Sometimes people think that life coaches focus on battling negative aspects of their lives. In reality, it is the opposite. Life coaches focus on the positives, finding good in any situation, and planning for the future. They help guide those who are looking for help in navigating their personal and professional lives.
In a nutshell, the main goal of life coaches is to help clients find happiness and success through guidance and support. It is a somewhat common misconception that a life coach is the same as a therapist. This is untrue, as the differences between these two professions are plentiful.
The key difference is that a life coach focuses on personal growth and the future, while a therapist mostly focuses on healing by examining the past traumas of the client.
There is another very practical difference between the two professions – you need at least a bachelor’s degree to become a therapist, but you do not need an academic degree to become a life coach.
Life coaching is the second quickest growing industry in the United States with a whopping yearly growth rate of 6.7%. That said, not anyone can become a life coach. You need specific training focused on communication skills and an understanding of human psychology. Plus, it is imperative to have an entrepreneurial mindset – without clients, your life coaching career will not take off, no matter how well-prepared you are.
A good online course can be a great starting point for a career as a life coach. You can learn all of the relevant theory in one place. Plus, you can earn a life coach certification – something that can be very helpful for your career.
To help you choose the right resources for getting started, we reviewed the best online life coaching courses.
Without further ado, let’s get right into it.
These are the best life coaching courses for 2021.
Best Life Coaching Courses
Best Overall: Life Coaching Certificate Course (Beginner to Advanced) (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- A comprehensive course
- Engaging presentation
- Life coaching certificate included
- Great value
Cons
- Not suitable for those looking for a quick continuing education course
The “Life Coach Certification Course” from Udemy is our pick for the best overall online life coaching course in 2021. Let’s quickly examine what makes this particular class stand out from the pack.
For one, the class comes with 33 hours of video lessons, five articles, and 162 additional learning resources. This amount of material easily makes it the most comprehensive online life coaching course available.
From goal-setting to advanced communication skills, nearly every topic relevant to successful life coaching is covered here. And, as a cherry on top of the cake, you will walk away with a certification that marks your expertise in all of these topics.
But, it is not only the sheer quantity of content and the certification that make this class a winner. The tutor deserves a mention as well.
Kain Ramsay has more than a decade of international experience in the fields of entrepreneurship, mentorship, and applied psychology. His methodology has been developed through rigorous analysis of all his real-life experiences teaching both individuals and organizations.
The result is a class that is very comprehensive yet accessible enough for students who have no prior experience in life coaching and psychology in general.
That said, completing this course successfully does take time and effort. If you are starting from scratch, there is a lot to learn and practice. And, it will not always be an easy ride.
Plus, you will need to get some real-life practice under your belt. Here, even the best online life coaching courses can’t do the work for you. Still, as far as the theoretical online life coaching courses go, this class is the best possible starting point.
Best Crash Course: Designing The Life You Want: 4 Exercises for Clarity and Motivation (Skillshare)
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- A very concise and practical course
- Easy to follow
- Can be taken for free using the Skillshare 30-day trial
Cons
- Very short
We continue with “Designing The Life You Want”, an online life coaching class from Skillshare. It is a short and sweet (running at only 22 minutes) class presented by Michelle B.
Michelle is a YouTube content creator and a self-described “behavior change nerd”.
In her class, Michelle guides the students through 4 quick visioning and self-reflection exercises:
- Creating your anti-vision – An exercise in which you will lay out a detailed vision of a life of unhappiness and failure. Sounds counterintuitive? Well, It isn’t, and you will understand why when you take the class. This exercise in psychology will actually be a game-changer for an aspiring life coach.
- 80/20 Your Life – An exercise on how to apply the famous Pareto principle for greater self-clarity and personal success.
- Creating your values – An exercise for developing a personal value system that will bring genuine success and happiness.
- Perfect day exercise – An opposite of the anti-vision exercise. Here, you will describe your ideal day in detail.
The class comes with a downloadable workbook, in which you will do all the aforementioned exercises.
At a glance, these exercises might seem overly simple.
But, motivating the client is one of the very cornerstones of life coaching.
And, one of the easiest ways of getting people motivated? Make them get detailed about what is holding them back and what they actually want to achieve in life (these specific goals are also known as SMART goals).
It is always a surprise just how well something so simple works.
All things considered, this 22-minute life coaching class is a gem of a course for anyone interested in how behavioral change works.
Best for Finding Direction in Life: Life Purpose Life Coach Certification (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Led by two experienced tutors
- Contains practical career tips for life coaches
- Life coaching certification included
- Includes a workbook that life coaches can use when working with their clients
Cons
- Can get slightly repetitive at times
Next up, we have “Life Purpose Life Coach Certification” from Udemy and Transformation Academy. It is led by Joeel and Natalie Rivera, the CEOs of Transformation Services Inc.
Transformation Services Inc directly manages Transformation Academy, a US-based company that focuses on teaching professional life coaches worldwide.
This online life coaching class is focused on something that nearly anyone has struggled with at some point in their lives – finding purpose in their lives.
In this course, the Riveras give aspiring life coaches the tools and techniques for guiding their clients towards finding meaning and purpose in their lives. In addition to advanced life coaching techniques, students will also get helpful tips for their career as life coaches.
For example, the tutors show the students how to expand their businesses by finding new coaching niches and opening up new revenue streams.
It is a highly practical 6.5-hour course that will be helpful for anyone planning on becoming a life coach. Not only does it feature a plethora of great life coaching techniques, but it also comes with a downloadable workbook, a certification, and several useful career tips.
A highly useful course for anyone working or planning to work as a life coach.
Best for Positive Thinking: Life Mastery: Achieving Happiness and Success (LinkedIn Learning)
- Lots of topics covered
- Led by a renowned expert on life coaching, business management, and leadership
- Can be taken for free with the LinkedIn Learning trial
Cons
- Some of the lessons are too short
“Life Mastery” from LinkedIn Learning is the next online life coaching class we are looking at.
It is a 3-hour course delivered by Chris Croft. Croft is an author, a former university lecturer, and a professional instructor on business leadership, time management, and negotiation.
In this online course, Croft gives the students actionable tips on how they can make improvements in 3 of the most important aspects of their lives – health, success, and happiness.
As a little spoiler, allow me to list some of the topics covered in this class:
- The science of goal-setting
- Elimination of non-valuable aspects of your life
- Self-management
- Self-organization
- Cultivation of positivity
- Becoming assertive in professional and personal life
- The science of influence
Obviously, all of these topics are relevant to the skill set of a life coach. That being said, the course goes through all of the topics relatively quickly.
If you have no prior experience with motivational psychology, this course might bombard you with too much information at once. Thus, I would suggest taking your time with this course.
And, if you find a particular topic to be relevant to you or your clients, feel free to dive deeper and do some further research on the subject.
Best for a Life Coaching Business: Life Coaching: Start Up Your Own Life Coaching Business (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Delivered by a professional psychotherapist
- Course includes case studies
- Course includes valuable lessons on running a life coaching business
- Quizzes included
Cons
- The presentation style of the instructor feels monotonous at times
“Life Coaching” from Udemy is next on our list of best online life coaching courses. The class is delivered by Dr. Libby Seery, a professional psychotherapist, and counselor.
This 2.5-hour class is targeted at people who are planning on starting and running their own life coaching business.
In addition to giving the students a plethora of resources for learning the theory of life coaching, Seery also heavily focuses on the business aspect of life coaching.
You will get expert-led lessons on networking, marketing your business, and even pricing your services. All of this will be very useful for someone planning on launching his or her life coaching business.
In addition to theoretical material on life coaching and business, you will also get several case studies in this class. Yet another strong point that separates this course from many alternatives.
All things considered, a great class for everyone looking for a primer on how to start and run a life coaching business.
Best for Goal-Setting: Goal Setting to Success: Life Coach Certification Accredited (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Best coverage of the psychology of goal-setting
- Lays out a practical 4-step system that life coaches could use with their clients
- Comprehensive coverage of the topic
- Certificate included
Cons
- Limited coverage outside of goal-setting theory
“Goal Setting to Success” from Udemy is the course we are looking at next. The 6,5-hour class is delivered by Joeel and Natalie Rivera, tutors responsible for several of the best online resources on life coaching.
In this class, the Riveras teach the students about one of the fundamentals of life coaching – goal-setting.
While the class does not have strict prerequisites, it is recommended that you have a basic understanding of the life coaching business. You do not have to already work as a professional life coach to get value out of this class, but it would help if you already had an idea of the kind of service you will provide.
The course is primarily focused on a 4-step system that will help students in determining and achieving their goals. Let’s take a quick look at how this system is utilized:
- Determining the goals of the client and the life coach
- Elimination of limiting subconscious beliefs of the client
- Creating a concrete plan for the personal and professional success of the client
- Helping the client stay motivated
Of course, this is only a quick summary of this system. In the full course, the teachers will also show how life coaches can implement this system in real life.
In a nutshell, this is one of the best online life coaching courses on goal setting. It is comprehensive, engaging, and full of techniques that life coaches can instantly start applying in their practice.
Best for Relationships: Certified Relationship Workshop Facilitator for Life Coaches (Udemy)
New customer offer! Top courses from $14.99 when you first visit Udemy (expires 31 March 2024).
- Best-in-class coverage of relationship life coaching
- Communication strategies taught that can be applied in both business and personal life
- Engaging delivery of the instructors
- Certificate included
Cons
- Narrow focus on communication
“Certified Relationship Workshop Facilitator for Life Coaches” is our pick for the best online life coaching course on relationships.
Relationship trouble is unsurprisingly one of the most common reasons people turn to life coaches for guidance. We are all social animals after all. And, if we feel misguided in our interpersonal relationships, we feel lost. This is where a good life coach can step in and provide help for the client.
“Relationship Workshop Facilitator” is a 5-hour class that teaches aspiring life coaches how to navigate the often complicated world of personal relationships. These are some of the topics discussed in this online course:
- The biology of love
- Creating happy relationships
- How our unconscious minds affect our relationships
- Strategies for effective, low-conflict communication
As you see, the course does heavily focus on romantic relationships. The area at which people most commonly turn to a life coach for guidance.
That said, some of the communication skills taught here are universal and can be applied in other relationships as well. For example, learning how to effectively diffuse conflict in high-pressure situations can be very beneficial in business and familial relationships as well.
All things considered, a very helpful class for all life coaches planning on working in the relationship niche.
