Becoming a Professional Life Coach: Lessons from the Institute of Life Coach Training, 2nd Edition

by Patrick Williams, Diane S. Menendez

Providing direction to beginners.

Patterned on the syllabi of courses at the prestigious Institute of Life Coaching, this book helps readers become excellent life coaches. Those new to coaching need to learn how to translate their relationship and facilitating abilities into coaching strengths. Readers learn how to listen to, empower, and challenge clients as they design the lives they want.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Leadership, Audiobook, Self Help, Personal Development

Audio CD

First published March 15, 2007

About the author

Dr. Patrick Williams, EdD, MCC is Founder and Advanced Curriculum Instructor of the Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT), which specializes in training those with a human services orientation.

Reviews

[Shawn Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was on Michael Hyatt's current reading and I thought since I was in the field I would give it a try. Although I am still reading this book, I have found that my brain is at saturation point with the topic and I might need to put this down until I have a bit more distance from my schooling.

For someone trying to decipher the differences between therapy and coaching this book gives great insight and understanding of what makes a coach different. I am sure I will come back to it but for now, other books are on the menu.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who reads this book, whether or not they want to be a life coach, will discover ways they can transform their lives for the better. The last half of the book is particularly helpful and contains ideas and illustrations that can inspire anyone to become more peaceful, powerful, and loving.

[Rat Barrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for every coach to have on their shelf. This book is easy to read and was written with abundence in mind (i.e., full sharing of information). In addition to other coaching information, this book provides a great framework for "personal values" coaching, which is a need for many people, especially in the area of org leadership. The book is sourced well, particularly with well-respected social scientists and the like. I don't give but a couple 5-star ratings a year, and this is one of them!

[Angela Gentile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Overall View of Life Coaching

This is the first book I read on Life Coaching, and I found it to be very helpful. It was written by Pat Williams, the founder of the Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT), and Diane Menendez, a senior trainer at ILCT. I recognize all of the techniques covered by the authors, as I am a clinical social worker (Effective listening, Solutions-Based therapy, Narrative therapy, Metaphors, Goal Setting, etc.). The first two sections (Coaching Fundamentals and Beyond the Basics) were very helpful in terms of helping me understand the basic concepts around life coaching. The third section (Coaching From the Inside Out) was something I skimmed through as I have done a lot of this type of work already (Life Purpose, Values, Life Wheel, etc.). Great reference book which has helped increase my confidence as I move into my Life Coaching practice. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about Life Coaching.

[Dennis Podryadchikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Williams and Menendez’ approach to coaching is qualitative academic research, logical connections, transcripts of coaching sessions, and many practical exercises. The writers offer a good number of psychological theories. They describe each area of coaching logically and consistently. They exemplify ideas with transcripts of actual coaching conversations. Almost every chapter concludes with exercises that offer ways to practice the offered material. All of these make a useful textbook out of this literary work. Readers, who look for logical flow and well supported ideas, will find this work very helpful.

[Christina Geis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to spend time reading and you will want to refer to this time and time again. Worth the investment of a purchase.

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and detailed book on life coaching that spans all areas from helping client find purpose, values, reflect on where they are currently on their journey and where the coaches can best support. From hands on exercises to studies, stories and concepts. Very complete. Minus one star because I felt it was a bit jumpy from topic to topic and didn’t feel like it following a logical / natural sequence in which the topics were covered. Also, from page to page it felt very detailed.

[Sagan Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was SO impressed with this book. It's the perfect textbook for any coach! It's really well thought out and provides a great combination of actions and mindset shifts for working with clients. A great supplement to getting coaching training and certification, and a resource I'll be referring to many times in the future for sessions with clients.

[Kate]

Really interesting overview of the history of psychology and then comparing to life coaching. Good examples of appropriate and helpful questions to ask clients. Feel like it would never be that easy/insightful though :)

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book. It depends on how much training you've had previously if you feel you'll benefit from it or not.

[Renee Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a seminary class on life coaching. Some good stuff.

[Bonnie Arriola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just so much-I forgot what it was like to read a textbook!

[Alana Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

O

[Steven Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

very tough read. too clinical for my liking

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Becoming a Professional Life Coach, Patrick Williams lays out methods for successful coaching relationships. Some of the information is useful more widely than only for coaches. Pastors, counselors, and parents would benefit from the conversational methods developed in this volume. Most chapters end with helpful exercises for practice or leading others in the particular techniques discussed. In these ways, this book is handy. There are, however, some points at which I wondered whether the assumptions made by the author would potentially cause more trouble than help. Williams writes that the ability to solve a problem or for a person to change resides in the person. It certainly does not entirely, or our world would be less full of broken people. There are other times in the book where Williams appears to promote a more Buddhist or Hindu perspective than the Christian one he espouses. These various worldviews are not particularly compatible and, in some areas, are mutually exclusive. For these reasons, the positive aspects of the book are diminished substantially.

[Kat Armstrong]

Not a fan. Do not recommend.

It seems strange to me that the authors position this as a professional textbook for people who want to become life coaches. It is riddled with typos; not professional at all. One of the funniest mistakes was in the appendix that tries to bolster the credibility of this book as a resource for professional life coaches. They misspell the word profession.

In the chapter, Mind-Set Is Causative, they include theories from Martin Seligman (2003) about "victimology" which is shocking. "Seligman noted some of the benefits, for example, for alcoholics who now say they have a disease and seek treatment without thinking they are terrible people, and for the Civil Rights movement, which acknowledged the capabilities of people white stating many are victims of discrimination."

Whut.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very thorough text on the topic of life coaching, free of gimmicks and pushy sales tactics. It includes multiple psychological and coaching perspectives and tools. While I do not agree with every approach or theory described in this book, it allowed me to generate many leads for further research I plan to conduct, modeled how psychological concepts can be applied to coaching without turning coaching onto therapy, and gave me many ideas for exercises to do myself or with clients. I listened to this book in audio format, with the intention of it being a first pass through to allow me to understand what is available in the book. I plan to buy the third edition in print book form to use as a reference as I build courses and materials for my business.

[Kate]

So I don’t want to be a life coach but I listened to this in hopes that it would help me be better at asking questions instead of just telling people what I think directly. The overview of the history of psychology/therapy/coaching was really fascinating and I was especially interested in thinking about how therapy/psychology begins with a premise of brokenness, whereas the authors argued that coaching is predicated on people’s strengths and possibilities. I almost want to buy the audiobook so I can just listen to it over and over again or but the book so that the questions can become second nature.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empowering by Framing

The book empower the coach by framing the coaching concept and filling it up with with knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Great book. I fully recommend this book to anyone desiring to become a coach. Reed the book as many times as you can in order to grasp the full idea about coaching. Thank you for putting this book together and make it available to the new coaches of this generation. I give five starts. Jose Serrano, professional coach, NC

[John Rossitto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable tool for those pursuing the coaching profession. Writing style is somewhat intense. Filled with insights from the authors years of coaching practice and training as well as drawing from a broad variety of sources. Provides examples and exercises. Valuable resource for the coach training as well as personal growth. Beneficial when practiced!

[Emilie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I would be really drawn in but this book was really boring. There were a few good ideas but it wasn’t my favorite. It really did feel like a textbook. There are better ways to make a text engaging while still teaching skills.

[Asmaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it full of wonderful and different tools to help coaches

[Monique Amado · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is more like a text book (big, heavy, hardback that was part of my required reading for coach training) but man, is it good.

[Mandy Kubicek]

technically haven't read all of it

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an experience, beside the technical content it gives a real sense of who you are as a coach, loved it.

[Toni Benolirao-Collantes]

it was required. there are a whole lot of supplemental books to go with it.