Effective life coaching for midlifers:
An important requirement for dealing with transition

I started life coaching in 1996 and at that time the field was in its infancy- there were about twenty coach training organizations. Most people entering the field chose to be coaches. Their job was to be partners with their clients and together look at the "big picture," co-designing a life that matched their clients' vision.

The philosophy present then and still present, but to a lesser degree, is that to be an effective coach, you didn't have to be an "expert" in a particular body of knowledge. So, someone like me, for example, who's had limited experience in coaching single parents could still produce excellent outcomes.

For the most part, I think this approach is valid because after all, working with a coach is like having someone take a video recording of you and you'll see things about yourself that you were blind to. This will allow you to make the necessary corrections that you'll need to accelerate your development and perform at a higher level.

What I've come to realize is that it makes a difference to my coaching clients who are in midlife that I'm a midlifer dealing with the challenges of this period - aging, retirement, meaning, transition, vision, purpose, and spirituality.

My point of view is that for midlife transition, a coach with expertise and wisdom is the best fit. Life coaching is a wonderful process of self discovery and will open up new possibilities for you.

What a Midlife Coach Needs to Bring to the Conversation

- an experience of dealing with a midlife transition
- patience and much compassion
- knowledge of spiritual principles and practices and how to integrate them
- effectiveness in being a catalyst for change and transformation
- use of a developmental approach
- increasing the capacity of the client to deal with the complexity of life.

Listen to this

lively conversation between Dr. Frank and myself about life and business coaching.
To hear other interviews and to subscribe to our podcast
visit our midlife crisis coping podcast page.