Whether you’re parenting children, caring for aging parents, or navigating both roles as part of the sandwich generation, you’re likely feeling stretched thin and may have less support than you would prefer. With so many competing priorities demanding your attention, it can be challenging to decide what to prioritize and even harder to avoid feeling guilty about your choices. While various resources are available to help manage daily life, this blog explores how a Certified Life Coach can support you on your journey.
A Safe Space to Think Through Options and Cultivate a Plan
Working with a coach offers a non-judgmental environment where you can share what’s on your mind and evaluate what’s important to address. This is not a formal, stiff setting where you feel pressured to have all the answers or to get things right on the first try. Instead, it’s a genuine safe space where you can brainstorm, process your thoughts, and be challenged to grow into a better version of yourself. With so few spaces like this, it’s clear why life coaching can benefit people in various life phases.
Goal Setting and Growth
A life coach provides you with the opportunity to prioritize your goals while partnering with a professional who can celebrate your successes, challenge your perspectives, push you to grow, and hold you accountable. Certified life coaches are trained to balance compassionate support with a focus on helping you make progress toward your goals or overcome challenges.
Ward Off Isolation
Daily conversations often consist of surface-level niceties and automatic responses about how you’re doing, leaving little room for the deeper issues you may be grappling with. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in your experiences, especially during times when you might feel isolated or plagued by self-doubt. As humans, we crave belonging. While coaching won’t replace the need for friends and family, it can provide an additional receptive ear to accept you and guide you.
Reminding You of Available Resources
Do you remember that resource your aunt mentioned during Thanksgiving last year? Or that convenience service that could save you time during a busy week? Nowadays, we are inundated with countless products, services, and options, making it hard to remember them when we need them most. In the midst of a busy week filled with work, meal prep, doctor’s appointments, and school events, it can be a relief to be reminded of helpful resources that other caretakers have found beneficial. A life coach can assist you in recalling supportive resources when you need them.
Beyond just identifying available resources, coaching can help address any internal barriers that may prevent you from accessing what you need. For example, do you feel obligated to care for your mom because your siblings have assumed this would be your role? Are you avoiding taking your cousin up on their offer to watch your kids on Saturday afternoons so you can work on your side business, out of guilt for taking them away from their busy life? A professional coach can help you manage better conversations with loved ones, aiming for mutual understanding and reduced assumptions. Coaching taps into the deep work of examining trouble asking for help or feeling the need to be a martyr, so you are able to receive some of the compassion and care you reserve for others.
Occasionally, potential clients may ask why they should consider working with a Caretaker Life Coach. They might express that family caregiving is just a part of life—chaotic at times, but they should be able to manage on their own. However, if you feel overwhelmed by juggling multiple responsibilities or are concerned that things are slipping through the cracks, it may be worth exploring a new approach to caretaking with professional support. If you’d like to see if we would be a good coaching fit, schedule your complimentary coaching session today.
By Amy Pierre-Russo
Certified Life & Leadership Coach