How I trained to be a coach

The joy, apprehension and thrill of being a student again.

The image captures how it felt; the moon shining outside; and me squirrelling away, stepping inside a whole new world of knowledge.

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When I told people I was doing a coaching course, I could see the fear in their eyes immediately. (Oh noooo, their eyes told me, you are being pulled under into that icky world of gurus, beaded necklaces, shoddy palm-reading and trips to Bali. Nooooo.) I was very aware of the connotations with life-coaching, but this was not that. I like to think I have a pretty good bullshit radar.

I know the word “life coach” gives people the ick. So let’s get this bit out of the way. We all know there are some VERY questionable courses floating about the Internet these days telling you how to become a life coach. I’ve seen the Instagram scams; the weird pyramid-schemey adverts, the takedown articles, there’s a very bizarre story on the BBC currently about a weird coaching cult. And let’s be frank, I get it. It raises eyebrows to say you’re doing a course of this kind. But I am someone who was already very cynical about online courses, so I chose extremely wisely.