Came across this great article that speaks to the field of professional coaching, by Tori DeAngelis.  These are a few of the excerpts.

I love Ben's story, it is on point. 

"...Ben Dean, PhD, struggled to finish his dissertation. He sought help from a cognitive-behavioral psychologist, but when that didn’t work, he enlisted the aid of a former fellow student. Through supportive coaching, she had him commit to six goals a week, and if he didn’t meet them, she asked probing questions to get to the heart of his problem. (DeAngelis, 2014)"

“Coaching has allowed me to help people transform their lives, to build a flourishing practice, and to do all kinds of other interesting things like writing and speaking here and abroad,” he says. “It’s done that for other people, too.(DeAngelis, 2014)”

"...The field is as unregulated as it is mushrooming: Its main trade group, the International Coach Federation (ICF), boasts of 17,000 members and counting. The lack of regulation means that anyone — including those without any training in behavioral science — can become a life coach, says psychologist Vicki Vandaveer, PhD, an executive coach based in Houston (DeAngelis, 2014)."

Read the entire Article HERE