Business coaching

Life coaching regulation: who can you trust?

Published 10th September 2010

When it comes to searching for a coach, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. There are a lot of people promoting their services as a coach and it can be hard to know who to work with.

As it stands life coaching is currently unregulated in the UK, meaning that there are no laws detailing the level of qualifications and experience a person needs in order to practice as a life coach.

However, as more and more people are turning to coaches to help them find direction, both the public and medical professions are becoming more interested in the safe practice of life coaching.

The lack of regulation makes it difficult for those choosing a life coach to determine who is highly trained and working to good standards and this is why life coaches have the option of registration with a professional association with its own code of ethics and complaints procedure.

Professional associations will ensure they check the training and qualifications of potential members and in order to become accredited, applicants must agree to adhere to mandatory strict guidelines and standards of practice.

Life Coach Directory works in a similar way, only listing life coaches who are either members with approved professional associations or checking that applicants have a relevant qualification and insurance cover.

This is a simple way of ensuring that anyone searching for a practitioner on our site can feel assured they will find a life coach who is qualified to a high standard.

As well as checking coaches have qualifications, here are some other aspects to consider:

Experience: Does the coach you're interested in have experience in the area you're looking for support with?
Testimonials: Many coaches will share testimonials from previous clients to help you understand how they support clients.
Rapport: This is crucial, do you feel like you will get on with them? Learn more about the way they work and don't hesitate to ask for a brief call to get to know them better.

Further reading:

Use our search tool to connect with a coach today.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Life Coach Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.