Can a life coach help you if they are not a qualified career coach?

According to Michael Cavanagh, clinical psychologist, executive coach and deputy director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney, life is highly individualised. Social networks aren’t so strong as they used to be. Plus, your career is your responsibility and not that of your employer any more. Life coaches are springing up to attempt to address this life need.

However, as Michael Cavanagh stresses regarding life coaching, life and work come hand in hand, that “the distinction between business and life is spurious; what happens in our lives impacts our work and vice versa”.

So career coaching (even at retirement age, with respect to perhaps volunteer or  part-time work) is preferable to ‘life coaching’. A career coach is your best life coach.  This closely relates to the work of the career development theorist, L Sunny Hansen, author of Integrative Life Planning, who stresses that our life is akin to a patchwork quilt. It isn’t possible to separate work and other commitments, values, responsibilities etc.

Cavanagh goes on to say, “there are concerns…particularly in unregulated industries”. He states that it’s certainly not “evidence based” work if a life coach is simply an individual who has “been through and recovered from a bad divorce”, an example cited by ABC Radio presenter, Amanda Smith, and based on what can be found among Youtube videos.

Life Coaching is an “unregulated industry” which is increasing in size. Also, the use of technology is contributing to the rise of numbers of life coaches – As Smith says, “there’s lots on Youtube”. The Life Coach interviewed on Life Matters stressed the importance of carrying out your own due diligence in making good choices in finding a life coach.

This is also the case with careers coaches. There are some who do operate without demonstrating the required level of competence, according to the quality framework for the industry. In the case of careers coaches this is the Australian Blueprint for Career Development. CICA standards are underpinned by the Government’s careers blueprint.

So a career coach is your best life coach. Career coaching pays attention to your geography, your family situation, your present work situation. In my practice I use evidence-based professional counselling skills and tools to ensure that my client has the appropriate support. If you refer to my website and Linkedin profile you will also see that my education and training is in counselling, in particular adolescent counselling . My post-graduate qualification in career development is underpinned by sound psychological research.

So please contact me to see why a career coach is your best life coach. Find out from me how a professional qualified career coach can meet your needs when looking to move from what you’re doing now to what you would like to be doing tomorrow, and how that fits with your life-stage, mobility, physical well-being, finances and commitments.

Email [email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenyourcareercoach/