Pollen Eixab
A fairly new offering within Namibia, life coaching is slowly finding its place in the industry, with qualified professionals ready to help empower people.
Often confused with therapists who deal with present and/or past mental health issues, life coaches assist clients work towards a better future by helping them set and achieve goals. Dealing with varying areas in the personal lives of their clientele, life coaches are specialised to assist people from all social, political and economic backgrounds, and due to the nature of their work, should possess good interpersonal and people skills to help clients set and accomplish their goals for the future.
“Purposeful and navigational work,” is how Violette Mureko explained the life coaching experience for herself as coach and clients. Beginning her life coaching journey after completing a certification at the South African Board for People Practices (SABPP) in Cape Town, South Africa in 2019, Mureko (39) is the owner and head life coach at Elevate Edify Life Coaching CC. She said her work adds value to the lives of her clients. “With the purpose of transforming lives in areas of mindfulness and life balance, the coach employs techniques that identify what an individual wants for their lives, and clarity on where they are going. Life coaches then empower them to thrive and avoid self-sabotaging thoughts,” she added. Life coaches also offer advice on intimate-partner relationship problems. Hilja Kapadhi Uiras (60), or more popularly known as ‘Kapadhi the Life Coach’, presents mentorship and training to couples who find themselves struggling with relationship and sexual issues. With a career in education and motivation spanning almost 30 years, Uiras runs workshops on marriage, love, sexuality and emotional intelligence. She also prepares young people who want to get married for the road ahead. “We educate and empower people, especially young people, to turn their love life around so that they can enjoy their love life,” she noted.
Life coaching itself, however, will not prove effective if the individual being coached is not fully cognisant of the process by actively seeking to create change in their lives, said legal practitioner and premarital life coach Cynthy Rhodia Magwaza (28).
“The best way for these methods to work is for the individual being coached to actually put in the work,” she elucidated. Magwaza said it is important to provide a peaceful and safe space for people to feel free and at ease, as there already is stigma attached to seeking help from a life coach. “Most times, people feel like something must be terribly wrong with them for them to be seeing a life coach, and that can add to feelings of anxiety,” she added. Running her life and love coaching services through her website menwomenandrelations.com, Magwaza said there is nothing wrong with seeking help when one needs it.
“The reality is that it does not matter how strong you are as an individual; there comes a time when you need somebody to take you through a process to unlock certain doors of potential, and even remove certain blockages that you may not even have known were there,” she reasoned.
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