Life Coaching Courses for Counsellors

Whether you are thinking about moving from counselling into life coaching, or want to add a coaching qualification alongside your existing practice, we cover everything you need to know. The Coaching Academy is the UK's leading life coaching training academy, with over 14,000 coaches trained. Our courses are accredited by the AC and ICF and delivered entirely through live online classes, designed to fit around a working practice.

How Will Life Coaching Help My Counselling Clients

Life coaching gives clients a different kind of conversation, one that starts from where they want to go rather than where they have been. It works best alongside counselling, not instead of it. For clients who have already done real work on themselves in therapy and are ready to put that to use, coaching gives them somewhere to take it.

The clients who tend to respond well to coaching are those who are functioning reasonably well but feel stuck. They know something needs to change but are not sure what, or they know what they want but cannot seem to move towards it. Coaching works directly on this: helping them get clear on what they are after and building the practical habits that get them there.

What counsellors often notice is that clients can make genuine progress in sessions but then struggle to carry it into their day-to-day lives. Coaching bridges that gap. It gives people a structured way to apply what they have worked out about themselves to the situations they are actually facing, and it tends to keep them more engaged between appointments because they are working towards something specific.

Hear from our students about their experience.

"As a Counsellor, I've seen first-hand the difference that life coaching can make in my clients' lives. Life coaching provides clients with a well-rounded and comprehensive approach to personal growth and well-being. Life coaching provides clients with encouragement and accountability, which can increase their engagement in the mentoring process and support their progress. Clients receive a combined approach that addresses both their emotional and practical needs. This can lead to better outcomes and improved quality of life."

Jackie, Roehampton

What Combining Coaching and Counselling Does For Your Clients

A more holistic approach

As a counsellor you already work with the whole person. Adding coaching means your clients can work through what is holding them back in sessions, then use coaching to focus on what they want to do differently. The two sit together naturally.

From reflection to action

Counselling helps clients understand themselves. Coaching helps them do something with that. For clients who have done the harder work but feel stuck on what comes next, coaching shifts the conversation onto what they are capable of and where they want to go.

Enhanced skills development

Life coaching can help clients develop practical skills, such as communication, goal setting and stress management. This provides additional tools and strategies for personal growth and change.

Better outcomes

By combining counselling and life coaching, clients receive a well-rounded approach that addresses both their emotional and practical needs. This can lead to better outcomes and improved quality of life.

Increased engagement and accountability

Counsellors often notice that clients lose progress between appointments. Coaching builds in a natural rhythm of commitment and follow-through, which tends to keep clients more engaged week to week.

Life Coaching Skills in Counselling

As a qualified counsellor, you already have many of the skills that make a good life coach. You know how to listen properly, build trust quickly, and hold a space where people feel able to be honest. What a coaching qualification adds is a clear framework for working with clients who are ready to look at what comes next rather than what has already been achieved.

Counselling and coaching cover different parts of the same journey. Counselling helps people understand where they are and why. Coaching works with people who are ready to decide where they want to go. For clients who are doing reasonably well but feel stuck, coaching often gets results that talking therapy alone does not reach.

Person-centred questioning: in coaching, this becomes the main tool for helping clients work out what they actually want
Reflective listening: used to surface the thinking patterns and assumptions getting in a client's way
Contracting: coaching is built around a clear agreement on what the client wants to achieve
Knowing when to refer on: just as important in coaching as in counselling
Experience across different client situations: that background makes for richer coaching conversations

Coaching is increasingly recognised as a natural extension of counselling practice. The main professional bodies, including BACP, UKCP and NCPS, have all included coaching within their frameworks, and a growing number of counsellors hold a qualification alongside their main registration.

Not quite ready? Come and meet us first.

We run a range of free webinars, from our 'How to become a successful Life Coach' session to sessions exploring specialist coaching niches. There's no obligation and no sales pressure - just honest answers to your questions.

Click a date and time below to book your place.

How to become a successful Life Coach | 30th June, 7:00pm

Power of Beliefs in Coaching | 9th July, 12:00pm

Introduction to NLP | 15th July, 7:00pm

Introduction to Business Coaching | 29th July, 7:00pm

Introduction to Corporate Coaching | 16th September, 7:00pm

Introduction to Coaching Within Education | 29th October, 12:00pm