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Originally Posted by David Beard  My personal philosophy around life coaching is that coaches 'never' give advice. Nor are coaches expected to have superior knoweldge about anyone's life beyond what the client knows themselves.
The essence of life coaching (in my orientation) is to facilitate a client to find THEIR OWN solutions, through a coaching process, which puts the client in charge of the process completely. They are held in a place during the process where they have room and support to discover their own solutions, at the pace which is right for where they are int heri journey.
As soon as Life Coaches start supplying solutions they create a dependency relationship, which takes the client in exactly the opposite direction to personal empowerment.
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Thanks David I found this a really interesting comment. You are quite right I think if you are talking about a pure definition of life coaching.
As an aside I think the life coaching community really needs to work on defining what life coaching is. Many people who sign up for life coaching want SOLUTIONS to real-world problems. When they are told they need to find their own solutions they can feel cheated and have the feeling "well what am I paying you for then!". I can really understand that and it's one of the reasons I've stayed away from getting involved in Life Coaching (using the purist definition).
I think rather than get hung up on terms though, it's perhaps better to think in terms of SERVICE provision. I think for many people they will just need pointing at the tools or in the right direction and they will take it from there. Others will need real solutions to specific problems e.g. boosting web traffic. Taking that as an example, why would someone need to "find their own solutions" when, for $500, they can get the benefit of Steve's years of experience. For Steve to turn around and say find your own solution while I hold your hand is "non-optimal"
I think Steve will be providing a spectrum of service that ranges from traditional life coaching to consulting on specific issues. I hear where you're coming from but I don't see it as a major concern - as long as people feel happy with the service provided. I think we also need to wait and see what Steve puts up on the website regarding what he will actually be providing.