Personal Coaches Help You Navigate the Ultimate Contact Sport

For those who can afford it, there's no shortage of hired help who'll assist you in managing your life.

There are psychotherapists and personal trainers, gurus who dispense wisdom on Oprah and self-help books that explain how to shed pounds without giving up pepperoni, unclutter the closet and remain unfazed by the small stuff, which is essentially everything other than a car mowing down your cat.

Despite all the advice, coaches say we are still searching for happiness and confused about where to find it in this fast-paced, complicated world.

That's where they step in.

Coaches get paid to listen, support and look out for your best interests. It sounds a lot like what a good friend does for free, but coaches say there are differences.

Friends don't always have time for you. They might have an agenda, or they're hesitant to pry.

In other words, when you're talking to a coach, it's all about you -- for $50 to $150 a half hour.

Bob Salt, 51, hired a coach after his doctor told him he had high blood pressure. Salt had been working long hours running his own print management business. He had stopped working out and gained weight.

On a friend's advice, he called Jim Gahen, 38, who teaches a beginner's course on coaching at the Learning Annex with wife Kathie Wickstrand-Gahen, 41, also a coach.

Salt remembers his first coaching session went like this: "What's your highest priority?" Gahen asked him.

"My health."

"How would you improve your health?"

"I'd start working out."

Two days later, Salt got up early and hit the treadmill. In the two years he's been calling Gahen weekly, Salt has lost weight, made his business more profitable and gotten serious about saving for retirement.

"I credit Jim with keeping me focused on my goals," Salt said. "I don't want to talk to him and say, `Oh crap. I didn't do that again for the third week in a row.' "

Coaching opportunities

If you're the type of person who others come to for advice, you might be thinking: I could be a coach.

You can.

Coaches are not regulated or licensed by the state like lawyers, psychologists, dental hygienists or even manicurists. That means unlike other professions, there are no particular standards, including confidentiality, coaches must adhere to or risk censure.

There's also no university degree in coaching -- which means pretty much anyone can hang a coach shingle. Coaches usually advertise their business on the Internet.

Several companies offer certification programs. Coach U offers all of its classes on the Internet and by phone. The program, which has about 650 graduates, requires 200 hours of training and costs $3,495 -- plus long-distance phone bills, said Sandy Vilas, CEO of CoachInc.com, the company that owns Coach U.

The Coaches Training Institute in San Jose offers certification for $2,695, not including travel to five weekend seminars. Last year, the institute certified 517 coaches, up from 280 the year before, said Sandy Davis, registrar.

Among the seminar topics: "Fulfillment," which teaches new coaches to help clients "step into what truly brings them alive," and "Process," which teaches coaches about "being with clients wherever they are on the flowing river of their lives."

Most other classes are done through conference calls. "Talking on the phone can be a very pure form of communication," Davis said. "You're just with them and their voice, not distracted by physical presence."

Coaches speak in a language that borrows from management training, motivational speaking and new-age spirituality. They know the lingo of self-help and self-love, interpersonal communications and risk- taking, stress management and change strategies, self-esteem, empowerment, transition and balance.

Gahen used to sell first-aid supplies. His wife, Kathy Wickstrand-Gahen, previously coached a college swim team.

Among life coaches, there are specialties. Wickstrand-Gahen deals with "women in transition."

 

Excerpts from The San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego, Calif.
Author:  Jenifer Hanrahan
June 2, 2000
Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Jun 2, 2000