What is a Life Coach and What is an Academic Coach?

 
 
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what is a life coach and what is an academic coach?

A life coach definition is “a life coach is a partner who engages in a thoughtful and creative process with another person”. An academic coach definition is “an academic coach is a partner who helps a student achieve and maintain balance in their lives”.

A coach is someone who is supportive and creates a safe environment for someone to be open and honest in. A coach is not someone who gives advice. In coaching, we engage with another person through conversational techniques that lead another person to achieve their goals.

A coach does not lead yet they allow another person to own their own lives, decisions, and accountability.


What does a life coach do or academic coach do?

A coach provides a space that allows the creative process of another to flow. A coach does the following:

  • Actively Listens

  • Asks Powerful Questioning

  • Engages in Conversation

  • Creates a Safe and Positive Environment

The key to the definition of a coach is that a coach focuses on the present, what is next for the client or coachee, and what could potentially stand in their way.

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what a life coach or academic coach can do.

What is important to know is that it isn’t what a coach can do, it is what the client or coachee can do. The power is never with the coach. It is always with the client or coachee.

A coach is there to be a support and a guide. Coaching is about helping people to expand on their ideas, find their own pathways forward, and explore options.

Coaching has a structure to it even though it is a creative process. It clearly gets someone from a place where they are in their lives to where they want to be.