Life coaching and Enneagram – answers and clarifications
Life coaching
What is life coaching?
Life coaching is a process in which a client sets a personal or professional goal and explores how to achieve it.
Analogy: A life coach and a sports coach both want their clients to realise their potential and achieve their goals, but they must not directly influence their lives and decisions. A sports coach cannot compete on behalf of their client, and in the same way, a life coach cannot make decisions for their client.
Is a life coach a psychotherapist/psychologist/consultant?
No. Psychotherapists treat mental and emotional health issues and must complete a specialised psychotherapy programme – they work with patients. Psychologists analyse and research psychology – they do not have to work with patients. Consultant provides professional or expert advice in their field of expertise. A life coach works with clients who want to achieve more in life but don’t know how to get there through a structured process and questions.
Why go to a life coach when I can solve my problem on my own or ask a family member/friend for advice?
Good question. Nowadays, it’s hard to keep up with commitments and expenses, which has turned managing and setting priorities into an art of survival. I’ll try to answer this question from personal experience.
When you ask a trusted person for advice, in most cases, they see YOUR problem and want to solve it THEIR way. If they don’t feel comfortable or capable of resolving your problem, they might advise you to ignore it or even avoid it because they see that situation as a threat they wouldn’t be able to handle themselves. If, however, they offer a solution and mention that it’s so simple or easy, you might feel attacked because you don’t feel ready to take the steps they can with ease, which creates even greater internal pressure.
If you want to solve the problem on your own, you need space, time and peace to consider your options and choose the best one for you. There is one major obstacle: a lack of “permitted” freedom due to various life commitments such as work, commuting, household chores, paying bills… Even when you decide to act, you may face disapproval from those around you, or if you don’t see exceptional results in a very short period of time, you can feel discouraged.
A life coach helps clients to clarify their course of action and allows them to TRACK their progress with minimum bias.
Enneagram
What is Enneagram?
The Enneagram is a system that describes nine personality types, their motivations and how they experience life situations. It explains how each type reacts under stress, communicates, makes decisions, and so much more. This makes it a practical tool because it allows more efficient problem-solving and a personalised approach.
Once I discover my personality type, what’s next?
With the Enneagram, discovering your personality type is just a starting point. When you discover your personality type and begin to become aware of your patterns in real time, you’ll notice that there are more ways to solve problems than you initially thought. If you just want to know your personality type and nothing more, that’s okay too. Those who want to go a step further can learn how to use their strengths sustainably (becoming more adaptable and moderate when their approach isn’t constructive) and face their weaknesses, not as flaws, but as opportunities for growth.
There are free tests, so why would we pay for an interview and work with you?
Good question that requires a fair answer. A free test is an attractive offer at first glance – you take the test, get your result with no visible strings attached. There are certain scenarios and drawbacks with these offers I experienced firsthand:
1. They ask for your email address before or after the test to send you the report, most often for the purpose of signing you up for a newsletter
2. They ask for payment to unlock the full description of your personality type; you might think you’re going to get useful information after answering all those questions, only to end up with a really short summary about your potential personality type, with blurred charts and text; the only clearly visible option is a payment offer
3. The questions and the possible answers can be phrased in an overly simplistic way (relying on stereotypes and the subjectivity of the test creator), or they can be too demanding (using ambiguous wording or using very specific life situations that may or may not happen)
No test is 100% accurate – our answers and their intensity can depend on the life situation we are in; the final results may differ when using the same test. These tests can hint at your personality type IF you are extremely aware of your internal patterns, your current mood, and you answer the well-phrased questions objectively.
The aim of this business and services is to build a relationship with people through transparency and respect. You would work with a person who has invested time and effort to become proficient, has learned from previous mistakes and is dedicated to create safe space for clients (website has no analytics, no invasive cookies, using European service providers to maximize security and privacy – within limits). “Free options” are usually costly in the long run through the disclosure of personal information, or if you want to be self-sufficient, through the expenditure of your own time which is the only resource you can’t replenish.