Life coaching industry gaining in popularity
By Jennett Mays
jmays@uwo.ca
Being diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1992 led
Mary-Anne MacPherson down an unexpected career and life path.
Fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by widespread pain, fatigue
and sensitivity to touch, led MacPherson to leave her corporate
job and become one of London's first health and empowerment coaches.
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| Photo by Jennett Mays
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| Life coach Mary-Anne MacPherson leads an
exercise during a recent seminar. |
"I came out of high school typing 68 words per minute,"
she recalled, thinking she was set for life. When she was diagnosed
with fibromyalgia, the treatment she received wasn't what she
expected, and she was left searching for other answers.
"I went through 11 doctors," said MacPherson. "What
I heard was, 'There's nothing we can do. You look fine. It's all
in your head.' "
MacPherson turned to holistic medicine, and found that not only
did it help, but it also turned into a passion and a new career.
She is now one of a burgeoning group of life coaches, a profession
that didn't exist 15 years ago.
Jennifer Irwin, an assistant professor in the faculty of health
sciences at the University of Western Ontario, has written some
of the few academic studies dealing with life coaching.
"It's certainly a new profession," said Irwin. "It's
more well-known in the States. It came out of business coaching."
Irwin said that in a "co-active" life coaching session,
the relationship is like a partnership. "The client identifies
their agenda, and the coach doesn't give advice or tell them what
to do," she said. "The coach's role is to help clients
access their own answers, mostly through asking questions."
She explained that it is more verbal persuasion.
Coaches will act as the accountability for their clients, said
Irwin, but not in a punitive way. "We call it championing.
Coaching starts with where are you now and where do you want to
be."
But Irwin cautions that those looking for a life coach need to
do their homework first.
Life coaching is not yet a regulated industry and consumers should
be aware. "People should do research and find out what kind
of training their coach went through," she advises. "My
hope is certainly that the field will move towards certification."
She also recommends that people shop around before settling on
a coach.
"The connection has to be there," she said. "Try
out a few different coaches. Most will provide sample sessions."
Irwin said the idea behind co-active life coaching is simple.
"It's really like renting a great friend," she explained.
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| Photo by Jennett Mays
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| Desmond Sawa plans to bring his wife Renée
to one-on-one sessions with Mary-Anne MacPherson. |
MacPherson has been running her own business for the past 13
years, and in addition to being a life coach, has studied many
alternative treatment methods. She can now call herself a life
coach, a registered nutritional consulting practitioner and a
reiki master. Reiki is an ancient Japanese art of healing.
"A lot of them were parts of my recovery," she explained.
Desmond Sawa, a London real estate agent, met MacPherson recently
at a business-networking group. She made such an impression on
him that he came out to a seminar she had at the library last
month.
Sawa said he plans to visit MacPherson for further coaching,
and he won't be going alone. "I will be bringing my wife,"
he said.
Acknowledging that it usually happens the other way around —
the wife brings the husband to see her — MacPherson said
that most of her clients are women between 30 and 55 years old.
"I get mostly weight normalizations and some eating disorders,"
she said. "I see a lot of people who are sick and tired of
being sick and tired."
Although she doesn't read newspapers — she said bad news
is a sure way to become stressed — MacPherson believes that
the recent media interest in life coaching is easily explained.
"It's becoming a sexy industry," she said. "People
don't know what they want to do."
