Life coaching. I was pretty much as sceptical as they come, so when I was invited to a taster session I was dubious to say the least. Visions of holding hands while a voice with an American lilt tells you to love yourself were nearly enough to make me call it off.

But I went, and determined to keep an open mind, confessed my scepticism to LifeGoal’s Wendy Reeves. For starters, a common misconception is that life coaching is closely aligned to therapy. Not so, says Reeves. “Counselling is digging for dirt. Coaching is digging for gold. It's about finding new directions and moving forwards."

My other main hesitation was why a business owner would opt for a life coach as opposed to a business or management coach, and whether a life coach is actually charging you £80-£150 an hour to tell you stuff that you actually already know. “It’s ok,” she smiled, “I like converting people.”

A lot of the time, the problems a business faces are a result of the founder’s problems, she said. And a lot of the time when you’re so bogged down in day-to-day business you can’t see the wood for the trees, seize opportunities when they arise or get the focus right. Solutions can often become masked.

“Here, I’ll show you,” says Reeves. After filling in the short questionnaire she asked me to complete (on the train, on the way there) I’ve decided that time management is my chosen subject. And so, we embark on our 45-minute journey to see if there’s a model timekeeper inside this late-running, deadline-stretching delinquent.

The interesting thing is the number of realisations I had about myself, not only during the session, but for days afterwards. The sessions aren't prescriptive, they are client-led and you are guided to challenge the way you think and do things so that you come up with your own, previously obscured, solutions to your problems. This type of thinking is extremely valuable in business. 

Another of Reeves' clients, Chris Townsend, runs creative agency TA2. When it came to his own life and to his business, Chris really believed that there was nothing a life coach could tell him that he wouldn’t already know.

“All my preconceptions were so wrong. Sometimes, in life, it is difficult to step out and look around. I found that Wendy really helped me to do this; she guided me as to how I should look at my life and at my business. She wasn’t dictatorial in approach; instead she left the decisions to me – pointing me in the right direction. What the life coaching seemed to do was to put a spotlight on relevant issues, and help me to make the decisions I needed to.”

So, no chanting, no mantras, no hand-holding, no singing.  Just help to see things differently and break cycles of unconstructive behaviour. A free taster session is definitely worth a look.

There might be hope for me yet.