Coaching

Coaching is a working partnership in which a coach helps a client, through a process of questioning and reflection, to set and reach personal or professional goals. The International Coaching Federation (ICF), which calls itself the leading voice of the coaching industry, describes it as a "thought-provoking and creative process" that helps clients realise their personal and professional potential. Life coaching is coaching for individuals in everyday, general contexts, usually by a coach in their own practice; coaching is also used in workplaces to build job-related skills and performance.

Description

The coaching relationship

Under the ICF's code of ethics, a coach explains the nature of coaching before it starts and agrees with the client, and with anyone else paying for or arranging the coaching, on roles, responsibilities, confidentiality and fees. Any party may end the relationship at any time, subject to that agreement. The code describes a coaching agreement as typically setting out the goals of the coaching, how long it will run and how often sessions will be held, as well as confidentiality, payment and cancellation terms.

The ICF says its data show most coaching engagements last four to six months, with sessions of one to two hours, and that a coach may suggest activities or reflection between sessions. Many coaches use goal-setting frameworks to track progress.

Coaching, counselling and therapy

An ICF guide for coaches, written by Alicia Hullinger and Joel DiGirolamo, sets out how coaching differs from psychotherapy, which it also calls therapy or counselling. Coaching looks to the present and the future and is usually about performance, learning or development, while therapy gives more weight to emotions and the past and often works on healing or recovery from trauma. Coaching generally works with people who are functioning well. A coach may still ask about a client's past, family or feelings, to understand the story the client tells about their present and future, but a coach does not diagnose and does not offer treatment.

The guide also notes that a client who is managing daily life but not making progress in coaching may see a counsellor at the same time, with the coach continuing the work agreed in the coaching contract. Some coaches have other professional roles, such as mentor or therapist, and the ICF code requires a coach to tell the client when they are acting in a role other than that of coach.

Scope

What it includes

• Coaching of individuals in general life contexts (life coaching)
• Coaching in organisations, to develop job-related skills, performance or work-related personal development
• Agreed goals, worked on over a series of sessions within a coaching agreement

What it is not

• It is not therapy or counselling, and a coach does not diagnose or treat.
• It is not a registered health profession. An Ahpra spokesperson told SBS News in 2015 that life coaches are not recognised as health professionals under the national registration scheme.

Traditions and lineage

SBS News reported in 2015 that life coaching had begun in the United States about 20 years earlier. Thomas Leonard, a professional coach, founded the International Coach Federation in 1995 as a non-profit body through which coaches could support one another and develop the profession. It went on to set core competencies, a code of ethics, a process for hearing ethics complaints from consumers, standards for coach training, and a system of credentials that must be renewed every three years. In 2020, its 25th year, it became the International Coaching Federation. Its current code of ethics took effect on 1 April 2025, and its credentials are known as ACC, PCC and MCC.

Context

Within Spiritualism

Spiritfold has found no published source linking coaching with Spiritualism.

In Australian Spiritualism

Spiritfold has found no published source linking coaching with Spiritualism in Australia.

A Spiritualist perspective

Coaching sits outside Spiritualism, and a Spiritualist would see it as a separate skill that a person might use in their working life or bring to their own development. The thing to watch is the blending of roles. A medium who also coaches needs to be very clear, with the person in front of them, about which they are doing: a reading or a message is not a plan for someone's life, and spirit communication should never be presented as coaching advice, or coaching as anything more than it is.

The care the coaching bodies themselves ask for fits well with Spiritualist ideas of personal responsibility. Make no promises about results, keep within your training, and know when to suggest that someone see a counsellor or a registered health practitioner instead.

Coaching in Australia

Regulation

SBS News reported in 2015 that life coaching was unregulated in Australia, with no monitoring body to make sure coaches follow any rules, and that coaches were not required to look into a client's medical history or mental state. The ICF told SBS at the time that coaching is self-regulated worldwide and that the ICF hears complaints only about its own members.

Training

The accredited 11082NAT Certificate IV in Life Coaching Practice prepares graduates to start working as life coaches in their own practice, with individual clients in general coaching contexts, and covers basic life coaching and business planning skills. It replaced an earlier course, 10662NAT Certificate IV in Life Coaching, and is current until 16 August 2027.

Coaching in organisations

Standards Australia published the handbook HB 332-2011 Coaching in organizations on 18 May 2011. It gives guidelines for the professional practice of coaching in organisations and for training the coaches who work there, and is aimed at providers and buyers of coaching, coach trainers and professional bodies. It covers coaching given by a formally designated coach in an organisational setting to improve a client's job-related skills, job performance or work-related personal development. Standards Australia lists it as pending revision.

Professional bodies

ICF Australasia grew out of a volunteer group that began meeting in late 1998, and was incorporated in April 1999. The ICF's guide to referring clients to therapy was based on the views of mental health professionals and coaches from Australia and four other countries, and it points coaches to the action plan taught in Mental Health First Aid training, which was developed by Mental Health First Aid Australia.

Safety and good practice

• Knowing when to refer. The ICF guide treats referral as part of coaching. It suggests referring a client to a mental health professional when a problem gets in the way of daily life and has lasted for weeks, when the client keeps returning to a past event and cannot move forward, when progress has stalled despite reasonable time, or when the coach notices a cluster of signs of distress, such as marked changes in mood, withdrawal from people and activities, or disturbed sleep.
• Emergencies. The guide says immediate danger to the client or someone else needs direct action. In Australia, call triple zero (000) for anyone in immediate danger; Lifeline is on 13 11 14.
• How to raise it. The guide suggests talking privately when neither person is rushed, explaining the specific changes the coach has noticed, listening, and having a list of other helping professionals on hand. It lists a trusted friend, a member of the clergy or a support group among other sources of help.
• Working within competence. The ICF code asks coaches to describe their qualifications accurately, to work within the limits of their training and experience, to make only true statements about what coaching can offer, and to recognise when their own circumstances may affect their work and seek support. The guide adds that a coach who feels responsible for a client, pressured to solve the client's problems or stressed by them should talk to a mentor, supervisor or mental health professional.
• Confidentiality and records. Coaches agree in advance which confidential information might have to be disclosed, for example where the law requires it or where there is a risk of danger to the client or others, and keep and dispose of records securely.
• Boundaries. The ICF code asks coaches to set clear and culturally sensitive boundaries, including physical ones, forbids sexual or romantic relationships with clients, and requires coaches to tell clients about any payment received for referrals.
• Children and young people. The ICF code counts people with parental responsibility for a minor among those who may arrange coaching, so they are part of the coaching agreement. Under the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, organisations that work with children screen staff and volunteers for suitability and meet the child safe requirements of their state or territory.

Common questions

How is coaching different from counselling?

The ICF's guide for coaches puts it in terms of focus: coaching is about the present and future and about growth or performance, while therapy and counselling give more attention to the past, emotions and healing. A coach does not diagnose or treat, and should refer a client on when their needs go beyond coaching.

Are life coaches regulated in Australia?

No law requires coaches to register: when SBS News looked at the industry in 2015 it found no monitoring body, and Ahpra said life coaches were not part of the national scheme for health professionals. Coaching bodies such as the ICF set their own codes of ethics and handle complaints about their members.

How long does coaching take?

According to the ICF, most coaching engagements run for four to six months, with sessions of one to two hours.

Is coaching confidential?

The ICF code asks coaches to keep information strictly confidential, and to agree at the outset on the exceptions, such as a legal requirement or a risk of danger to the client or someone else.

Related modalities

• Counselling
• Neuro-linguistic programming

Further reading

• Hullinger, Alicia M. and Joel A. DiGirolamo. Referring a Client to Therapy: A Set of Guidelines for Coaches. International Coaching Federation, 2018.
• International Coaching Federation. "ICF Code of Ethics". ICF, 2025.
• Standards Australia. HB 332-2011 Coaching in organizations. Standards Australia, 2011.