Life Coaching, Mental Health and Business
Posted on March 13, 2018 by Anupriya Kukrjea, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Is Life coaching unethical? Is it there just to stop people from getting real help?
I read a very generalized article/ mockery piece on life coaching recently which remarked that life coaches are “Skype cheerleaders” and that they “poach” clients/ people who actually need mental health support, that it’s a business run by selfish and greedy people who tell others what do for hundreds of dollars. It also mentioned how they create dependency so that the client keeps coming back to them.
I’ll now try to argue against all these claims.
1. Mental health issues– Clients who need mental health support are often told by their coaches to get it separately if they feel they’re not responding to the coaching, and if later in life they realize that they need an actual therapist, he/ she can. It’s up to the client to try out whatever works for him/her. Often people write on their blogs about how therapy didn’t work for them but life coaching did. There are also many therapists who later become life coaches who are perhaps equipped to work as both on the same client.
2. Businesses– Businesses are being looked at very negatively here. Not all businesses are unethical. In this case, if the client is not happy with the product being offered, he/she can easily go to a different seller. That’s the beauty of the freedom and choice. If the life coach is truly a horrible hoax whose making money off doing nothing, then he/she won’t (hopefully) even get any business because then his/her techniques won’t work! The client/customer holds all the power and that’s why not helpless.
3. Creating dependency– If the coach/therapist is actually helping, only then will the client want to come back to them in the future. If they’re not actually helping, then the client will automatically not want to come back to them. Also, here the idea of consulting someone for ideas/solutions is being looked at very negatively. If once in a few years, one wants to consult someone for advice, coaching, to enhance their skills or peace, how is that a bad thing?
