Need a Life Coaching Mentor? Only If You Want to Soar!

There’s a special kind of thrill that comes from watching someone realize just how capable they are. So when someone asks, “Does an experienced coach really need a life coaching mentor?” I respond, “Let me tell you about a recent experience and you decide.”

I felt a thrill go up my spine the other day when my mentee, an emerging coach working toward her ACC certification, told me about a recent client session. Her whole face was lit up.

“I actually used that reframing technique we talked about,” she said, practically bouncing in her chair. “And you should have seen what happened! My client went from completely stuck to having this huge breakthrough about her relationship patterns.”

I felt like I was watching a butterfly discover her wings.

When I first began offering mentoring to life coaches, I thought it would be all about refining technique, deepening presence, sharpening questions, mastering the ICF competencies. And yes, we do that. But what I didn’t expect was how deeply moving it would be to witness a coach step into her own power right before my eyes.

The Magic of Applied Learning

A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The caterpillar doesn’t act like a butterfly. It goes through a complete transformation. 

Similarly, what I teach as a life coaching mentor is unlike any other kind of teaching I’ve done. In our sessions, we explore a coaching concept, perhaps how to sit with a client’s emotion without rushing to fix it, or how to ask questions that evoke awareness instead of just gathering information. Then my mentee goes off to coach her clients.

When she comes back for another session, the topic is never just about the technique. It’s her excitement about the transformation. Both hers and her client’s!

“I remembered what you said about staying curious instead of getting hooked by the story. So when my client slipped into victim mode, I didn’t try to pull her out. I just got curious. And suddenly she was exploring her own patterns without me having to convince her to see them differently.”

I’m watching someone discover she has superpowers; she just needed permission to use them.

A Life Coaching Mentor Teaches Coaches to Fly With Confidence

Confidence builds fast when coaches experience their own effectiveness.

When we began, my mentee second-guessed everything. She apologized for her questions, worried she wasn’t “doing it right.”

Now? She experiments. She trusts herself. She takes risks because she’s experienced the power of showing up authentically instead of following some “perfect” script.

In one session, she told me she invited her client to notice what was happening in her body while telling a stressful story.

“Six months ago, I never would have trusted myself to bring the body into it,” she admitted. “But seeing how you integrate somatic awareness made me realize I could trust my instincts.”

Her metamorphosis into a self-assured coach is amazing. I love that my mentoring doesn’t just refine skill, it builds the confidence to innovate.

Life Coaching Mentors Plant Gardens In Which Clients Thrive

One of my favorite mentoring moments came when my mentee was frustrated about a resistant client.

“I feel like I’m pushing against a wall,” she said. “Nothing I try works. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this.”

My garden immediately came to mind. How some seeds sprout quickly, others seem dormant for weeks, then burst through unexpectedly. You can’t force a bud open, but you can create the conditions for it to unfold naturally.

“What if,” I suggested, “your role isn’t to make change happen, but to create the conditions for it?”

That shift in perspective changed everything. Two weeks later, the same “resistant” client had a breakthrough, not because of a new technique, but because she approached the session with patience instead of pressure, curiosity instead of agenda.

“I finally get what you mean about trusting the client’s process,” she said. “I was so focused on being a good coach that I forgot the client is the one doing the work.”

The Ripple Effect

The beauty of this work as a life coaching mentor is that its impact goes far beyond what I’m doing. Every insight, every skill, every moment of courage gets carried into dozens, eventually hundreds, of coaching conversations, which profoundly impact the lives of each client their lives touch.

Recently, my mentee shared that a client told her: “I don’t know what’s different about our sessions lately, but I feel like you really see me now.”

 “Dream Big, Start Small.” Here’s the one thing you can do today.

Here’s an exercise to help you vividly imagine the growth, confidence, and client breakthroughs that come from working with a Life Coaching Mentor. Take three grounding breaths, letting tension leave your body and … 

Picture yourself in your current coaching environment and see yourself beginning a session. Notice how you feel in your body as your client shares a challenge. Be honest with yourself: where do you feel fully confident? Where do you feel hesitant or unsure?

Now imagine a door appearing in front of you. When you open it, you meet your Life Coaching Mentor. She sees your potential with crystal clarity and  has walked the path you’re on. She’s here to help you navigate it with skill and ease, saying, “I see the coach you can become. And I can help you get there faster.”

 Over the next moments, imagine the mentor sharing insights, demonstrating techniques, and giving you feedback that feels both empowering and practical.

• • See yourself applying these ideas with your clients: your questions land deeper, your presence feels stronger, and your clients open up more easily.
  • Notice the look on a client’s face when they have a breakthrough because you held space in a new way.
  • Feel the confidence growing in your body, your posture taller, your energy calmer, your trust in yourself unshakable.

Fast-forward six months. Imagine looking back at who you were before you began this mentorship.

• • What skills have you mastered?
  • How has your relationship with your clients changed?
  • How do you feel about your coaching now compared to before?

Bring yourself back to the present, carrying with you the confidence, insight, and possibility you just experienced. When you open your eyes, jot down:

• • The most powerful image you saw
  • The feelings you want to carry into your coaching practice
  • The first step you’re ready to take toward becoming that future coach

Has the idea of working with a life coaching mentor become more real to you?

The Perpetuating Cycle of Coaching 

The other day, my mentee told me she’d been invited to mentor a newer coach.

“What if I don’t know enough yet?” she asked.

I smiled. I’d once asked my own mentor the same thing.

Here’s what I told her: “Mentoring isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being generous with what you’ve learned and caring deeply about someone else’s growth. You already do that.”

She’s saying yes. And someday, her mentee will mentor someone else. That’s how this profession grows… one pair of wings at a time.

The Unexpected Joy

When I started, I knew mentor coaching would be fulfilling. I didn’t expect it to be this much fun.

There’s nothing quite like seeing a coach stop trying to be “good enough” and start trusting her natural gifts. My role isn’t to make her a good coach. She is one already. I’m simply the mirror reflecting back her strengths, and the cheerleader celebrating each new stretch of her wings.

And from where I sit, watching those wings unfold never gets old.

If you’re a coach working toward certification or simply want to deepen your practice, mentor coaching can help you discover that the power you’ve been looking for has been yours all along. Here’s how we can get started…

Need more convincing? Click here to learn more about Mentor Coaching from this string of blog posts.