Mental health worker to Life coach - Advice needed!

[Pocket Version]

Having been a mental health support worker for over 10 years, I want to make the transition to Life Coach. Now given that I have years of professional work experience and regular training, how do I get accredited? Can I get accredited with experience alone or do I have to "retrain"?

Any advice will be very welcome

[David100351]

In the UK, "life coach" is not a reserved title: anyone can use it, so there are no necessary steps to take to be able to call yourself a life coach.

Also, there is not one accepted professional organisation for life-coaches at present, although the BACP is doing what it can to get involved.

However my own experience from working across the mental health, counselling/psychotherapy, and life coach spectrum, makes me think that the basic difference between the two fields of Mental Health on the one hand, and Life Coaching on the other, is one of degree.

A life coach will be about promoting excellence in already well functioning individuals, who are capable of working and living their lives already with no professional input, albeit at less than optimal functioning.

Whereas a mental health worker will be doing the vital job of supporting poorly functioning people get from A to B while doing the minimum amount of damage to themselves and those they come into contact with.

So, a different client group, largely. But there will be transferable skills. For instance, a lot of life coaching methods will look very familiar indeed to a mental health worker trained in CBT, for instance.

So, registration: I would choose the organisation you wish to register with. As I'm BACP accredited I've never looked further than that. Then I would look at the steps you need to take to become a member of that organisation, which will likely include taking an associated course. I hope you will get lots of advice on which organisations are worth joining, TBH: I don't think BACP is the best one, as they try and be both regulator and support to their members, which is a fudge.

Hope this helps!
Lastly: Get your own life coaching!

[Step Confident]

If you are looking for accreditation you might want to consider Life Planning. Check out the Kinder Institute of Life Planning. I have just achieved accreditation after 18 months of work.

Life Planning looks forward with the client. It helps them to identify what would be the most authentic and meaningful life for them. It helps the client to step into this life, and deals with obstacles that might be preventing them from achieving their goals. Often money is the obstacle. So life planning combines meaningful living with the clients available resources.

Life Planning requires time and effort. Financial planning is not the end, but only the means to the end. It's tragic when some people have spent years climbing their ladder, only to find that it's leaning against the wrong wall! Time must be given to working out what you want out of life, and only then can financial planning really help you and give you real value.
In the grand scheme of things, money's not that important. It's significant, only to the extent that it allows you to enjoy what is important to you. And not worrying about your finances is critical to having a life that excites you, nurtures those you love, and fulfils your highest aspirations.

[David100351]

Originally Posted by Step Confident

Life Planning looks forward with the client. It helps them to identify what would be the most authentic and meaningful life for them. It helps the client to step into this life, and deals with obstacles that might be preventing them from achieving their goals. Often money is the obstacle. So life planning combines meaningful living with the clients available resources.

[It's tragic when some people have spent years climbing their ladder, only to find that it's leaning against the wrong wall!

I think this approach sounds very useful indeed. Money is often seen as an obstacle to the client living a meaningful life (in their terms) and an approach which meets this fear head on is to be recommended.

Ram Dass used to say he preferred working with rich people: he found that rich people already knew that money alone wasn't going to create happiness, so they didn't need to waste too much time on that.

Mind you, I live quite close to Chorley, and we all round here think they've all got plenty of readies there! They have a Booths and everything.

[Step Confident]

Although many of us may assume that issues of money and spirit are seperate, incompatible questions, George Kinder, author of The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, shows us that we must explore them together to attain true, peace, freedom and security in our lives. Most of all I focus on freedom. Freedom each one of us could possibly have to live an authentic life purposefully and mindfully. Making decisions daily about what does and what does not serve a useful purpose for us. Money helps!

I agree. The most receptive clients are those who to outsiders at least may look as though they are financially sorted. The process here is to sort their lives first, and re-plan their money around that.

Those who are less sorted financially, as you say, may believe that there lies the solution to their future hapiness. And, there are a few of those kind of clients too in Chorley!!

Thanks again for your thoughts,

Steve