A Bief History of the Life Coaching Industry
When did the life coaching industry become about MAKING LOTS OF MONEY?
I love that that kind of opportunity exists and I think it’s great to talk about.
BUT… I feel like a lot of coaches have lost sight of the VALUE OF COACHING and why that opportunity exists in the first place.
I got to witness the emergence of the coaching industry because I started 8 years ago when most people thought “COACH” still referred to being in the fitness industry.
Back when I was studying Psychology
And before the boom in online education that exploded the coaching industry less than 10 years ago…
When it came to mental health, a lot of the focus was on DIAGNOSIS + TREATMENT.
There was glaring gap when it came to PREVENTION + TRAINING.
Positive Psychology was becoming popularized though and so was personal development.
Slowly, working on your mental health carried less and less stigma.
And people started to embrace working on their mental health even when they considered themselves for the better part psychologically “healthy”.
Because a gap in the market was being bridged, a lot of coaches made A LOT of money.
Suddenly, coaching became seen as a lucrative profession.
A profession that so many people got so much out of that they wanted to become coaches themselves
… without necessarily understanding the nature of the work.
With a low barrier to entry, a lot of people entered the field and it created confusion as to what “coaching” actually is and how it helps.
Coaching started to be talked about through the filter of EARNING POTENTIAL rather than TRANSFORMATIONAL POWER of this work.
The ethical responsibility coaches have when dealing with people’s brains and mental health was presented like anyone can do it with a couple months of training or no training at all…
I do NOT agree with this at all.
As a coach, you help people change HOW THEY THINK.
The way someone thinks affects all of their life outcomes so the ramifications can be serious and injurious when you’re operating on someone’s thoughts with a pair of craft scissors and glitter.
It doesn’t make you unethical to want to make a lot of money as a coach.
But you need a strong code of ethics to be a leader in this industry.
Let’s not forget that life coaching is about changing the landscape of MENTAL HEALTH, not just making money.
