There’s a little-known secret about life coaching for women that is critically important if you want to get optimal results from any kind of coaching program.
The secret is that your life coaching program should be based on your own personal neuroscience (neurophysiology) as the foundation for the plan your life coach creates for you.
Neuroscience deals with the human mind and looks at the biological and chemical processes in the brain. It gives insights into how your brain functions as you interact with the world around you in every way imaginable:
- Your relationships
- How you learn
- How you deal with risk and stress
- Your happiness
- How you deal with change
- Your focus and motivation
- Personal harmony and peace
- Social interactions
- And much, much more.
This article is your quick start guide to life coaching for women, and we’re going to cover the most important things you need to know in a particular order from the beginning. We’ll go over the neuroscience aspect in more depth a little later.
The table of contents below will show you everything we’re going to look at. You can click on a link in the table of contents if you want to jump right to that specific point.
Let’s get started!
This post may contain some affiliate links. You can see my disclosure about affiliate links here.
What Is Life Coaching For Women?
Top athletes use coaches for a good reason: coaches help them perform to the best of their abilities.
Life coaching for women can do the same thing.
A life coach is someone who is trained to help you unlock all of your potential in certain areas of your life, whether it’s for personal growth, professional advancement or your spiritual well being.
Have you ever felt like you were just stuck where something in your life is concerned? You weren’t making any progress, or maybe you felt like you were going backwards.
Maybe an important relationship has become more difficult, you think work related issues could be hindering your advancement or you’ve been struggling with your purpose in life.
Working with a life coach is a great way to get “unstuck.” They can help you identify what needs to be done to reach your goals and provide support, resources, accountability and encouragement to help you reach those goals in a timely way.
The result can be a better version of the true you.
We all need a little help from time to time. Working with someone who can give you a new way of looking at your life, and new tools to help you move forward, can boost your progress in a big way by giving you clarity and direction.
Life coaching for women can empower you to do things you’ve never done before, and help you develop the right habits, best practices and the mindset that will lead to your success.
What A Life Coach Can Do For You
One of the main reasons women hire a life coach is to help them break through barriers and get through sticking points in their life.
Whether it’s a difficult relationship that has caused significant trauma, or frustration due to not advancing in a career, when you’re tired of not getting to where you want to be, a coach can help you move forward.
Later I’ll give you a list of some of the most popular kinds of coaching programs, but the main point here is that if you want help in a troublesome area in your life, chances are there’s a coach who can help you.
Here are some bullet points for things that women say about the ways that life coaching has been able to help them improve their lives.
- Get clarity when defining and choosing your options.
- Develop a step-by-step plan for reaching a goal.
- Find your purpose in life.
- Get access to more expertise (two heads are better than one).
- Shorten the timeline for achieving goals.
- Get encouragement and develop more self confidence.
- It’s a great source of support when starting and growing a business.
- It’s helpful when facing new challenges as a parent.
- It gives you someone to walk with you through difficult transitions in your life.
- Coaches can help you face and overcome debilitating fears that may be holding you back.
- Coaching gives you a source of wisdom when seeking life balance.
Life coaching for women is for you if you’re really serious about putting in the effort needed to making transformational changes in your life.
The Key To A Successful Life Coaching Experience (The Secret)
There’s one thing that many life coaches neglect in their programs, and it’s the most important first step towards your success.
That one thing is that they neglect to use neuroscience (brain science) and substitute their subjective opinions combined with perhaps a little intuition based on their personal coaching experience.
That’s a big mistake that can lead to a very disappointing, and unhelpful, coaching experience, which would just be a waste of your time and money.
Instead, all life coaching for women (and for anyone) should begin with your own personal neurophysiology that shows both you and your life coach how your brain functions where five major systems of your central nervous system are concerned.
A simple assessment that you can do online will reveal just how your brain functions where these five systems are concerned.
This assessment isn’t expensive, it doesn’t take much time, but it will make all the difference where your success is concerned.
All you need to do is to share your results with a life coach who understands how to implement them to help you get your optimal results.
Most life coaches begin by asking you about your vision and goals for your coaching experience, and then they’ll get more detailed.
Their goal is to get to know you better, what drives you, how you think, what you’re passionate about, what you’re trying to achieve and more. This helps them craft a plan for you with time frames and goals.
All of that has value, but if they don’t have your personal neurophysiology assessed they’re just guessing about too many critical things that factor into your ultimate success.
So, do you want to base your life coaching program on guesswork, or science? That’s a critical decision to make, so please think hard about that before going any further.
Life coaching for women based on your personal neurophysiology is a very advanced type of coaching… it’s life coaching for women 2.0.
For more information on the neuroscience approach you can go back to the home page here.
The Different Kinds Of Life Coaching Programs
As mentioned earlier, there’s a life coaching program to help you deal with just about any issue you can think of.
In fact, even if you don’t see a topic that you’re looking for in the list below, feel free to bring up different things that interest you when talking with a life coach. There’s a good chance that if they can’t help you, they know someone who can.
Here’s the list.
- Academics
- Accountability
- Business executive
- Business in general
- Career (at the beginning or in transition)
- Confidence / self esteem
- Dating / choosing a mate
- Divorce and post-breakup
- Emotions and mindset
- Family
- Financial
- Finding your passion or purpose
- Growing a business
- Holistic life
- Investing / retirement
- Leadership
- Life in general
- Marketing
- Mindfulness / mental focus
- Money mindset
- Muscle strength / fitness
- Neuro-linguistic programming
- Organization skills
- Parenting
- Peak performance
- Performance in a specific sport
- Personal empowerment
- Personal life issues
- Recovery (overcoming addictions)
- Relationships / marriage
- Sales
- Sexuality / intimacy
- Skills (personal / professional / life)
- Sports
- Starting a business
- Stress / anxiety
The Process For Life Coaching For Women
While every life coach is an individual with their own tweaks and nuances in their coaching process, generally speaking, the following process is fairly common in some form.
Step One
This first thing that most life coaches will do is set up a session so you can get to know each other.
Most of the time these initial meetings will last from 15 – 60 minutes depending on the kind of coaching you choose.
Most coaches do this first session for free, but others do charge, so make sure you get that clarified before you start.
In this session you will want to see if you and your coach are a good fit for working together, get an understanding of what the coaching program is all about and make a decision if this will be a good investment for you.
You may also be able to determine your overall goals for your program at this point.
You’ll likely be asked to fill out a questionnaire for the coach to review to help them get a deeper understanding of how they can help you.
Step Two
Before you sign on with a life coach you should get a coaching agreement that lays out all of the terms, conditions, expectations, responsibilities, coaching process, scheduling of your sessions (how many and how long each session will be), roles for each the coach and the client and anything else that’s applicable to working with them.
You should clearly understand everything you need to know at the end of this step. Don’t be afraid to ask any and all questions you may have.
Step Three
This is where the actual coaching starts.
Most sessions range from 30 to 60 minutes and are scheduled from once per week to maybe once per month.
As you go through the program you and your coach will follow the plan you’ve agreed on and the coach should ask questions and make evaluations to help you stay on track and hold you accountable for doing what you need to do to reach your goals.
It’s not uncommon to make adjustments to your plan as you go.
Final Step
At some point you will have your final session. This is where you and your coach will bring everything together and look at where you were at the beginning and where you are at the current time. You’ll also review all that you worked on during the process.
This is where you’ll discuss what you’ve learned during the program, talk about your future path and go over how you think you’ll achieve the results you want in the future.
After this you may also want to talk to your life coach about touching base from time to time to help you make any adjustments needed to your plan as you go forward. This can often be at an hourly rate.
The Cost Of Life Coaching For Women
The costs associated with life coaching can vary quite a bit.
There are different structures and different rates based on the expertise and experience of the life coach, the topic of coaching you receive (i.e. relationships, career, business, etc.) and the way your being coached (1 on 1, in a group).
Many life coaches focus on specific topics regarding their coaching and will have certain packaged programs with the costs outlined on their website.
Many times you can customize a program, but any changes to the cost should be made clear before you hire the coach.
By The Hour
Many life coaches charge between $75 and $200 an hour. However, some of the high-end coaches can go up to around $350 per hour.
For a program with 12 sessions lasting an hour each you could spend around $900 on the low end to maybe $4,200 on the higher end.
And there are coaching programs that go well above and beyond $5,000.
Something you have to keep in mind is that the hourly rate used as a basis for charging clients isn’t always a good indication for how much you’ll pay once all is said and done.
Some coaches on the high end have so much expertise and experience that they can help you get the results you want after four, or five hours, while others may need 12 – 15 hours to help you reach the same goals. So, not only could you pay more money, you’d also spend a lot more time in the program.
What you need to keep in mind is how well qualified the coach is and how much experience they have helping people with similar goals to yours. Some may be new to coaching but charge premium prices because they think they can get away with it.
Packaged Programs
As I mentioned, the costs for life coaching for women can vary greatly, so I’m going to give you an example I found online.
This person acted as a career coach, a personal coach and a coach that helps clients through transitions in life.
One program runs for two months at about $900 per month and four total sessions: around $1,800 total.
Their second program runs for three months at about $1,000 per month, which includes nine total sessions: around $3,000 total.
Another program runs for six months at about $800 per month and 12 sessions: around $4,800 total.
Group Coaching
Group coaching is an alternative that can save you a lot of money, but you won’t get the level of individualized coaching.
To give you an idea of the costs, expect to pay about 30% for group coaching of what you would pay for one-on-one coaching.
So, if a one-on-one program were to cost you $1,000, you could expect to pay about $300 for group coaching.
Group coaching can be done in person, but since the COVID 19 pandemic, you’ll be seeing more and more offerings online.
Online life coaching in a group is a great way to get excellent coaching and the most bang for your buck.
The group coaching option can be one that provides an awful lot of value regarding life coaching for women, so keep this one in mind if you’re on a budget.
Are Life Coaches Covered By Insurance?
Life coaching for women is normally NOT covered by insurance because it is not considered “treatment.” So, don’t expect your insurance company to help you out.
I have heard of some coaches who claim that you may be able to get insurance to pick up some of their costs if you are in therapy and their coaching can be tied to that therapy.
You may want to check this out with your insurance company, but be very careful and make sure you have a commitment from your insurance company before counting on any coverage from them.
Another angle you may want to investigate is the claim some coaches make that their clients have had success in getting their employer to cover the costs through employee continuing education programs.
What To Look For In A Life Coach
Finding a good life coach can be a life-changing collaboration that can help you reach your full potential.
Connecting with a substandard life coach – or one who is simply a bad fit for you – can be an awful experience that could waste a lot of your time and money.
Anyone can claim to be a life coach, and a lot of people without any real qualifications do. They can get away with it because there is no regulatory authority for this industry. And it’s not difficult to find coaches with some kind of certificate from an “institute” you’ve never heard of.
So, let’s cover some things that can help you find a great coach who can help you build the life of your dreams.
Questions To Ask A Life Coach
When interviewing a life coach, start with some of the basics.
What kind of training, or certification, do you have?
A good coach should be able to verify that they have considerable training and experience in a given field. That could include some of the following.
- Background in neuroscience (brain science)
- Colleges degrees
- Certification from a reputable life coaching training center
- Tools & certifications used with life coaching
- ACT World of Work Map
- DiSC Communication Tool
- Firo Business Assessment
- Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
- Holland Hexagon Career Interests
- Myers Briggs Personality Assessment
- Schein Career Anchors
- Strong Interest Inventory
- Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
- WorkPlace Big 5 Personality Profile
How many clients have you helped achieve their goals?
You need to find someone who has helped at least several hundred clients. Those with dozens, or even one or two hundred, may not have the experience you’re looking for (but they may be much cheaper to hire).
They should be able to supply you with dozens of testimonials, and you should read through all of them.
You can also ask for references. Top life coaches are bound to have authorities in this field recommend them. They may even have testimonials from some well-known people (like respected business people or celebrities) that add to their credibility.
What area(s) are your focus?
Make sure that the coaches you’re considering are qualified to help you in the specific area you’re interested in.
Some coaches will tell you that they can help you with anything. If they’ve coached more than 5,000 clients, and have been coaching for decades, they may be right. And a coach with that kind of experience should be placed high on your list.
If a candidate has only been coaching for a few years with less than 100 clients, you might want to look elsewhere.
The exception would be someone known to have great expertise in exactly what you’re looking for (maybe a successful small business owner) and specialized in that specific field for several years before they started coaching.
There may be other questions you want to ask, and don’t be shy… ask every relevant question you think is important.
After that conversation, you should have a good feel for if you think that coach will be a good fit for you.
If you have good chemistry with them then put them at the top of your list because chemistry will be very important.
How To Find A Qualified Life Coach
Referrals are always a great way to find anything you’re looking for, so that’s an excellent way to start your search.
However, if you don’t know anyone who has used a life coach then it’s time to go online and start searching there.
You may find online matching services that want to connect you with a life coach, but keep in mind that they may be getting compensated (which isn’t a bad thing), so just make sure that you do your homework and look at all of your options before making a decision.
Some people stick with local searches because they like face-to-face meetings with a coach. That may be a good option for you, but many areas may not have a good coach for what you’re looking for.
Online coaching is a great way to go because you have so many more options, and opportunities, to find the perfect coach for you.
So, go to your favorite search engine and start doing your research. Then begin interviewing life coaches until you find the one that will work best for you.
The Difference Between Life Coaching For Women And Therapy
People looking into life coaching for women sometimes wonder how it differs from therapy or counseling.
One good way to look at this is that, generally speaking, coaching focusses on the future and therapy is more about the past.
Coaching is more action oriented while therapy is more geared towards behavioral change and coping emotionally (and cognitively).
While coaching looks at ways for you to explore and take advantage of opportunities (in order to build a better future), therapy often looks at past life events that may be painful and looks for ways to heal and/or cope with those wounds.
A coach will work with you to help you find solutions; therapists work with you in order to diagnose and treat dysfunctional behaviors.
If you begin a life coaching program, and an unresolved personal issue surfaces and hinders your progress, then it may be a good idea to see a therapist to resolve that issue.
Sometimes unresolved traumas can stop a person from making the progress they seek, so therapy and life coaching can work together to help you get where you want to be.
There may be some overlap, depending on your coach and their qualifications for dealing with painful events that may be holding you back, but you should think of life coaching for women and therapy as two different disciplines.
Does Life Coaching For Women Work?
The short answer is: yes.
That’s assuming you can clearly define the results you’re looking for, and connect with the right life coach.
Also, as mentioned above in “The Key To A Successful Life Coaching Experience” section, if you incorporate the neuroscience element into your program, you’re going to dramatically improve the results of any life coaching program you complete.
Here are just some of the reasons why life coaching for women can work for you.
- Life coaching will help you to better understand yourself and build confidence.
- You’ll develop clear goals, and you’ll have someone to hold you accountable to reach them.
- Getting the results you want can be difficult, a life coach will give you the help and encouragement you need to keep you moving forward.
- You’ll become action oriented instead of someone who only dreams about how your life could improve.
If you do your part when working with your life coach, you’ll put yourself on a path to transform your life in any way you would like.
Conclusion – Life Coaching For Women
Now you have all you need to know about life coaching for women to begin your journey.
So, start your search and make sure you find a life coach that uses neuroscience (brain science) in order to help you get your best possible results in the shortest amount of time.
Remember that there are a lot of people that call themselves a life coach, and because there’s no regulatory agency to verify a coach’s credentials, you have to make sure they’re qualified by asking the right questions.
Find a coach that has experience coaching exactly what you’re looking for and make sure they have an option that’s within you’re budget whether it’s a low-cost digital product (ebook, online training, etc.), group sessions or one-on-one training.
Now it’s time to take action and make your dreams of a life-changing experience come true.
What do you think? Have I missed anything? If so, make a note of it in the comments area below.
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