How Coaching Can Transform Your Life
There are many misconceptions about coaching. In recent years, it has unfortunately become a bit of a buzzword.
In my eyes, more work needs to be done to truly communicate and highlight the value that certified coaches bring.
I’ve had the privilege of experiencing both sides: being coached and coaching others. Being coached showed me the real impact that coaching can have on people’s lives. And now, I want to pass that on and help as many people as possible experience the transformation that coaching brings.
So, What Is Coaching?
Coaching is a deep and powerful conversation between the coach and the client. At its core, it is a partnership of equals.
One common misconception is that the coach is an expert who provides advice. In reality, the answers come from the clients themselves. Coaching empowers clients to engage in self-discovery, uncover valuable insights, and find the answers within.
The coach creates a safe, supportive space where clients can:
Navigate their thoughts
Explore new perspectives
Understand and name their emotions
Gain deeper self-awareness
Through deep listening and focused presence, the coach holds this safe and sacred space. Coaching is highly introspective. When clients tune in with themselves and take time to reflect, new awareness emerges. They are able to explore thoughts, feelings, and ideas they may have never considered before.
The process often uncovers limiting beliefs, unconscious biases, or assumptions that may be shaping their lives. Clients leave with expanded self-awareness, clarity, confidence, and actionable steps to move toward their goals.
Especially during times of transition, people need a thinking partner—not someone who tells them what to do or assumes what’s right for them, but someone who listens without judgment, holds up a mirror, and gently guides them toward action. That is true empowerment.
My Own Experience
I vividly recall my first coaching experience. Back in 2021, I decided it was time to invest in myself and my personal development. I worked with a fantastic coach for five months, doing deep work I never would have done on my own—not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t even know where to start.
Through that introspection, I gained a much better understanding of my core personal values, the assumptions I was making, and the social constructs that were shaping how I lived my life. Deep down, I knew I wasn’t in the right place, but at the time, I wasn’t ready to make a change.
Coaching helped me open the door a little wider and let the light in. Each session brought in more light until it became so bright I could no longer deny I wanted to move toward it. That’s what coaching did for me—and it’s something I fully understood only months and years later.
Key Principles of Coaching
When I think of coaching, these fundamental principles come to mind:
1. Coaching is a partnership.
There is no hierarchy. The coach isn’t there to provide opinions or advice, but to hold a safe, supportive space and serve as a thinking partner. Coaches believe their clients are creative, resourceful, and whole.
2. Coaching relies on trust.
Trust is everything. Coaching conversations often go very deep, sometimes touching on topics clients may never have shared with loved ones. For coaching to work, clients must feel safe enough to let down their guard and trust that they can be fully seen for who they are.
3. Coaching is client-led.
Coaches may have deep expertise, but in sessions, they set it aside. The focus is entirely on the client’s experience, context, culture, and beliefs. Coaches approach with curiosity, free of judgment or assumptions, asking powerful questions that help clients discover answers meaningful to them.
4. Coaching is future-oriented.
Unlike therapy, which often focuses on the past and present, coaching looks to the present as a starting point and helps create a plan for the future. Instead of asking, “Tell me more about what happened,” a coach might ask, “How can this experience serve you moving forward?” or “What do you want to put in place to move toward your goal?” Clients leave with clarity, progress, and actionable next steps.
What Qualities Make a Great Coach?
Every coach is unique, but one quality stands above the rest: curiosity.
When a coach has a genuine, open curiosity, they help clients explore at a deeper level. This curiosity is not about satisfying the coach’s need for answers—it’s about asking powerful questions that raise awareness, shift perspectives, and spark self-discovery.
Curiosity is only one of the essential qualities a coach needs.
Other Key qualities include:
Withholding judgment
Holding space and silence
Being fully present
Showing a genuine interest in human connection
And beyond the qualities of a coach, the connection between client and coach matters greatly. Some call it chemistry; others call it a “good match.” That’s why discovery calls or consultations are so important. They allow both sides to sense whether there’s alignment and trust. Often, by the end of that first conversation, you’ll know if it’s the right match.
In Conclusion
Coaching is truly a transformative profession. I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to experience it. The chance to feel fully seen, heard, and accepted for who you are is invaluable. And through that process of reflection and self-discovery, true transformation takes place.
I’ll leave you with an inspiring quote that resonates deeply with me.
As Maya Angelou so beautifully said:
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Coaching gives us the courage to go through the changes we might resist, so we can step into the beauty and power of our true potential.
Thank you for reading—and for being part of this shared space.
Keep shining, 🦋
Laura