maslow, 1954) and the practices of the Human Potential Movement (HPM) .... One of the key influences were the Erhard Seminars Training or EST programmes developed by Werner Erhard (Kirsch & Glass, 1977). These were marketed as personal transformation, and as such can be considered as drawing on the same social impetus that later gave rise to life coaching. ... psychology as an academic discipline and a helping profession tended to be associated, at least in the public's mind, with mental illness and the treatment of distress, rather than the promotion of well-being. Psychology did not truly engage with life coaching until the pioneers of commercial life coaching in the USA, such as Thomas Leonard, had raised the profile of life coaching and life coach training during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, at this time life coaching was still viewed by many as being faddish, theoretically incoherent, new-age and more of a network marketing opportunity than a solid theoretically-grounded helping modality. }}</ref> 

Skeptics have criticized life coaching's focus on self-improvement for its potential for commercializing friendships and other human relationships.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nisbet |first=Matthew C. |author-link=Matthew Nisbet |date=May–June 2020 |title=Tony Robbins Next Door: Personal Coaches Are The New High Priests Of Self-Help |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/05/tony-robbins-next-door-personal-coaches-are-the-new-high-priests-of-self-help/ |magazine=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |location=Amherst, New York |publisher=[[Center for Inquiry]] |volume=44 |issue=3 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201126164415/https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/05/letters-vol-44-no-3/ |archive-date=26 November 2020 |access-date=26 November 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

The business practices of the life coach industry have also stirred controversy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Bishop |first=Katie |date=2024-06-02 |title=They Spent Their Life Savings on Life Coaching |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/business/life-coach-debt-savings.html |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=The seedy underbelly of the life coaching industry |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240206-life-coaching-industry-scams |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>  Unlike a [[psychotherapist]], there is no required training, [[occupational licensing]], or regulatory oversight for life coaching.<ref name=":0" />  Anyone can claim to be a life coach, and anyone can start a business selling "certificates" to would-be life coaches.<ref name=":0" />  Most life coaches in the US find that there is relatively low demand for the services they offer, and it ends up being a part-time [[Side job|side hustle]] rather than a full career.<ref name=":0" />  Many pay for expensive classes in the hope that it will make them more marketable, leading critics to suggest that the most profitable area of the field is in training the would-be life coaches rather than being a life coach.<ref name=":0" />