Choosing an Aligned Coach or Soul Mentor

Full transparency up until two years ago I wouldn’t have considered myself a spiritual person but hiring a spiritual life coach & soul mentor changed my life. A year later I hired an unaligned “soul mentor” and it taught me some valuable lessons. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did – so I’m spilling the tea on how I navigate choosing an aligned soul mentor now and how I ensure that any client that signs on to work with me is an aligned client.

It’s important to know that I hired my first spiritual life coach not because she was a spiritual coach [I did know she was a spiritual life coach] but because I felt safe in her energy field, she always made me feel seen and I was curious to work more with my emotions than goals but let’s travel back in time for a minute to share some context.

Why Choosing the Right Type of Coach Matters

In 2021 I trained under the ‘Beautiful You Coaching Academy’ to become a life coach. I really loved the overall experience – the community aspect was unlike anything I had ever experienced and I grew so much as a leader under the supervision of the amazing training staff within this program.

Upon completion of the program I started to take on pro-bono life coaching clients. And after my first few clients I noticed that I was really struggling to stay within the prescribed box of a ‘life coach’.

Let me explain – life coaches are meant to help guide you forward. You – the client – are in control of the goals you want to set and then the coach will help guide you to achieve the goal through asking powerful questions that help you to reflect and make decisions on how to proceed through self-discovery work. A life coach doesn’t really go backwards in time – if that is what a client is needing we would generally recommend you find a licensed therapist for additional support. And we also generally don’t share our own experiences – because this is a container curated for YOU to get to know YOU better.

I struggled with this type of container because I couldn’t shake this feeling that the past was a critical component to anyone really unlocking their next level self and I also knew that from my personal experiences working with life coaches – I needed more than just powerful questions – I needed support to get out of the head and back into my body.

So when I first met the person that I would ultimately end up hiring as a spiritual life coach, I felt truly seen in a way I had never experienced. She validated for me – without even knowing it – that my instincts around the importance of the past and the somatic work were spot on. The type of work I wanted to be doing just didn’t neatly fit in the ‘life coaching’ box.

NOW that’s not to say traditional life coaching isn’t a powerful modality all on its own – because it is but it just wasn’t the right modality for me and the work I’m meant to do in this lifetime.

Maybe you’ve worked with a life coach before and it didn’t really move the needle for you. If that’s you – I see you. Maybe a traditional life coach wasn’t the right fit. Up until that point I didn’t realize that somatic (body) coaches existed. I didn’t know spiritual coaches existed. I didn’t understand the difference between a spiritual life coach and a soul mentor. So I was seeking a life coach while actually needing a somatic or spiritual coach. If you’re experience working with a coach wasn’t what you were expecting it could be the type of coach you hired vs the type of coach you were seeking.

Make sure you’re clear on the type of coach you’re looking to hire before you make the investment.

Types of Coaches

Please note – that these are by no means a ‘one size fits all’ type definition – these definitions are based on my personal experiences and intuitive connection to & understanding of each role.

Life Coach

Your personal development partner in crime. They can help you to set & reach goals and solve problems.

Somatic Coach

Takes a more holistic approach to exploring the mind, body, and spirit in order to help facilitate transformation. They are more focused on helping your to turn inward and explore your body’s innate wisdom.

Mindset Coach

Helps you to rewire thought patterns and beliefs to achieve both personal and/or professional goals.

Spiritual Life Coach

Guides you to learn to connect with your intuition and helps you to explore purpose, connection, and meaning on a deeper level.

Soul Mentor

Walks with you as you navigate a spiritual awakening. They help you to deepen your connection with your own intuition, explore your personal connection with higher consciousness, learn to work with your unique energetic blueprint, explore & help you to heal past lives + ancestral patterns, activate soul gifts & more.

What to Consider and What to Ask Before Hiring a Coach

Consider the following when looking to hire a coach:

• What type of coach are you actually seeking?
  • Examples: Someone to help you with goals (life coach), Someone to help you connect with your body (somatic coach), Someone to help you rewire thought patterns (mindset coach), Someone to help you learn to connect with your intuition (spiritual life coach)
• What is your budget for hiring a coach?
  • Coaching can be expensive. Coaches go through extensive training programs to be able to support clients in this capacity and most of the time coaching is an investment. If you are not prepared to financially invest, perhaps consider a group coaching program which can make working with a coach more accessible. Also – I love group coaching programs. The community support from people navigating similar life experiences is unmatched. So don’t discount them even if you aren’t typically a ‘group program’ kind of person.
• What do you need from a coach to feel supported?
  • Some people need a high touch coach – meaning – they want to be able to count on that coach to support them outside of just scheduled sessions. Not all coaches offer support between coaching calls – if thats important to you then I recommend finding a coach that has text and voice note support included in the coaching container. I would also recommend finding a coach in your same time zone. If you hire a coach that’s halfway around the world, it may be challenging to connect when you’re looking for some extra support!
  • Some people need a low touch coach – meaning – they want the occasional extra check in but besides that they want to do the work at their own pace. Knowing what you need from a coach in a coaching container is important!

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What to ask the coach before hiring them:

• What coaching or applicable certifications and credentials do you have?
  • I’m going to be honest – skipping this question and making a major investment off of vibes lead me to owing thousands to a “soul mentor” that promised the world and couldn’t deliver. It can be uncomfortable to ask a coach or mentor to see their applicable coaching certifications and credentials but it is absolutely something a qualified coach will always show you and not something to feel weird about.
• Have you worked with clients with similar experiences to mine?
  • Not all coaches have years of client experience. While working with a newer coach can have its advantages (like it being more cost effective) that coach may not have experience supporting someone with your specific life circumstances and while it is still your choice whether to work with them – making an informed decision is important.
• What makes your method of coaching unique?
  • I’ve always found this question to be really helpful. For me, my unique method of coaching combines skills I’ve learned from 4 different certifications. Not only does this question help you to get to know your potential coach better but it will also give you insight into whether their unique coaching method will be supportive for you.
• Do you have a coach or mentor yourself?
  • Coaches that invest in proper certifications are always working a coach or mentor themselves. We are always working on ourselves too. If a coach isn’t working with a coach or mentor, it can be helpful to understand why.
• Is this your full time job or a side hustle?
  • Many coaches coach as a side hustle. When I was coaching as a side hustle it was incredibly hard to respond to my clients during business hours and I felt like I was doing a disservice to my clients. Going back to the considerations up above – if you need a high touch coach to feel properly supported then you may not want to work with a part time coach.

When Should I Choose a Soul Mentor VS. a Life Coach?

This is a question I get asked often and I don’t have an easy clean cut answer for this one. Your intuition is your best guide for knowing the type of coach or mentor you need in any season of life.

I would personally consider a soul mentor over a specific type of coach if I was navigating a spiritual awakening. I think one of the most common misconceptions I see when it comes to spiritual awakenings – its that people assume they are like the movies. They assume that they had to have experienced a near death experience to start walking a spiritual path and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

My spiritual awakening started when I became obsessed with personal development. Personal development work lead me to explore life coaching – which lead me to find breathwork – which opened the door to explore reiki and so on and so forth. It was gradual over the course of multiple years.

I knew I was seeking a soul mentor when goal setting was no longer a priority and instead I wanted to explore my life’s purpose – my mission – my connection with nature more. That may not be the same for you. If you are curious to explore things that cannot be explained by logic then you are probably ready for a soul mentor.

The biggest piece of advice I can share here – is use the free discovery or connection calls most coaches and practitioners offer to your advantage. If you are not sure what you need – schedule calls with different coaches and mentors and see what feels right for you. There is no right or wrong answer to this.

As a Coach or Soul Mentor – How Do I Find Aligned Clients?

As someone who has hired coaches and mentors that have changed my life and also hired ones that have shattered my spirit – I take a lot of pride in making sure we are an aligned fit before accepting any kind of payment for my services.

It is never easy to turn down a potential client but its better to have a hard conversation up front than to deal with the messy middle later.

As a coach / soul mentor, I know we are committing to walk a journey together. I want to be just as excited for our calls as you are. Because when we are an aligned fit, I know what’s possible for you. I know the magic that can happen, the mountains that can move. This is why a connection call and an application process are so important to me. I want to understand why you are coming to me for support, if I am the right type of coach for you, if you are willing to take accountability, if you are going to take action, if you are going to need extra support, etc. I want to understand how you got to where you are now and what you are hoping to achieve by the end of our time together. I want to understand which practices I work with are going to be most supportive to you.

Coach/Mentor relationships are intimate. We walk alongside you through the good, the hard, and everything in between. It’s just as important to me that we are a right fit and if we aren’t I will happily refer you out to another coach or mentor in my network that would be a better fit.

Choosing a Coach or Mentor is a big decision and I hope that this article helps to support you to make a more informed choice the next time you look to hire a Coach or Mentor.

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To learn more about working with me: Click HERE to explore my soul supportive services.

For more on my personal experiences working with a soul aligned coach versus a not aligned coach check out this podcast episode: