Coach's Role of a Lifetime

Every morning life coach Heidi Hunter reprograms herself in much the same way as a computer is rebooted at the start of a working day.

She gets up at 4.30am reads her affirmations, writes in her journal, listens to tapes and exercises with her husband, Don.

"I reinvent myself each day, so that I feel centred and comfortable within myself before I go to work to help others," she says.

Ms Hunter is the director of the Victorian arm of the Life Coaching Academy, an association of people who motivate, inspire and guide others to improve their lives. That is the theory behind this increasingly popular service.

In reality, life coaches are substitutes for the trusted family member or close friend - a species that seems to have vanished in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.

"People today don't allow time for friendship and families are too busy and fragmented to help," Ms Hunter said.

"The breakdown in the family structure has meant people no longer have easy access to an aunt or grandparent who is prepared to listen and offer advice."

And so people are turning to life coaches in droves. In Britain and the US it is a massive phenomenon, Ms Hunter says. She believes there are about 500 trained coaches in Australia.

"There are probably many more practitioners putting their shingle out on the door, but who may not be properly trained," she says.

Part of her role as LCA director is to co-ordinate the three-month training program that creates a coach.

Early this year, the recently established Victorian LCA held a recruiting seminar attended by nearly 150 people. Ms Hunter signed up eight potential coaches.

"We don't accept just anyone. First we interview them to ascertain their motives and then they are required to sign a code of ethics before they are registered."

Generally, life coaches charge clients between $75 and $275 for a 45-minute phone session.

Ms Hunter says she earns at the upper end of that scale when she works as a coach.

She also has two coaches of her own - one for business and a personal coach who helps her with her holistic goals.

Clients use coaches for all manner of reasons, she says. It could be to help create wealth, redirect their lifestyles or careers, improve their relationships or to find focus after a job loss or personal crisis.

She cites one client whose small retail business went on to boom after a few life coaching sessions.

"This client was in a rut. She wondered if it was time to close up shop and she need motivation to look after herself more."

Ms Hunter helped her identify that it was her personal development that she was neglecting and that her other dilemmas stemmed from that.

"Everyone knows what they want out of life, but they have to be asked the right questions before it becomes apparent and that is where a life coach helps," Ms Hunter says.

Her own journey of discovery began while she was working as a safety manager for Dreamworld, the Gold Coast amusement park.

As she tried to explain environment and safety legislation to workers, she realised she would have to make the material personally relevant to listeners before she could get them interested.

She realised that learning a new way of communicating with people to get to the core of their needs was what she really wanted to do.

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