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Case Study –
Life Coaching
In the past 6 months, a single woman in her early 40’s came in for some life coaching. At first she felt somewhat uncertain and confused about her goal, and this state of mind had caused her to be experiencing some depression.
So our first objective became the identification of the cause of her sadness. Through some honest dialogue between Laura* the client, and myself the coach, we established that her most immediate source of sadness was the lack of balance in her life.
Laura began to discover some striking insights as we conversed and I probed her mind with questions. Somewhere around the fourth session, she looked me in the eye and said: “Oh my gosh, I just realized what I did to myself three years ago!” Then she went on to describe how a long-term relationship had ended in a broken heart for her, and that she had made a decision to pour herself completely into her job as a health-care professional and forsake her dream of finding a life partner.
She set lofty career goals and worked long hours, signed up for extra trainings and pretty much buried herself in her job. She gained some degree of satisfaction from the kudos at work over the next year, but then she gradually began to feel more and more empty and she missed spending time with friends and family.
So I could see as Laura’s coach that we were really onto something critical for Laura’s future happiness. She desperately needed to learn how to reconnect with herself and her true life-long ambitions. Over the next few sessions, through the art of Socratic questioning, I managed to help Laura rediscover for herself some key insights that would eventually lead her to embrace a new direction in her life.
It was quite difficult for Laura to internalize many of these insights, but she is a courageous woman, and to her credit very committed to her own life purpose. Most of all she is docile, meaning “teachable”, which is one of the most important ingredients leading to success.
Over the next 2 months, Laura and I collaborated to design a customized plan whereby she resigned her position of 18 years that had her working evenings and weekends, and took a 20% pay cut to sign on with another company working Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, with slightly better benefits and with a greater possibility for medium and long term promotion.
Within a week after switching jobs, Laura noticed she was sleeping better, without the aid of medication. She has signed up for a nutritional seminar on Monday evenings and a mixed tennis league on Wednesday evenings. She has improved her eating habits and the regular exercise has her feeling more energized. She also travels out of town with friends one or two weekends a month now.
Best of all, Laura announced to me in our last session that she feels like she is ready to start a new relationship, especially now that she has an added twinkle in her eye and a fresh smile on her face. So that is what some good solid life coaching can accomplish for an honest and motivated client.
*All names changed for privacy