The  Attitudes towards Life Coaching will shift to a positive position as time goes.With its emphasis on self-empowerment and regular use of self-help jargon, life coaching has often been billed here in the UK and Europe as simply an American fad.
But you and I both know that’s not quite true. Considering the idea of life coaching has been around in the UK since the early 90s (the 1970’s in America) and the term is becoming as familiar as that of a nutritionist, dentist or physiotherapist, then we can safely proclaim life coaching a service which is going to be around for many a decade to come.
Life coaching appeals more to women than men
Just as four times as many women as men visit their GP when they suspect they are ill, those who come to use the services of a life coach for personal (rather than business reasons) are similarly skewed in favour of the fair sex. Why? Could it possibly have something to do with that famous British stiff upper lip (and if so, why aren’t women similarly afflicted)? Or is the perceived role of the male to be the ‘strong provider,’ just far too deeply entrenched in our society as a whole?
There’s no doubting the fact that as a nation we Brits haven’t really courted the philosophy of ‘self-love’ as they have done in California and both the West and East coast of America in general where life coaching really took off. But then is it really ‘self-love’? Life coaching is more about self-respect and self-regard as well as believing that your goals and happiness are important. It then goes on to educate you on how to achieve them while encouraging some very healthy and often much needed ‘outside the box’ thinking at the same time.
Different marketing techniques for men
Men don’t seem to mind pursuing the services of a life coach so much if the concept is framed in terms of sports coaching, for example – golfer Tiger Woods famously uses a coach to get him in the right state of mind for a tournament, while every karate student is aware of the role of a sensei (or mentor) and what he can bring to their performance.
Life coach Martha Beck who regularly appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show sums it up nicely: “It is OK for a man to see a coach,” she said, “It is not OK for a man to see a therapist.” In other words, it’s all about terminology. A man wouldn’t feel comfortable if the sessions were perceived as more ‘emotion’ based.
For men there’s also the professional business coach who helps the high-flying manager reach chief executive status. In the corporate world this is practically akin to having a personal trainer.
In other words, life coaches are often regarded by men as an aid to help them become better at what they ‘do’ rather than enhance their personal life. However, as time goes on, this attitude is (thankfully) changing and which is going to be far healthier for everyone – both male AND female.