LIFE COACHING DURING CORONA COVID 19 PANDEMIC PERIOD

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Jasper Ouma , One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Is it morally right to look for Life Coaching clients during this devastating Corona Covid 19 Pandemic? When every business has closed due to lockdown and everybody is forced to stay at home! When most Economies are grinding to a halt due to restrictions of movement of both Labour and consumers! When most people are at the lowest psychologically and nobody seems to know what is next! When the breaking news in all TV stations is the statistics of death over the last 24 hour period, the usually noisy politicians are locked in the houses. Plus the normal daily human occupation entertainments like football and other physical games are no more. Even the vices we enjoy and condemn like gambling, bets are off.
The next important question to address is are people looking for Life Coaching during this Corona Covid 19 Pandemic? As a Coach, I would like to confidently say yes, but I hesitate because this pandemic has introduced some new protocols that we are not used to. Now Coaching is a relationship-oriented activity, and yet Corona Covid 19 is forcing these relationships to be destroyed. The pandemic commands people to maintain Social Distance, no hugging, no handshake, no pecks or any activity that puts you into physical contact with your neighbor. I find it difficult to meet my client, especially the first day and just fly a greeting! I usually feel warm and welcome when we meet and hug and pat each other on the back as we introduce the subject of Life Coaching and if an old Client, a quick ice-breaking chat on the progress of our Coaching walk.
And yet Life Coaching during this Corona Covid 19 Pandemic is totally essential, I might even boldly say, COMPLETELY ESSENTIAL. This Pandemic has destroyed structures as people are used to and created new ones that are taking time to sink in. Families are forced to stay together, in most cases in much-closed spaces – not bad in itself, but requires lots of adjusting, especially for people who work in different industries, different shifts, boarding schools, and all situations that generally keep people apart. Life coaching during this Corona Covid 19 Pandemic will prepare people for life after the Pandemic. This is perhaps the best time to internally reflect, using a professional guide, and utilize those intrinsic skills to plot your next move in life.
The dilemma facing the continuation of Life Coaching during the Corona Covid 19 Pandemic is the space to conduct these Coaching sessions. The convenient and easy to manage coffee shops are not operational. Coaches sometimes use open spaces that provide environmental entertainment to the client as they delve into the SMART goals necessary to drive change, these are also currently under Lockdown. Of course, the worst is that in most cases, MONEY is also under Lockdown!
So what really is the way ahead? Life Coaching has to continue during this pandemic because life is not ending. One needs to be very creative and dig deep into creativity to come up with an acceptable and effective communication avenue that is acceptable to the client. Life Coaching is not going to be the same again after this pandemic. We have to explore and accept online and remote coaching as the way ahead. For use in the “Developing World” it is still a grey area but has to be fully exploited for Coaching to succeed. For now, we can live within the existing barriers, but just as we help our clients to go over their limiting barriers and beliefs, Coaches have to move on.