Life Coaching

Sport and the Inner Game

Several accounts trace modern coaching to Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis, published in 1974. The Inner Game organisation states that every game has an outer game against opponents and an inner game within the player, where self-doubt and anxiety are the main obstacles. John Whitmore ran tennis and ski schools licensed by Gallwey, later founded Performance Consultants, and is credited with developing and popularising the GROW model (goal, reality, options, will or what next).

A 2008 doctoral study by Vikki Brock, based on more than 170 interviews and a literature search, concluded that coaching arose from several independent sources at about the same time and spread through relationships. On that account sport is one root among several, not a single line of descent. Only a web summary of the dissertation was reviewed for this draft.

Psychological and spiritual lineages

A 2009 University of Ottawa dissertation by William Courville uses discourse analysis to describe professional coaching as a field combining western therapeutic counselling with spiritual traditions. It traces the field's intellectual lineage through depth psychology, humanistic psychology, pastoral counselling and spiritual direction. This is one scholar's interpretation, read here at abstract level only.

Professional bodies from 1995

The International Coaching Federation (ICF), founded as the International Coach Federation, states that Thomas Leonard founded it in the United States in 1995 with the support of others and that it launched its first chapters in 1996. By 1998 to 1999 it reports having established core competencies, a credentialing system, an ethical code and accreditation standards for training programmes. The sources reviewed do not date the founding of the EMCC or give a history of life coaching as a named category.

The ICF definition

The ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential. An ICF guide for coaches lists coaching alongside mentoring, consulting and psychotherapy as separate helping professions and notes that these terms have a range of definitions that can differ between cultures.

In the research literature, life coaching refers to non-clinical, goal-focused programmes for adults. The 2006 and 2007 trials described below both used ten-week programmes, and the second compared professional with peer coaches. No source reviewed gives a single agreed definition of life coaching itself.

Umbrella and member labels

As an umbrella, the term covers practices that differ in method, setting and purpose. A 2013 review of 284 articles found health and wellness coaching inconsistently defined before describing an emerging consensus, and a 2020 review of 24 publications found no agreed definition of positive psychological coaching. A shared word does not show that members use the same methods or have the same evidence.

Names such as personal growth coaching, lifestyle coaching, life-purpose coaching, happiness coaching, breakthrough coaching and inner-child coaching circulate among practitioners. No source opened for this draft defined them as distinct methods, so they are not listed as separate members. Spiritual, intuitive, creativity and oracle-card coaching are listed only where a source describing them was opened.

Professional-body wording

The EMCC Global regulation page describes coaching and mentoring as professions it wants to be responsibly self-regulated, and lists accreditation schemes and a 2021 professional charter developed with the ICF and other bodies. It does not define coaching, so no EMCC definition is given here. The page does not describe coaching as a statutorily regulated profession.

Format and setting

The ICF consumer guide describes the coach as a growth partner who asks questions, listens and holds the client accountable to goals. It states that engagements commonly last four to six months, with sessions of one to two hours. The research programmes reviewed were shorter: Green and colleagues tested a ten-week group programme, and Spence and Grant compared ten weeks of professional with peer coaching.

Agreements and scope

The ICF Code of Ethics asks professionals to explain the nature of coaching before it begins and to co-create an agreement covering roles, responsibilities, confidentiality and financial arrangements. The ICF referral guide says the agreement should state the scope of coaching and gives an example statement that coaching is not therapy. It states that a coach does not diagnose and does not offer treatment.

Methods differ between members

Green and colleagues' programme combined cognitive-behavioural and solution-focused methods. A review of positive psychological coaching reports a phased model beginning with building the relationship and profiling strengths. A practitioner account of oracle-card coaching describes three steps: obtaining permission, having the client frame a question for the cards, and using coaching questions to explore the messages. These are descriptions found in the sources, not a protocol.

Uses described by bodies and practitioners

The ICF describes coaching as helping clients realise personal and professional potential, and its referral guide says its purpose is frequently performance improvement, learning or development in some area of life. A creativity coach describes work on creative blocks, sustaining creative habits and the emotional challenges of creating. In health and wellness coaching, 71 percent of reviewed articles used patient-determined goals.

Outcomes that have been studied

The life coaching studies measured goal striving or attainment, well-being, hope, quality of life and, in one study, mental health ratings. The workplace meta-analysis grouped outcomes as performance and skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes and goal-directed self-regulation.

Claims without support in the sources reviewed

The sources reviewed contain no controlled study of spiritual, intuitive, creativity or oracle-card coaching, nor of whether coaching helps people find a life purpose or change patterns rooted in childhood. Such claims should not be repeated without a source. The oracle-card account opened rests on personal experience and says the approach suits only some clients.

Uncontrolled and waitlist studies

Anthony Grant's 2003 exploratory study followed twenty adults through a life coaching programme with no control group. It reported enhanced mental health, quality of life and goal attainment, with lower self-reflection and higher insight.

A 2006 randomised trial allocated 56 adults to a ten-week cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused group programme (28) or a waitlist (28). The programme was associated with significant increases in goal striving, well-being and hope, with some gains maintained at 30 weeks. A waitlist comparator cannot separate the method from the effect of receiving attention.

Professional versus peer coaching

A 2007 randomised study of 63 adults compared ten weeks of professional coaching, peer coaching and no coaching. Professionally coached participants showed greater engagement, goal commitment and progression, and greater environmental mastery. Other facets of well-being did not change, and the authors concluded that a supportive person may be necessary but insufficient. All three studies are small, Grant co-authored each, and their abstracts report no adverse events. This draft did not systematically search for trials after 2007.

Workplace coaching reviews

A 2014 meta-analysis of 18 studies in organisations reported positive effects on all five outcome categories, from g = 0.43 for coping to 0.74 for goal-directed self-regulation, while noting that earlier studies used varied measures and lacked firm theory. A 2016 meta-analysis of 17 studies of workplace coaching reported an overall effect of 0.36, with stronger effects for internal than external coaches. A 2016 systematic review of executive and business coaching also concluded that coaching benefits organisations while naming research gaps. These reviews concern coaching in organisations and are indirect evidence for personal-development coaching.

Other members

Reviews of positive psychological coaching and of health and wellness coaching examined definitions, not effects. A 2022 meta-analysis of eight health coaching studies in middle-aged adults found a small effect on physical activity, with inconclusive results for other outcomes and most studies at substantial risk of bias. No controlled study of spiritual, intuitive, creativity or oracle-card coaching was found.

How the ICF states it

The ICF guide says the main distinctions rest on focus, purpose and population. It describes coaching as focused on visioning, success, the present and the future, and therapy as focused on psychopathology, emotions and the past, with coaching tending to serve well-functioning individuals. It adds that a coach may explore the past or emotions to understand the stories a client tells, and that a coach does not diagnose or offer treatment. The guide is a pilot based on expert opinion.

Practitioner research on blurred boundaries

A review chapter reports that the literature widely acknowledges the boundary as blurry, that coaches find it hard to say where it lies, and that it is often negotiated between coach and client. It cites survey work in which over half of respondents wanted coaching and counselling kept separate while nearly a third favoured integration, and it notes concern that experienced coaches may overestimate their ability to manage mental health problems. These survey figures are second-hand.

Spiritually oriented coaching

Courville's dissertation argues that coaching contains explicit and implicit spiritual dimensions. The ICF referral guide lists a spiritual representative among resources to which a coach may refer a client, alongside therapy, a support group, a mentor or a specialist coach. The sources reviewed set out no separate boundary standard for spiritual, intuitive or card-based coaching.

Reported negative effects

A review of nine studies of coaching reported that negative effects occurred frequently but were mostly low in intensity, with few severe. Higher relationship quality was linked to fewer negative effects and supervision to a beneficial influence. The studies were not limited to life coaching, so how often negative effects occur in life coaching or its spiritual members is not established.

When other care is needed

The ICF guide says a referral is warranted when an issue goes beyond a coach's competence and names daily functioning, such as self-care, work and homemaking, as the key indicator. It lists anxiety, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, suicidal ideation and thought disorders as issues that warrant referral. Coaching should not delay or replace assessment or treatment of a health condition, and a person in crisis needs emergency services.

Training, credentials and oversight

The ICF offers three credential levels (Associate, Professional and Master Certified Coach), with increasing education and experience requirements, renewed every three years, and bases them on a four-domain competency model updated in 2025. Its Code of Ethics asks members to work within their competence (5.1), recognise personal limitations (4.2) and disclose when acting in another role such as therapist (3.7). EMCC describes self-regulation and accreditation schemes.

These apply to members and credential holders of those bodies. A 2004 paper described coaching as unregulated, and no source reviewed states that a licence is required to practise as a life coach. This review did not search national requirements, which differ by country.