Is a Life Coach worth it? Benefits, pitfalls, & why a friend isn't a Coach
By Karin Peeters | Last updated on January 4th, 2026
If you’d ask me “Is a life coach worth it?” I’d say, in many cases, yes. Life Coaching can be deeply supportive during moments of transition, when you feel lost, stuck, overwhelmed, uncertain or indecisive. And during moments of transition and expansion, where you’d like to grow beyond your current horizons and step into a greater version of yourself.
Life Coaching clients experience benefits like clarity, emotional relief, renewed direction, stronger confidence, better boundaries, happier relationships and deeper alignment with who they want to be.
But Life Coaching is not a magic wand, and it’s not for everyone and every situation. The pitfalls are the dangerously unregulated field coaches are working in, the lack of solid experience and a tendency to create dependency instead of empowerment. But in my eyes the most overlooked drawback is a lack of personal and emotional awareness. Any Coach, no matter how genuine their intentions, can only guide you as far as they have travelled within themselves… I’ll explain more in this blog. Enjoy reading!
Is a Life Coach worth it? Frequently asked questions
Now, if you’re considering hiring a Life Coach, you might be wondering about the following questions, which are covered in this post:
Is a Life Coach worth it?
What are the benefits of Life Coaching?
What are the pitfalls, downsides and challenges of hiring a Life Coach?
How is talking to a Life Coach different from talking to a friend?
This thorough guide offers an honest, clear and grounded perspective including step‑by‑step guidance on the benefits and pitfalls of working with a Life Coach, so you can make a well-informed decision that is best for you.
Let’s explore these questions, and dig into the full landscape of hiring a Life Coach, including what to look for,
what to avoid, and how to choose support that genuinely moves you forward.
Let’s dig into the main question: Is a Life Coach worth it?
What are the benefits of Life Coaching?
The benefits and advantages of Life Coaching are to turn your confusion into clarity, build confidence, and create steady, sustainable change in how you think, feel, and make decisions. At its heart, it supports you to live in a way that feels more authentic, aligned, and genuinely your own.
Clients often come to see me with that particular mixture of frustration and hope that I’ve come to recognise when they say, “I know something needs to change. I just don’t know what I want instead, or how to get there.” That line, in one form or another, is why many people explore if hiring a Life Coach is beneficial for them.
There are so many tangible and intangible benefits and advantages to Life Coaching. Here are some shared with us from previous clients:
Clarity & Focus
Many people come to coaching feeling foggy. Within a few sessions, the mental fog lifts, clarity arises and decisions feel easier. Receiving support when making big life decisions, and navigating crossroads with confidence. Clients describe a renewed sense of direction.
Improved Relationships
Whether you are working directly on your romantic relationship or connection with the people in your life in general, many clients say coaching has helped them express their needs more clearly, set better boundaries, and show up more honestly.
Emotional Maturity
building confidence and self trust - You learn to trust your inner voice rather than second-guessing yourself. You’ll feel steadier within yourself and more equipped to deal with life, even when it feels chaotic.
Relief and Spaciousness
Having a dedicated moment to pause and turn inwards is a gift to yourself. Life goes at such a fast pace, there is always so much to do. To allow yourself calm amidst the storm brings relief from what you’ve been holding for so long. Clients often mention they can finally breathe properly again.
Behaviour change that sticks
Rather than forcing habits, you learn to work with balancing your nervous system, so change becomes sustainable. Feeling more confident in your own being has a wonderful ripple effect on all areas of your life.
Personal growth and resilience
Coaching helps you regulate your emotions, understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviour patterns, and respond rather than react. It develops deeper self-awareness, resulting in more intentional choices that are truly right for you.
Accountability that works
Not pressure. Not shame. A gentle hand on your back, keeping you moving toward what matters. Turning your deepest intentions into inspired action.
Living in Alignment
Perhaps the greatest benefit: your life begins to feel more like your own. Authentic. Aligned. Truthful. To live from your heart and deeper knowing. Learning how to make choices that match your values and your innermost being. isn’t that the biggest freedom of all?
A client once said
“I came to you for life and career coaching, and I ended up rediscovering who I am.”
That’s the magic of this work. Life Coaching builds the foundations for a more grounded, meaningful, and joyous life.
What are the downsides, risks, drawbacks and pitfalls of working with a Life Coach?
The pitfalls of Life Coaching are that certain coaches out there are unqualified, underexperienced, overstep into therapeutic territory, (unconsciously) avoid your real and deeper emotions, create a dependency on their guidance rather than strengthening your own clarity and self-confidence, or haven’t done the work on themselves.
In short, Life Coaching becomes unhelpful when it isn’t grounded in skill, ethics, integrity, conscious awareness and genuinely emotionally attuned to the client.
CLIENT REVIEW
“I never liked confrontation, and Life Coaching helped me deal with this in a positive way.”
Lynda Sullivan
Life Coaching can be incredibly helpful, but only when it’s done well.
Here are the risks, dangers and pitfalls to be aware of, as there are real downsides to hiring a Life Coach when:
Life Coaches are unqualified, untrained or inexperienced
The unregulated nature of the coaching profession means literally anyone can call themselves a Coach. This is serious and can lead to unrealistic promises, unethical practices, an approach that is too generic or formulaic, and clients feeling misled. Or worse, the client-coach relationship lacks trust or safety, potentially re-traumatising the client.
At Vitalis Coaching & Therapy, we are all experienced Life Coaches and qualified Therapists. We have all sat in the client seat for years and found the courage to reflect on our own life deeply and to revise what wasn’t working. And we still see our own Coaches, Therapists and Supervisors on a regular basis. We have been where you are, needing to make a significant shift and now we can help you do the same.
Our founder, Karin Peeters, is a Life & Career Coach, Counsellor & Psychotherapist and has worked full-time with clients since 2006.
Life Coaches overstep: when you need therapy instead of coaching
If a coach tries to treat trauma, diagnose you, or tell you what decisions to make that is a red flag. A good Life Coach should be aware of their professional boundaries of competence and ethics. But unfortunately this isn’t always the case, so trust your instincts and if in doubt, bring it up. If that conversation doesn’t feel safe, it’s OK to end the work with this particular person.
In a nutshell: Life Coaches do not have the training to treat complex emotional experiences from your past. Psychotherapists however are properly trained how to treat trauma, and only psychiatrists have had sufficient training to be legally allowed to give you a medical mental health diagnosis.
Karin Peeters, our founder, is a qualified Counsellor & Psychotherapist. She studied for five years at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy (CCPE in London, United Kingdom), a training organisation recognised by the internationally renowned accreditation body the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapists (UKCP). A massive mouth full, but it matters. Your well-being matters, your emotional safety matters. Because everyone at Vitalis Coaching & Therapy is trained in therapeutic modalities and some of us also in specific trauma healing practices like EMDR Therapy, we are able to recognise when therapy is more appropriate for you. We can integrate evidence‑based therapeutic techniques in the sessions, if you would like us to.
Boundaries in the work are an important aspect of hiring the right professional for you. If you are wondering about Life Coaching vs Therapy: which is right for me? You’ll appreciate this post on why at Vitalis we offer both Coaching and Therapy:
Life Coaches are emotionally bypassing: emotional depth is required but not provided
Some coaching leans so strongly toward “positivity” and “manifesting” that it quietly encourages people to skip past their real feelings. When discomfort is brushed aside or reframed too quickly, you can end up feeling unheard, misunderstood, or even blamed for not being “positive enough”. Unskilful coaching can unintentionally minimise genuine hurt, making you hide parts of yourself that actually need attention, care, and space.
Real growth happens when your emotional world is met with honesty and compassion, not bypassed with slogans or forced optimism.
If a coach can hold silence without rushing to fill it, it shows they’re comfortable with real emotion and don’t need to rush in to fill the space. Presence and steadiness show they don’t avoid discomfort, and can hold you with care.
“I worked as a Trainee Counsellor at Her Majesty Prison Service Wormwood Scrubs, London’s biggest male prison for two years part-time. Besides a deep appreciation for blue skies, vast horizons and the freedom to roam, it taught me to sit with people’s raw emotions. Not just anxiety, but terror. Not just anger, but rage. Not just sadness, but utter despair. Not just embarrassment, but deep black shame…
Based on my experience of working with the male inmates at the prison, trust me, whatever you bring me, I can sit with it. And if I can sit with it, be with it, breathe through it, witness it, and remain calm, loving, and emotionally at ease, then so can you. This I believe teaches emotional safety, resilience, self-trust and eventually a restored sense of self-worth.”
Karin Peeters
Life Coaches create dependency
In the early stages, coaching can feel like a much-needed crutch: a place to lean after carrying so much on your own for far too long. That support is valuable, and it brings real relief.
But if a Life Coach positions themselves as the expert on your life, or if you start to feel you cannot make choices without their input, something essential is being missed. Good coaching strengthens your resilience and self-trust so you gradually rely on yourself again. The aim is empowerment, not dependence - a steady return to hearing your own voice with confidence.
A good coach won’t make your decisions for you. They’ll strengthen the part of you that can make your own.
Life Coaches who haven’t done the real work on themselves
I can talk about this one for hours, as it is such a common and big risk when hiring a Life Coach. Let me illustrate it with a story. Let’s take grief. How on earth can I help you process your own grief if I have not sat with my own? If I haven’t touched the depths and darkness of my own sadness, hit rock bottom and found peace and acceptance at the other end? We can only help someone else to the depths we visited inside ourselves.
I believe the only way out is through. And the only way for me to be the guiding light on your journey is by knowing the terrain. I might not know your story, and it might differ from mine. But I know the landscape of the emotions you are facing, I know the paths and cliff edges and deep holes we might encounter. I’ve been there. I’ve got a map, a flashlight and a rucksack full of snacks. I’m not afraid, because I’ve been there already. And came out the other end. So now I can guide you do the same.
“Whoever you decide to work with, make sure they have done the work on themselves. Are they like a role-model to you? Do you feel inspired by their journey, the hurdles they overcame, the qualities they developed as a human being as a result of the challenges they faced? Look for a Life Coach whose being reflects the qualities you’re trying to grow. Because all that goodness, they can now teach you.” - Karin Peeters
Choose a Life Coach who has genuinely faced themselves. When they have done their inner work, their presence carries a grounded wisdom you can sense. Not professional performance, but real humanity.
Let’s recap: pitfalls of Life Coaching
In a nutshell, the downsides of Life Coaching arise when the Coach is unqualified or inexperienced, oversteps their role, bypasses real emotions, creates dependency instead of empowerment and lacks self-development, personal growth or emotional maturity.
Good professional coaching should feel safe, ethical, grounded, and focused on strengthening your own clarity and confidence, not taking it away. It’s emotionally attuned, honours your requests, and is respectful of your feelings and pace. And most importantly, it’s inspiring and makes you wish to be like them!
Making sure you hire the right Life Coach for you? I’ve got your back. Request a free Discovery Call here:
If these pitfalls of Life Coaching sound a little doom and gloom, do not worry. At Vitalis Coaching & Therapy we are experienced coaches and qualified psychotherapists. With us, you can choose between purely solution-focused coaching, deeper psychotherapeutic work, or a blend. We also bring a spiritual and holistic integration into the Life Coaching sessions, drawing on Eastern philosophy, mindfulness and meditation alongside Western psychological methods.
Vitalis Coaching & Therapy is a fully-fledged practice combining therapy, coaching and spiritual-inspired guidance. We’re rooted in serious training, but with a heart for meaning, purpose, and alignment with your deeper self.
Why wouldn’t you just talk to a friend instead of hiring a Life Coach?
Friends offer belonging. BBFs offer love. Life Coaches offer clarity. Where a friend comforts you, a professional Life Coach challenges you in a supportive, growth-oriented way. They show you aspects of yourself that you cannot see on your own, we call it your shadow in psychology, and that’s where the greatest potential for transformation lies.
It’s natural to enjoy talking to friends and family about your worries and challenges. It is an important part of your relationship with them.
But a Life Coach has spent years - decades even - doing their own inner work and studying human behaviour, psychology, and growth. This gives you a clear, grounded perspective, one that isn’t limited by someone else’s history, but is rooted in experience, training, and emotional maturity.
Life Coaches vs Friends
ask deeper questions;
mirror your blind spots;
support sustained change;
keep you accountable;
create a confidential, structured space;
help you grow beyond your comfort zone.
So why hire a Life Coach instead of talking to a friend?
This is what clients have told us over the years:
No longer feeling like a burden: When you are stuck in a particular situation and have the same story on repeat you can begin to feel like a burden to friends and family. A Life Coach listens to you, without you having to feel guilty for taking up space.
In safe hands with a trained professional: A trained professional offers something very different from even the kindest friend or family member. Your personal growth and happiness sit at the core of their work, and their support is steady, sincere, heartfelt, and entirely focused on you.
An un-attached, impartial opinion (no personal agenda): Friends and family can be invested in a certain outcome, for example emotionally or financially. Without intending to, their desired outcome can be layered, self-centred, manipulative, judgemental or biased. To talk to someone who is completely neutral and helps you find your own truth is an incredible relief.
A wider perspective based on their own solid inner work: Friends can only guide you as far as they have travelled themselves. Their support is sincere, but naturally shaped by their own blind spots, beliefs, fears, limitations, and unexamined patterns.
As a result of working with a Life Coach you’ll understand yourself more clearly, transform patterns that are holding you back, and receive tools and techniques that genuinely improve your day-to-day life (and your relationships with those lovely friends and family members!).
Friends and family care deeply, but a professional Life Coach brings expertise, experience, boundaries, and emotional maturity. Life Coaches create a space where you can explore honestly without worrying about being judged, misunderstood, hurting or burdening anyone.
Avoid over‑using friends and family, and enjoy the professional sounding board a Life Coach provides.
You’re probably not looking for pep talks, cheerleading or surface-level motivation. You’re looking for a professional who meets you at depth and who understands the psychological undercurrents beneath your decisions, your doubts, and your behavioural patterns. A Life Coach brings you a partnership that challenges you where needed, tells you to pause where you need to feel more deeply, and helps you see yourself and your future greater and lighter than you see yourself.
CLIENT REVIEW
“Karin helped me to recognise where my limitations and beliefs came from and how I would be able to overcome them. I now feel in control again.”
- KS -
Meet the author: Hi, I’m Karin Peeters
I’ve worked as a Coach & Therapist in London and with international clients via Zoom since 2006, am born and raised in the Netherlands and am based in the United Kingdom. If you appreciate a holistic, integrative approach that blends therapy, coaching and spiritual insight, especially if you are curious about mindfulness, meditation or Eastern-inspired practices (without the work becoming airy-fairy), I am the perfect Life Coach and Psychotherapist for you.
I adore my work, and would love to hear from you to help you get unstuck and move forward in life with clarity and confidence.
