If you’re considering life coach training, this decision may mark a turning point in your life. It’s the beginning of an empowering career, and the start of a new adventure!
Life coaches do meaningful work helping members of their community live better lives, while finding their own personal fulfillment. The support of a strong and healthy school environment can help you take the first steps down this rewarding career path. Finding the right school is easy when you take a few basic factors into consideration.
Here are five key things to look for when choosing a life coaching school:
1. A Life Coaching School with a Trusted Reputation
You want your diploma to act as a quality guarantee, trusted by clients and the industry to mean you’ve received a first-rate education. But how can you accurately gauge a school’s reputation?
Canadian life coaching colleges should boast membership in trade-specific groups like the International Coach Federation and the Canadian Alliance of Life Skills Coaches and Associates, as well as seals of approval from governing groups like the British Columbia Career College Association and the Private Training Institutions Branch.
A school’s age can also indicate the strength of its quality. For example, Rhodes Wellness College has produced successful, employable graduates for over 21 years. It’s this college’s accreditations and history of quality that make it a recognized leader in the wellness coaching and counselling world.
2. A Broad Range of Courses to Explore
To provide the meaningful support today’s life coaches are known for, you’ll need to develop more than just your listening skills. The right life coaching school will teach you how to effectively and compassionately handle relationship issues, health and fitness, stress, life changes, addictions and compulsive behaviours, diet and nutrition, grief and loss, and much more.
Graduates with a wellness focus will also discover their coaching niche. For example, Rhodes graduate Jennifer Schramm found that diet and nutrition resonated most with her. She now specializes in helping young women overcome eating disorders – living her passion and making a real difference.
3. Student Support Services: Central to Life Coaching School
The best life coaching schools offer friendly and accessible student support resources, as well as access to specialized wellness experts both in and outside the classroom.
Rhodes offers a weekly student drop-in clinic where you can meet with upper year students for coaching and counselling at no cost. You can proceed from an initial session with reduced-cost continued professional counselling offered through the school. Students at Rhodes College have access to free, interactive events on campus, featuring guest experts and counselling sessions.
These kinds of resources will help keep you centered while you study, without breaking the bank.
4. Life Coach Certification through Hands-On Experience
Instead of relying on textbooks, some coaching programs use “experiential” learning systems in order that you may experience the growth and healing process yourself as you study.
Nobody’s perfect. No matter where you are in your life today, an experiential learning system can help you develop yourself into a great wellness coach. You’ll leave college with both life coach certification and a healthier, more balanced lifestyle of your own, ready to share all the wisdom you’ve experienced firsthand.
5. Flexibility: Helping You Find Your Work/Life Balance
Students today come to life coaching schools from all walks of life. Often, they face schedule restraints that come with family life and job responsibilities. The right coaching school helps mitigate these challenges by providing schedules most convenient to the individual student.
Rhodes’ Professional Counsellor and Wellness Counsellor diploma programs take between one year and eighteen months to complete, and can be started in any season throughout the year. At Rhodes College, Coaching courses are available both online and part time and full time, in-person for you to complete at your own pace, in your own way.
With this flexibility and a supportive, reliable school community, nothing will stop you from achieving the meaningful life coaching career you deserve.
Would you like to become a certified life coach? Visit Rhodes Wellness College for more information or to speak with an advisor.
