There is in fact very little documented on the history of life coaching, mainly because it is a very recent phenomenon (last twenty years or so). But if you look back further, coaching really began much earlier. In the 1880s American college sports teams had coaches in addition to managers.
However, today's huge growth in coaching really stems from the 1980s when executive coaching began to be offered by large companies to help improve the performance of their top executives. At this time coaching was solely done face to face.
As the 80's went into the 90's coaching became more widely accepted and spread to smaller organisations and deeper into organisational hierarchy. Appreciation of the benefits of coaching was now widely accepted.
By the mid 1990's this acceptance started to grow and individuals began to realise the full potential of coaching for their whole life, not just their careers. As the benefits of life coaching spread so did the delivery methods. Telephone coaching increased in popularity hugely at this time.
Since then there has been a rapid growth in personal life coaching. It is not psychiatry, psychology or counseling, but a process that many find tremendously useful.
Coaching is now a very valuable tool for the employer, the employee and the individual on every level.
This acceptance has generated terrific demand for good new life coaches and I believe demand will continue as more and more people spread the word about the positive benefits of life coaching.
As I write this, e-coaching is now the big thing. Coaching by email, which offers tremendous flexibility for both coach and client, is growing quickly.
