Is Life Coaching a Scam?

This has been around along time. 50 years ago my husband had records he bought that were suppose to motivate you and make you a winner. He threw them out. There was always something else they wanted you to buy.

One word: yes

YES

Life coaching and therapy are not the same by no means. I have never given advice on anything that seems to develop layers. I always advice a therapist or psychologist depending on the nature of the issue in question. As a certified life coach, I only deal with strategy, and building goals that would have a client stuck, in terms of their work and life goals. Anyone who goes to a life coach should do the research of knowing the background of a coach to know the extent of their scope and work. I get a lot of clients that think they need coaching that really need therapy, and I advise them to seek a therapist or psychologist, because they are educated in dealing with layers and damaging behavior and how to process information and how to overcome those hurtles. It's really important to know the difference, to understand the help that one needs. I also don't like that people can just rise from the dust and call themselves a coach, I know a few coaches that are not certified life coach or has no training and I often worry about the outcomes of their session, as well as their frame work.

First criticism there’s no science to be in a psychiatrist or psychologist. Quit using the word science use the word it’s smart. I’ve staged psychology too when you criticize coaching your generalizing that’s the problem you have coaching very good. He’s got a PhD in psychology so put running it down you ran down Eckhart and Swanbecause it’s not science, you’re an analytical psychologist got away from that and I think it’s all rubbish. It’s not science quit calling at science I’m gonna block you. I’ve had enough of you.

No kidding. Our company offered a life coach for free on the first session. I tried it. I found out that her hour session is MORE expensive than the professional marriage counselor I've been to.

Her licensing? Nothing! I was like...damn...you really out here just bullshitting people?

My analysis of that hour talk was a few things: for one, she didn't actually offer anything, she just let the person talk about themselves. Her idea was to help you set a goal, and keep you accountable by checking in twice a week. Second, there is no confidentially legally binding for the people she works for. In other words, she could tattle on people and not have any legal trouble that has good standing.

In other words: renting a friend that may or may not potentially fuck you over, blackmail, etc. There is great risk as once people get talking, they spill the beans!

A trained Transformational life coach here. I’m also a certified alcohol and drug counselor and currently an MSW student who will eventually work towards an LCSW.

Yes, the life coaching philosophy differs from “mainstream” therapeutic approaches, in that life coaching de-emphasizes on focusing one’s past (not a complete abandonment) but places great emphasis on reaching their goals. It’s all about purpose. Without a purpose-driven and personal responsibility perspective then life coaching is not for that particular client. Life coaching isn’t too concern with healing past trauma because it using the success (or results) of reaching your goals by helping you get unstuck through gaining clarity into your true intentions. Life coaching is future-based. I like life coaching and its philosophy has helped me a great deal through my very difficult life circumstances. I have accomplished things that few who are in similar situations as I accomplished, I say that with humility and only to make a point. The weakness of life coaching is that it is not effective for those whose locus of control is strongly dependent on external environment.

In counseling, there is a focus on trauma inform, cultural sensitivity, and seeing clients behavior as a result of environmental causal factors a stark contrast from life coaching. There’s a focus on the client’s past, validating feelings, and healing. There is more I can say on the difference between the two but as someone who has experienced in coaching and is also educated/ trained in the mental health health field I believe I can speak to the whether or not is coaching is a sham. The answer is “no” but like with all professionals out there, there good ones and then there are not-so-good ones to the really bad ones.

Another thing I like to add is that life coaches (good ones at least) would not accept clients who have severe mental health issues such as schizophrenia, Bipolar, etc. coaches would screen their clients. So like if a client has mild to moderate depression and anxiety then it could work but for severe depression and anxiety due to some mental health disorder then the coach would not take them on as clients but rather suggest they go see a therapist instead. But like with even therapists not every client is going to be receptive to that therapist therapeutic approach, and same goes for these coaches. Why am I getting my Masters degree and wanting to get licensed as an LCSW you be wondering? Well, I realized despite my accomplishments and overcoming many adversities I’m not happy and I’m still not healed or healed enough no matter the how many goals I reached or will reach. So that is where coaching falls short for me. It’s great to power you through from point A to point B but after that if your success is not enough to heal you then therapy should be supplemented. That has been my journey.

I am currently almost getting out of grad school with a degree in psychotherapy to work as a therapist (not clinical) and the amount of work we have done along with around 300 hours of supervised work is insane. If a life coach has a similar training and is ethical I have no issues but if it's easy then why do we exist?

My soon to be exwife is training to be a life coach. The problem is that her life has been a complete mess. She is a covert narcissist and used me as an emotional punching bag. Her who life has revolved around her mental health and I dont think she is fit to give advise on life. Its been the roughest ten years of my life but at least i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

A coach is someone that helps an individual realize their potential. Think about a football coach...he teaches fundamentals of the game, leads practice and provides feedback on performance designed to help the athlete improve. They also know when to refer the person to a specialist...a coach doesn't treat an injury, they let the team doctor do that. A true life coach - or business coach, executive coach, relationship coach - is much like that football coach. They help the individual improve their performance through observation and feedback. If it is determined the person has deep issues (mental perhaps) they should refer them to the specialist designed to treat that. A bonafide coach would not try to do it themselves. I am a business manager and I coach my teams every day to improve performance. I could also be a consultant/coach to help others in my industry obtain their goals and get paid to do so. It is not a scam, but unfortunately, some unscrupulous individuals have taken advantage of people, leading to skepticism about the industry as a whole.

Question for you Dr. Grande. I was a certified coach and have my MA in Mental Health counseling. I am in my 50's and considering whether I want to become recertified, and also whether or not to get my LPCC, have about half more time to get it. In your eyes, is it even worth it to recert in your 50's? I am also an artist and find joy painting and working with animals. I like helping other through art and animals. I pursued the art therapy program at Adler on the LPCC track. Just wondering what your thoughts are about this. I need to make a decision soon. TYIA. I would pay you for a consult about this topic. H.

Life Coaching can be detrimental when they give advice to a certain aspect and generalize it and expect some people will resonate with it.

So I watch Ll your videos and value your opinion, and while I understand your theory on how anyone can become a life coach, which is bad, I don't like what you say about counselors being "more/better trained"! I am a 43 year old male (not a life coach) that grew up with a severely narcissistic father and a borderline and bipolar mother who was an alcoholic. Their divorce at age 12 was extremely violent. Between my chronic lume disease startingvat age 10, my HLAB-27 and my childhood trauma, it molded my existence into a man with severe emotional and physical issues. Bipolar diagnoses at age 25, 2 decades of daily suicidal thoughts culminating to a suicide attempt on my 31rst birthday, severe central nervous system damage to which I had MS and ALS diagnoses is just a brief summary of my tortured existence. At age 37 my wife became pregnant and I knew I needed to change the generational trauma for my soon to be son. I had been to many therapist and on psych meds for 12 years at that point. I found psychotherapy and devoted 2-3 times a week to it. I have pushed every ounce of my soul to better his outcome, as does my wife as well. Proudly at age 43, I am completely off my psych meds, my marriage is fantastic, my physical ailments are better but unfortunately some stuff is permanent after 4 decades of trapped trauma. I am far from "done" and honestly never will be, but I have concurred things I never thought I would. That being said, as I laid in the hospital bed on my 31rst birthday, I realized how flawed the entire psych medical community was as a person on suicide watch sat reading a book in my room, 2 guards outside laughed and made jokes about me, and how easily I lied my way out of there while my wife pleaded for them to keep me. I realized that one major change needed to happen. That person reading a book in that room should instead be a person who went through that, that could say "I was in that bed 5 years ago. I know how it feels"! While I'm not a life coach, I have helped many people from suicide and out of depression in general. I feel someone like myself who has 43 consecutive years of daily hands on traing far surpasses most any therapist or counselor (not to say they're not needed as well) but instead we need to work together as a team. Most counselors and therapist look down upon people like myself as though they're "more educated" because they went to college. If you had to hire someone to build your dream home, would you hire a 45 year old who has worked building homes with his father day in and day out since he was a child or would you pay top dollar for the 30 year old who just got out of school? I think the choice is obvious. Again, my theory is we need to work as a team to save lives, not declare who is more competent based on formal education. Saving lives is a team effort!

I find is strange that you do not differentiate between counselling and coaching. Coaching is education and guidance, positive psychology if you will. Counselling assumes mental health challenges. Completely disparate topics. By the way there are plenty of highly qualified counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists that are extremely poor at their job. Just as there is the potential for an outstanding life coach to have minimal formal qualifications. A piece of paper guarantees nothing.

While I understand the point about life coaching being unregulated, I also know that people help people in different ways. There are university programs for life coaching that cost thousands of dollars and take many months or even years to complete. I hold a doctorate in business administration and teach accounting but would love to help women recover from narcissistic abuse. I've been studying this topic for years and asked by my therapist to present to her counseling team. I've started a support group. I've taken Dr Ramani's classes. I am a survivor myself. Just because a person is not a counselor doesn't make them a scammer. This video is incredibly biased and does not recognize the many wonderful coaches out there. I've worked with writing coaches for accountability. You don't have to have a degree to prepare income taxes for people. Some of these tax preparers who have no degree are completely competent because while they don't have a CPA license they have learned how to prepare income taxes really well, possibly through a training course. I've also worked with some licensed therapists who were very uninformed and ill-equipped to help me after my experience with a psychopath. If the only people allowed to help others dealing with life challenges are therapists, then I guess that really benefits the therapists. Hurting people...not so much.

I would absolutely LOVE to have a real conversation with you about this. I think it would be great trade some perspectives on the "narcissistic" concepts mentioned AND the pros/cons of dialing up/down each in a specific individual.

I am glad I am training to be a counsellor with a recognised body so that I know when I qualify & practise it will be safely and ethical with the clients needs at the forefront of my concerns . I am in my second year of 4 to qualify so it is no quick qualification.

Google Fred R. Moss MD reviews
So sad..he is still taking people’s money. He has many videos on you tube..just look up Fred Moss MD or Dr Fred Moss. I’d love for you to interview him! I know he would agree! He could say how he has had 40,000 patients and written 100,000 prescriptions. But the numbers may be higher now. I question whether he is truly even an MD. I do see online medical board disciplinary actions in at least 2 states!

You have harnessed the power of a deadpan wit!😂

It's more than worrisome. It's irresponsible and dangerous. Since COVID or simply not having access to real psychological treatment has driven rise to a sleep of dubious counselors without any mandated training to desperate people.

Regulated counsellors in my country New Zealand have huge barriers to entry in that they only work 9-5 many counsellors are only academic and don't have real life skills that you need to survive in todays world.

There are so many life coaches who do not have their life together who pursue clients. I worked with a business/life coach before I got a business coach through the SBA who was a former CEO. The first person tried to encourage me to not get an important procedure I need for my disability and to instead go to some scam doctor. I put a lot of research and work into finding good allopathic doctors to do the procedure I need. She wouldn't get off the call even though she knew it was painful to me to keep talking because of my brain problem and was trying to pressure me into paying her $2,000/mo lol no. I am Southern and was too polite. She was supposed to be free through a non profit. I should have reported her. I charge more than $2,000/mo for my clients now for an actual service backed by my degrees that brings them monetary results through my work (securing B2B contracts for them).

I was unemployed at the start of this video, but half way through I became a life coach.

If I could do it that fast, it only proves how successful I am. You can too!…but only with my help. For as little as 3 easy payments of $9995 you could be more successful than your wildest dreams. Not just wild, but BUCK WILD!

Yes it is a scam. Well 95% of it at least.

Great insights - as always! Thank you.

thank you for your videos

I am a long-time client of mental health professional services. There have been times when I felt like I was basically renting a friend, but a friend with really good competency. Theory: people who prefer a life coach maybe are afraid of the stigma that is associated with having a mental health condition, so it is easier for them to think of themselves as a life coach client rather than a mental health client. For my part, I am unconcerned with that stigma. I prefer to have quality services, targeted to my condition(s), than to worry about stigma. Also, health insurance covers it. 🙂

Great video, as someone who is about to embark on this life coach challenge. Past experience and truma, have driven me to this path. For me it is truly helping people get past difficult emotions. You just have to understand everyone comes to the table unique in many ways, as well as the possibility of more productive solutions to everyday people problems, that relate to other issues where they can find avenues for proper guidance assistance. More about relating in a manner where we're not working to a solution to determine maybe why they can't do something but how.

Life coaches or other coaches are not regulated the way licensed therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists are. Mental health professionals are supervised during the period before they reach full licensure. Certification is not a substitute for supervision. Coaches are not supposed to be 'diagnosing ' anyone. You can't file a licensure complaint against any coach. If they hurt anyone, there is really not much you can do . While I think coaching in certain circumstances can be helpful it shouldn't be a substitute fo r mental helth treatment and diagnosis.

Excellent analysis. ... maybe a little kinder than I would be. Sure, it could do some good to "rent a friend" assuming they are authentic, attentive, knowledgeable, and healthy, some BIG ifs it would be next to impossibleto find out without spending several hours and several hundred dollars... but even so, surely it would do most people 10x the good to just get a real, qualified, experienced counselor....

Counselors don’t like life coaches because they are stealing their business 🤣🤣🤣

Therapy focuses on mental health; life coaching focuses on goals

I'm not sure of why you're thinking that coaching is a scam! There are therapists out there who are scammers. You have very narrow-minded thinking for a therapist. Life coaching is not a competition to your therapy. Life coaching can go hand in hand with therapy. Please give others a heads up that though you are a therapist , you don't know everything. There are quacks in any profession.

Therapy is a scam. I don’t know why people keep recommending it or saying it works. How can it help knowing that you/your insurance has to pay thousands for somebody to care about you? Then the therapists gives you cliche advice, useless platitudes, and insincere compliments.
AN ARTICLE I'VE READ.....
My point is that they say this about the therapist, no one can win.

Thank you for this; nice to hear this from a Doctor. My friend has been going down the life-coaching path and he just dropped out of his actual counselling program after 1 semester; saying all the info is there in books and on the net. He has the classic hippy-style memes on Facebook etc, but doesn't even have components of his own life together. Should we try to encourage a best friend to get the counselling education/certification or just let them do this LC route? I feel like I am actually losing respect for him and I'm struggling as to how to talk about it without hurting his feelings or negatively affecting the friendship?

So a narcissist is someone who has a title for an unregulated job and takes money to tell others how to run their lives the way they run their own.Spent 20 years married to one of those the next 20 years still being told how worthless my life's ambitions where.After all the support I gave her to achieve her role in her life before and after marriage .After 40 plus years she tries to fun everyone's lives that she meets and tells them they should do it her way or no way.And guess what she now carries the title of,yes you got it,Life Coach.Or narcistic bully.

I do agree that the field can be sketchy, but I also think there are some gems out there that are doing a lot of good. I’m familiar with some life coaches who basically do CBT type stuff—analyzing your thoughts and how they relate to to your feelings and such. So I think life coaching can be good if you’re careful about who you work with.

Yes

I always tell my clients I'm a step before a counselor or to be used while also seeing a therapist.

I had a colleague who hired a life coach to help him with career-related issues. This colleague had some social anxiety so having someone to hold him accountable in his career goals really helped him make progress. I don't know, however, what the credentials of the life coach were at the time.

I went to a life coach for my anxiety and depression. Felt better in five sessions and felt almost healed in ten. I got tired of the traditional talk therapy. After twenty sessions of venting and "how does that make you feel?" I got annoyed and knew I needed something different.

i've been looking into coaching because they seem more willing to disagree with you, tell you what you're doing is wrong and how to change it. the industry is ripe for scammers, but therapy has just been wildly ineffective, if i were a narcissist my experiences in therapy would have only made me worse because all they do is agree! how is it useful if they can't tell the client that what they're doing is fucked up? sure, i already knew, i knew before i even started, but the therapists' implicit agreement makes me think everything must be justified or else they'd SAY SOMETHING....right?

Life Coaching= entrepreneurial form of Social Work. I am concerned with social work influencer and consultants marketing themselves as coaches

Some people pay a lot of money to become a 'certified' life coach.

These expressions are "sales pitch" stuff.

When I was married we worked with a life coach and I’m not going into the whole story but the results were devastating. I went to try to form a lawsuit but I couldn’t because they weren’t licensed. If somebody is not licensed they have nothing to lose and there’s nothing really you can do to them. That’s a real problem as far as responsibility and liability. I’m certain they’re a good people out there doing something nice but it’s still irresponsible. I have a friend who’s the psychiatrist that was working as a life coach and I respect that because he’s a trained professional.Ironically he could not give psychiatric advice because he wasn’t working as a doctor under that designated profession. Anyway I say no to it.

Totally agree that their fees are often way too high. You don't need to study 5 years to, for example, just lend an ear to someone who's down but otherwise healthy. That's a valuable service, in fact a service that should be more widespread. But not one that should cost 100US$ per hour, let alone more than that.