Life Coach: What Is This? - Martha Beck

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More Videos from Martha Beck 23 videos in this series

How Can I Discover The Life I Was Meant To Live? - Martha Beck

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Life Challenges: What Is The Best Way To Confront These? - Martha Beck

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Destiny: How Can I Find This? - Martha Beck

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Negative Thinking: How Can I Turn This Into A Positive Outlook? - Martha Beck

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Losing A Loved One: How Do I Move On From This? - Martha Beck

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Emotional Pain: How Do I Cope With This? - Martha Beck

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Happiness: Why Can I Not Find This In My Life? - Martha Beck

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Mental Silence: Why Is This Important To My Mental Health? - Martha Beck

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Suicidal Thoughts And Depression: How Can I Find Help? - Martha Beck

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Self-Destructive Habits: How Can I Stop These? - Martha Beck

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Fibromyalgia: Will You Share Your Experience? - Martha Beck

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Down Syndrome: How Did You React To Your Son’s Diagnosis? - Martha Beck

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Down Syndrome: How Can I Advocate For My Child? - Martha Beck

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Down Syndrome: How Do You Cope With Your Child’s Limitations? - Martha Beck

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Down Syndrome: How Did Your Son’s Diagnosis Change Your Parenting Plan? - ...

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Life Coach: What Is This? - Martha Beck

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Martha Beck describes the role of a life coach.

Martha Beck:
So life coaching is a really interesting phenomenon. I was actually, I have a Ph.D. in Sociology, and so I sort of watch social change.

And what I saw was that therapy, which was the big sort of mental health thing of the 20th century, is really modeled around a disease model, it’s a pathology.

So mental health practitioners are like physicians for the mind, right?

And there’s a need for some people to get counseling when they aren’t mentally ill. So I like to say that a life coach is to a therapist what a personal trainer is to a doctor.

So therapists take mentally unwell people and get them healthy and we take mentally healthy people and get them to very high performance.

So, and you can come to a life coach at any stage. If your life is awful we work to make it better. If your life is great, we work to make it better.

It’s just about getting more joy, more satisfaction, having a more positive impact on the world and it’s just mushroomed as people have gravitated toward it and I am sure grateful for that.

About Martha Beck:
Martha Beck, Ph.D., is a writer and life coach who specializes in helping people design satisfying and meaningful life experiences. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology, all from Harvard University. She has published academic books and articles on a variety of social science and business topics.

Her non-academic books include the New York Times bestsellers “Expecting Adam” and “Leaving the Saints,” as well as “Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live” and her newest book, “Steering by Starlight.” Dr. Beck has also been a contributing editor for many popular magazines, including Real Simple and Redbook, and is currently a columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine.