As a life coach for women, I am often asked "What can a life coach do for midlife women?" In my experience midlife is the time of life when women benefit the most from life coaching.
"Midlife coaching can take you from feeling in a slump to soaring high, from feeling a bit ‘meh’ to rediscovering your mojo and feeling excited for the next chapter. We all need a bit of that."
What problems do midlife women face?
My clients are women navigating the choppy waters of midlife, experiencing a range of emotions about marriage breakdown, their careers, relationships, their changing role in the home, changing bodies and their changing energy levels to name a few.
"They are questioning their purpose, careers and sometimes their life choices."
Women come to coaching because they are frankly frazzled, often feeling invisible and at the bottom of the pecking order and, well let’s be honest, pretty fed up. Some are angry, some frustrated, some just ready for something more.
As women, we expected the hot flushes, the moods swings, the stress of ageing parents and teenage children but we didn’t foresee the burning need to be ourselves and let go of the expectations of others that we have carried for years.
Why is now the time for a midlife coach?
Midlife is a time when we literally meet ourselves again. While we were busy building a career, forming relationships, maybe having children, pleasing others, our own values and desires got put on the back burner. They simmer there until the heat gets turned up and we boil over with a “what about me?”
When you spend time re-evaluating your life and your dreams, you realised you have almost three decades of work and life experience behind you. You have resilience in bucket loads gathered along the way and a whole range of skills, abilities and knowledge.
Midlife is the perfect time to have work with a life coach - what are you waiting for. I always smile when I hear people say “in another life” - there is not another life and yours is there to be lived now.
Working with a midlife coach
As a life coach for midlife women, I help women to listen to their inner voice, to trust their own inner wisdom. I help can help you tap into the wiser part of you that has the answers and learn to trust your insight and experience.
"What is really empowering is having someone with a highly calibrated bullshit detector."
Having a coach is having a personal thinking partner, a cheerleader, a supporter and a confidence builder. But what is really empowering is having someone with a highly calibrated bullshit detector who will tell you where they don’t believe the stories you are telling yourself.
As a client said recently “There is nothing more helpful than someone with a perspective much larger than my own who, after a one-hour conversation, leaves me wondering how I could have possibly been thinking so small and expecting so little from my life!”
But none of this is easy. It is bloody hard and takes courage. Rethinking your dreams and goals can often get messy. It is hard to do this by yourself. You are likely to have to face some uncomfortable truths about careers, relationships, behaviours that once made you happy, and challenge some existing assumptions along the way.
There is nothing fancy about life coaching. You and your coach talk one to one and explore what is surfacing for you - exploring what’s there, what is keeping you there, exploring limiting beliefs and challenging them, looking at what could be different.
"A good life coach helps you see challenges and issues from different perspectives, and is right by your side as you make changes."
I work solely with women in midlife to create the lives, and changes they crave; setting them out on the next phase of their lives with renewed vigour and purpose. My job is to listen deeply to women and they tell me they have a feeling their lives, relationships and the world were meant to be more meaningful than they are. They have a persistent feeling there should be something more exciting!
About the author
Helena Bailey is a fully qualified UK life coach who specialises in coaching women, empowering them to successfully navigate midlife and everything it throws at women such as menopause.
As a life coach for women Helena has made it her purpose to spread the word that the world needs women who have realised there is NO rule book or blueprint for loving, parenting, living or working.
