Life coaching is the new buzzword - and yet another American phenomenon that has found its way over to our shores. SALLY CHURCHWARD met life coach Jenny Bird to find out all about it - and ended up being a total convert...

ALTHOUGH I have always been interested in life coaching, I have never really felt it was for me.

After all, I have a good job which I enjoy, a great relationship, plenty of friends.

Life coaching all sounded rather American and I had the attitude of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

But after one session with life coach Jenny Bird, I am a total convert.

Life coaching is, in Jenny's words, "about successful people being more successful".

Although many people will be prompted to see a coach because there is a specific area of their life, such as work or relationships, that they are not happy with, you don't have to have any obvious "issues" to reap the benefits of coaching.

"The fundamental belief of coaching is that we all have fantastic potential and that with the right support we can realise it," explains Jenny.

"Coaching isn't about being fixed. Counselling is about looking back and healing but coaching is about looking forward, taking action and being the best you can be, so everybody can feel the benefit of having a coach."

My coaching session began with Jenny asking me about what I wanted more of in my life.

I came up with the fuzzy issue "quality free time", but it wasn't long before Jenny had me talking in depth about how work and stress impact on my life and about all sorts of other areas, including home, hobbies and friends.

As we were talking, Jenny invited me to suggest a solution to my problems and made notes on other areas that we would tackle in future sessions were I to carry on seeing her.

It felt as if Jenny was making suggestions but actually she was just encouraging me to think laterally about my own situation.

At the end of our session, Jenny asked me to set myself some small tasks to improve my situation and a time frame to do them in.

This could seem like a waste of time - after all, if you are coming up with the solutions yourself, why should you pay someone else to listen to you do it?

But if we all did what we knew was best for us by ourselves we would be a nation of super-fit high-achievers, who always tackle our problems head on and never take our bad days out on our friends and family. And because you set your own tasks, you are not having someone else's agenda imposed on you.

We are all used to having other people give us advice and ignoring it. Life coaching encourages us to ask for advice from the person who knows us best - ourselves.

Jenny Bird offers free trial coaching sessions.

For information, call 0845 345 9384, e-mail jenny@coachsupervisor.co.uk or visit www.coachsupervisor.co.uk