If you’re wondering what a transformational coach does and how they differ from life coaches, you’re in the right place.
As a life coach with years of experience in transformational coaching, I’m excited to explain the differences to you.
In this article, I’ll go into great depth about how transformational coaches can help people reach amazing new levels of success and happiness in their life.
I’ll also explain what it takes to become a successful transformational coach.
Let’s dive right into it.
What Is Transformational Coaching?
Before we dive into some deep examples of how transformation coaching can help you, let’s begin with a basic definition.
Transformational coaching is the process of helping someone make permanent improvements to their personality.
There are plenty of other suitable definitions, but I have underlined the important parts of mine for you to bear in mind throughout this article.
These are the key differences to note between transformation coaching and other forms of coaching or therapy.
While many coaches will help clients develop better habits or make better decisions, a transformation coach will aim to make lasting changes to who someone is at their core.
Below, we’ll explore how they go about doing this.
What Does A Transformation Coach Do?
Transformational coaching is mostly talking therapy.
However, in order to help clients become a better version of themselves, a transformation coach will primarily focus on how a client’s self-image.
This will include their perceived strengths, weaknesses, goals, inspirations and limiting beliefs.
Once a coach gains a solid understanding of this, they can begin to work on altering the unhelpful elements of a client’s mindset.
Why Do We Need Transformational Coaching?
As children, teenagers and young adults, many of us develop incredible goals for our life. Our ambitions are limitless. Our levels of self-belief could shoot through the roof.
However, as we grow older, many of us suffer from repeated knocks to our confidence.
Perhaps it’s at the hands of unsupportive parents, school bullies or sub-par teachers.
Maybe it was one or more unfortunate incidents that no-one can be blamed for.
The point is: life eventually slaps us all in the face – and this can create lasting damage to the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
In many cases, this leads to people abandoning even the most modest of their ambitions, because they don’t believe they’re capable or deserving of them.
Often, they’ll develop unhelpful habits and treat other people in a way which doesn’t serve anyone well.
Many of us struggle to understand why we behave in a certain way. A lot of us conclude that’s just who we are.
However, what a lot of us don’t realise is: our perception of who we are is shaped by our past experiences and how we interpret them.
A transformational coach can help us to see this.
They will also work to help us interpret our experience of the world in a more helpful way.
This is how we become better versions of ourselves.
When we work to take steps towards something we truly want in life, we become happier and more fulfilled.
A transformational coach can help us erase our limiting beliefs and become that person ready to take the bull by the horns and charge towards our life purpose.
It’s not an easy process. That’s why it makes sense to get help from a professional.
What Are The Benefits Of Transformational Coaching?
Below, are some common scenarios where someone may choose to work with a transformation coach and the likely outcomes.
Transformational Coaching In Business
Transformational coaches will often work with clients who don’t believe they have what it takes to be successful or lead a team of people.
In this case, a coach would work with the aspiring business leader to discover why they have these limiting beliefs.
Then, they’ll help them to take a look at things differently.
The end result is that the individual finds the confidence to become a more assertive, ambitious and successful business leader.
Relationships
Self-sabotage is common in the world of personal relationships.
A lot of people throw away or ruin great relationships, because they don’t believe they are worthy of one.
These people will then repeatedly get into toxic relationships, because that’s all they believe they deserve.
In this situation, a transformational coach would need to take a look at where this lack of self-esteem stemmed from, before training clients to improve their self-image.
Transformational Coaches And Performance Anxiety
If you get nervous in high-stakes situations, transformational coaching could definitely assist you.
Performance anxiety often stems from feeling unworthy of success.
A transformational coach could help you discover where this unworthiness came from.
Also, they’ll help you begin to tell yourself a different story about it.
A Weight Loss Transformation Coach Could Prove More Useful Than A Personal Trainer
Often, the inability to stick to diet and exercise plans also stems from the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.
As such, you might want to work with a weight loss transformation coach, rather than (or as well as) a personal trainer.
Are You Suitable To Work With A Transformation Coach?
Transformation coaches aren’t miracle workers.
At their core, they are nothing more than life coaches who have taken the psychological training needed to dive into people’s subconscious beliefs.
That means you’ll still need to put the work in to make your desired transformation become reality.
There are only certain types of people who would do well to invest in transformational coaching. If you’re one of them, you’ll ideally be:
- open-minded;
- curious about personal development;
- ready to take responsibility for your life;
- able to accept that you need to change in order to succeed;
- someone who believes that the potential for greatness is inside of them.
Transformation Coach vs. Life Coach
For sure, a life coach will help you make drastic improvements in your life.
They are fully qualified to help you improve your daily habits, make better decisions, unlock your emotions and discover your life purpose.
The key difference between a life coach and transformation coach is how they work with their clients.
Life coaches tend to remain on the surface level when exploring a client’s inner thought patterns.
Transformation coaches dig deeper into the psyche of whoever they are working with – and help them make lasting changes to their behaviour.
It’s often a longer, more intense process.
Not everyone will feel the need to become an improved version of themselves.
Anyway, to summarise it succinctly:
Life coaches improve what you do. Transformation coaches improve who you are.
Honestly, the word ‘transformation’ is overused in the life coaching community.
Many life coaches will claim they are able to ‘transform’ their clients even when they remain on the surface level throughout their sessions.
By definition, a ‘transformation’ involves a dramatic change in form. A turnaround of one’s beliefs and values. A metamorphosis, if you will.
While humans ‘change’ all the time, we may only experience a couple of transformations in our life.
So, if you specifically want to work with a coach who specialises in transformation, you’ll need to probe further into what type of work will actually take place.
Top Transformational Coaches
Below, I’ve listed some of the most famous and successful coaches who are best known for their transformational coaching.
- Tony Robbins. Tony is widely regarded as the most popular motivational speaker in the world, and arguably most famous for this transformational work. People who attend Tony’s ‘Unleash The Power Within’ events often claim they leave feeling like a new person.
- Marisa Peer. Marisa is well known for her Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) approach. She works with the subconscious and hypnosis to create lasting transformation.
- Dr Wayne Dyer. The late Wayne Dyer wrote over 40 books on personal development and spiritual growth, including 21 New York Times Best Sellers. He was affectionately known as the “father of motivation” by his fans. In his later years, he focused almost exclusively on helping people see and improve their self-concept.
- Dr. Richard Bandler. Dr. Bandler is best known for co-founding the concept of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) – a psychological methodology widely used to understand and change human thought patterns. He has written several books and also runs a series of seminars aiming to help people transform through NLP.
- Werner Erhard. Werner is best known for founding Erhard Seminars Training (est). Its purpose was to transform the way one sees and make sense of life.
- Real Social Dynamics. Once the global leaders in men’s dating advice, Real Social Dynamics has shifted its coaching business to focus on personal transformation. Men and women are invited to attend one of the company’s live self-help events in order to heal trauma, understand themselves and connect with others in a more meaningful way. The company also sells digital products.
Of course, this is not a definitive list.
There are many other individuals who perhaps define themselves as a life coach or success coach, yet adopt elements of transformational coaching when working with clients.
Yet, you could watch any of the coaches in the list above to get a much better impression of what transformational work looks like.
Top Skills To Be A Successful Transformation Coach
You’ll learn (and hopefully master) all the basic life coaching skills while studying for your life coach certification.
However, if you are hoping to specialise in transformational coaching, there are a few skills which are particularly important to master.
These include:
- Observation. While a client speaks, a great coach will know how to monitor them for signs of unspoken thoughts. They will be able to read body language and facial expressions in order to gain deeper insights into how their client is feeling.
- Deep listening. Transformational coaches will be able to listen and understand the problems of others on a deep level. They’ll be able to see unspoken truths, from a client’s choice of words and their voice tonality.
- Rapport building. In order for their clients to be able to truly open up, a coach will need to build deep levels of trust. This allows clients to relax, and only then will their deepest truths be revealed.
If you definitely want to specialise and become a transformational coach, take the time to ensure your life coach training focuses heavily on these skills.
NLP and hypnosis
If they want to stand out from their business competitors, a life coach may also choose to study advanced talking therapies, such as NLP or hypnosis.
Although a deep understanding of these techniques may not be necessary to launch a successful life coaching business, they are fantastic methods to help encourage personal transformation.
How Do I Become A Transformation Coach?
It is technically possible to label yourself as a life coach, transformational coach or any other type of self-help guru, without having sought any formal coach training.
After all, life coaching is a self-regulated industry.
However, you’ll struggle to attract a steady flow of clients this way.
After a couple of minutes of research, most people will be made aware that they need to find a certified coach.
So, if you really want to launch a successful coaching business, a great first step is to enrol in a coach certification program.
Once you’ve received your life coach certification, you’ll find it easier to stand out from the competition and attract a steady stream of clients, provided you know how to effectively market your business.
The Best Life Coach Certification Programs
The number one rule for choosing a life coach certification program is to enrol in one that is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
This is the most reputable life coaching organization by a long shot.
A coach certification accredited by the ICF will impress clients more than one that isn’t.
Still, there are plenty of ICF-accredited coach certification programs to choose from.
When choosing the most suitable life coach training program for you, it’s important to consider the length and cost of the program, as well as what’s included.
Of course, if you want to specialise in a particular type of life coaching (such as transformation coaching), you’ll probably want to ensure that the training teaches you the specific skills needed to excel.
I have listed my 6 most highly-recommended ICF-accredited life coach certification programs.
What Is An Average Salary For A Transformation Coach?
There are many studies suggesting how much money you can expect to make by launching a transformational coaching business.
These studies indicate that an average transformational coach can expect to earn between $40,000 and $60,000 per year.
Of course, they are free to charge clients whatever they want. So, this ballpark figure could rise or fall depending on demand for their coaching services.
As mentioned above, a life coach certification will go a long way to increasing the amount of clients who are willing to pay good money to work with you. A professional-looking website and a solid marketing strategy will help, as well testimonials from previous clients boasting about their coaching transformation.
That’s transformation coaching in a nutshell. Reach out if you have more questions.
Hopefully, this guide has helped you get a clear idea of what a transformational coach can do for their clients.
If you want to know more about this area of coaching or what it takes to become a transformational coach, feel free to leave a comment.
I’d love to hear from you!
If you are looking for different coaching certificates…
