David Skibbins, author of Becoming a Life Coach, offers a succinct history of the profession (succinct, even though it reaches far back in time, to Plato).
In a nutshell, life coaching traces from:
1. The pedagogical philosophies of Plato
2. Adler’s (a psychologist’s) personal educator style. Said Adler, “The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.”
3. Jung’s encouragement towards life reviews
4. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
5. Corporate refocusing on mentoring, training, and staff development
6. The application of sports coaching to general life
7. The collapse of stable corporate structures that provided formal and informal mentoring and human resources assistance—and the consequent rise of executive coaching
8. The formal advent of coaching programs in 1992, to try to blend some of the above into a cohesive framework
As Skibbins notes at the end of this historical life-coaching tour, the field is vibrant and still changing. My personal approach to coaching takes into account both the brief (and, paradoxically, long) history of coaching and my own ways of enjoying the world of discovery and change, as I help you facilitate and navigate…discovery and change.
My emphasis on a thematic or vocational “way in” was arrived at through life, educator, and management experiences and the concept of keystone habits. A keystone habit (Charles Duhigg) is one that, when adopted, tips a whole life in new directions, causing us to rethink many aspects of why we do what we do and what we really wish to do in our lives. So, while many coaches will promise to look at the “wheel of life” with you and offer a global approach as a way in, I will concentrate on a single track with you that will still, shall we say, realign and roll the wheel.