FAQ: Life Coaching
love your life coaching
Certified Life and Relationship Coaching in Los Angeles
What life coaching is
Life coaching, as defined by the ICF, is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity, and leadership.
Life coaches support clients in clarifying goals, overcoming challenges, and unlocking potential in any area of life. This can include career changes, relationships, confidence, mindset, finances, life purpose, anything! Life coaches help clients gain clarity, break through limiting beliefs, and create strategies to achieve meaningful success and fulfillment.
who i work with
self-aware adults who:
♡ are in their 20’s to 50’s
♡ are ready to do the hard work
♡ value integrity and honesty
♡ are curious and open-minded
♡ want more from life
lgbtq+ welcome!
The difference between life coaching and therapy
Therapy, which includes cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), psychodynamic therapy, and integrative therapy, all involve focusing mainly on the understanding the past and healing from traumatic experiences.
A therapist helps you understand your own internal emotional and psychological workings that contribute to the behavior patterns that aren’t serving you. In a nutshell, therapy helps you heal from the past.
Life coaching, which includes executive coaching, relationship coaching, wellness coaching, transformational coaching, and recovery coaching, all involve focusing mainly on understanding your current reality and moving towards future goals.
A life coach helps you understand your current challenges so that you can make more aligned choices that get you to where you want to be. In a nutshell, life coaching helps you move from the present towards the future.
real client reviews
Curious to see if I can help you create a life that you love?
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FAQs
Does life coaching work?
It certainly does, *if the client does the required work.*
I get it, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just pay the session fee, show up every week for an hour, talk about your issues, then it all magically aligns and fixes itself? But that’s not reality.
Understanding the problems in your life is one thing, but unfortunately, action is the language of our physical reality. You must also walk the talk, that means rolling up your sleeves, and doing the hard things you’ve been avoiding.
That can look like, having the difficult conversation with your partner, or enforcing a boundary with consequence for your mom, or throwing out the junk food from your cabinet. If you’re ready to do the work, and stay consistent, then life coaching absolutely works, with powerful and long-lasting results.
How long will I need life coaching?
Every client and their circumstances are different. If someone comes to me, and their one and only major concern in their life is the relationship with their partner, then that might be able to be resolved after a few months of weekly sessions.
But if there are multiple areas of their life that they want to transform, it is possible that they will continue to seek coaching for several years. Some clients get coaching for a few months, take some time off, then return as new things come up. Each coaching journey is entirely customized to you, including the length.
What areas will life coaching help me with?
Pretty much any area of your life can benefit from a certified life coach.
I personally focus on relationships, self-awareness, boundaries, purpose, health, well-being, passion, healing, growth, neurodiversity, and consciousness.
Since I subscribe to the mindset of coaching the person, not the problem, practically any issue imaginable has a solution to it. If you’re not sure if I can help you with yours, just ask during a no-pressure, free consultation call!
How do I choose a life coach?
Hiring a life coach is an incredibly personal decision. Most of it will come down to compatibility—do you and your life coach click? A lot of things factor into this: personality is a big one, as well as their background, education, language, communication style, and areas of expertise.
For example, you wouldn’t go to a career coach for help with your relationship or wellness goals. I recommend taking some time to think on why you would like to work with a life coach (what isn’t working for you in your life).
With that information, start researching some different life coaches in your area according to your needs. Google, Reddit, and review pages are a good place to start. Check out their websites, their social media, listen to any podcasts or media they may have. Read their reviews, make sure they’re real and credible. Are they credentialed? Certified? How much experience do they have? Do you like their approach, their messaging, the way they communicate?
And finally, of course budget plays a huge role. Where are you at financially? What level of help do you need? Life coaching can range in price drastically, from $50 a session up to $1,000+. Most professional coaches are in the $120-$300 range. While it can be a big investment, it’s important not to sell yourself short either. This is your life. Find a coach in a price range that you can comfortably afford, yet gets you the best results with the most experience, training, and compatibility.
If someone stands out to you, and you feel like they align with you and what you need, reach out to them! Most professional life coaches offer some sort of free consultation, which is an excellent way to see in real time if it’s a good fit.
Are our sessions confidential?
Yes, all of our sessions are 100% confidential. What this means is that I will never share with others what is discussed during a session. I won’t even confirm that you’re a client if asked, unless given explicit information from you to disclose the nature of our working relationship.
Like most life coaches, I take physical notes during sessions which are kept locked in a secure cabinet.
The only circumstance that confidentiality will be waived is in the advent that a court orders release of notes, or if the client communicates that they plan to hurt themselves, or others, especially children or the elderly. Just as therapists are mandatory reporters, life coaches will also follow this ethic and contact the appropriate authorities if abuse of children or elders is suspected.
Confidentiality will not be broken even if a third party is paying for your session and requests information about the client or our sessions.
How should I prepare for my first session?
Although no formal preparation is required before your first session, it’s always a good idea to have a general direction or goal in mind for each session.
Even if you’re not sure what you need life coaching for, exactly, bring that to the table to figure out together! I find the clients who get the most out of coaching, put the most in. That is, they are intentional about their time. For the most part, they develop a rough end result that they would like to accomplish during each session.
That could as simple as, “I need to find ways to get better sleep,” to, “I would like to work on my motivation,” and even, “I want to find my life’s purpose.” Nothing is off the table, it is your life, what do you want it to look like?
Are you a certified life coach?
Yes I am! I’m a CPC (Certified Professional Coach) and MCLC (Master Certified Life Coach) from an ICF-accredited school.
Certification from a qualified school is essential for professional coaches, as it shows that they are properly trained to coach effectively and ethically. Nowadays, practically anyone can claim to be a life coach, since it’s currently not federally regulated like therapists or counselors are.
Fortunately there are international governing bodies for the coaching community, such as the ICF (International Coaching Federation, widely considered to be the gold standard) which offers testing, training, accreditation, and enforcement of ethics.
Do you offer in-person sessions?
At this time I currently only offer in-person coaching sessions for my couples coaching clients. All other sessions are held over Zoom (preferred) or the phone.
What is your method of coaching?
My method of coaching is a unique blend of reflective inquiry and pragmatic coaching.
This means that I act like a detective, asking pertinent questions to get to the deeper issues. Some people may feel this is intrusive or like an interrogation, it’s really not, rather, it should be viewed as a safe space to curiously explore what’s really going on in your world. There is never any judgement here. But what remains in the dark will not be seen, so, we must dig deep to find what is really driving your thoughts and actions.
The other part is where we create a more practical solution to the issue at hand. Using the findings of our reflective coaching, I may offer up possible action steps the client can take if they are at a loss on what to do next, or it’s an area I have direct experience in.
While many coaches ask questions during the entirety of the session, I feel that can lead to delayed results for the client. My clients appreciate using their time more efficiently, and getting on the path they’re most aligned with as soon as possible! This method of coaching offers both reflective insights on the client’s part, as well as practical steps to get them started. This combines both the mental and the physical into a tangible reality that clients can experience right away and grow from.
Do you offer referral bonuses?
Yes! I love it when my clients refer me to their friends and family. As a thank you, I offer a $50 discount towards their next session for every referral that leads to a booked session.
Are there any situations or problems you don’t dandle?
Although I subscribe to the idea of coaching the client, not the problem, there are still some areas in which I am a more effective coach in. In the arena of relationships, wellness, growth, purpose, and passion, I shine.
But when it comes to things like job hunting, careers, childcare, and business, I am no expert in, and will be very upfront about it. There are amazing career and business coaches out there, I myself could probably use one!
That being said, even if my client is a mother and owns her own business, doesn’t mean I can’t help her. On the contrary, many of my clients have a hand in at least one of those pies, but come to me for help in the areas I specialize in. Everything is connected, and everything is in relation to everything else.
If you are unsure if I can help you in your particular situation, schedule a free consultation and ask! I’ll tell you honestly if I think I can effectively coach you or not.
Do you coach children or teenagers?
While I am not trained or specialize in coaching children, if an older teenager (16+) is mature and wants to be coached, I will absolutely see if I can work with them. Schedule a free, no pressure consultation to find out if I can help you or your teen.
How much are sessions? Do you offer discounts?
A regular one-on-one private 60-minute coaching session is $150. I accept cash, credit, debit, Apple Pay, Zelle, and Venmo. Couples Coaching is $250 for 90-minutes. Discounts are available for pre-paid 3- and 6- month packages. Save 5% on 12 sessions, or 10% on 24 total sessions. Contact me for more information.
What is your cancellation policy?
48-hours’ notice is required before the start of the scheduled appointment in order to reschedule or cancel the session for a full refund or balance transfer towards a new session.
Cancellations or reschedule requests made less than 48-hours’ notice will be refunded 50% or credited 50% towards a new session. Cancellations or reschedule request made less than 24 hours’ notice will not be refunded.
For example, if your coaching session is at 5pm on Thursday, but you ask Wednesday afternoon to reschedule, you will have to pay 50% of the session fee to hold the new appointment. But if you request a reschedule on that Tuesday before 5pm, 100% of the fee you paid for that session will be transferred towards the rescheduled one. But if you cancel a few hours before the appointment, there are no refunds or transfers given, and you’d have to pay in full again to schedule another session.
This policy is very similar or more generous than most other life coaches, counselors, and professional service providers. The reason we do this is simple: we are reserving a specific time for you, the client. If a client cancels too close to the appointment, we are not able to fill it with another. We respect and protect the time set aside for our clients, and ask that the client in turn respect ours.
I personally used to have a more flexible cancellation/reschedule policy, but found that it was being abused too often. While there is an understanding and grace given for things that come up in life (such as true emergencies, sickness, etc), I believe it’s important that the coaching sessions are treated as a priority in the client’s life. If someone is consistently unable to make it to their sessions, it usually signals an unreadiness for the work.
Do you accept insurance?
Unfortunately, life coaching is not currently covered by any insurance (yet), thus, I cannot accept it. Hopefully that changes soon, as governing bodies such as the ICF (International Coaching Federation) have been steadily increasing the bar to entry and regulating life coaches’ credentials and schools’ accreditation. I believe some day it will be as tightly regulated as therapy is, and then it can be medically coded as mental health care and can then accept claims to insurance.
For in-person couples sessions, where do we park?
For couples who want to work in-person, my office location features fairly numerous street parking options. There is metered-street parking in front of the building on Larchmont Blvd, and free street parking throughout the surrounding neighborhood side streets. Please be aware of parking restrictions on Melrose Ave from 4pm-7pm Monday through Friday.
Los Angeles, CA 90004