In recent years, life coaching has surged in popularity as individuals seek guidance for achieving personal goals, overcoming obstacles, and improving their quality of life. However, while life coaches may offer useful tools for motivation and accountability, there is a growing concern about how some coaches attempt to address deep-seated personal issues without the necessary training or consideration of a client’s entire life situation. In particular, the concept of “blocks”—obstacles a client must supposedly clear to achieve their goals—often oversimplifies complex emotional and psychological issues. When coaches fail to take into account a client’s mental health, life history, or relationships, they risk causing harm, overstepping ethical boundaries, and wandering into dangerous territory that requires professional psychological intervention.
The Oversimplification of “Blocks”
One of the common strategies employed by life coaches is helping clients identify and remove “blocks” that are said to hold them back from success, happiness, or fulfillment. These blocks may be described as limiting beliefs, negative thoughts, or emotional hang-ups. However, coaches often reduce the concept of a “block” to a simplistic mental hurdle that can be cleared with positive thinking or self-belief. This reductionist approach ignores the complexity of human psychology and emotional experience.
For many clients, the so-called blocks are not just mental obstacles—they are symptoms of deeper emotional struggles, unresolved trauma, or even mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety. What a life coach may interpret as a lack of motivation or a limiting belief might actually be a manifestation of emotional distress or an underlying mental health concern. In such cases, the coach’s attempt to “clear the block” through motivation or mindset shifts can overlook the client’s real need for therapeutic intervention and support.
The Danger of Ignoring the Whole Life Context
Life coaches work with clients based on the information they are given during sessions, often without exploring the broader context of the client’s life. However, addressing personal goals or struggles without taking into account a client’s full history—relationships, family dynamics, past traumas, and mental health—can lead to misguided advice. Coaches are not trained to consider the nuanced web of a client’s relationships or the full impact that their advice may have on the client’s emotional support system, such as their family and friends.
For example, a coach might work with a woman who struggles with weight loss, self-esteem, and financial success. The woman could attribute her challenges to personal failings, while omitting key details about a supportive family or a partner who has been helping her navigate these struggles. The coach, with limited information, may push her to take on unrealistic goals or adopt harmful strategies like extreme manifestation techniques, without recognising how these actions could strain her relationships or mental health. Unlike trained psychologists, who take a holistic view of their clients’ situations and often involve family when necessary, life coaches may offer guidance without fully understanding the wider implications.
Blocks: An Emotional Call for Help
In many cases, the identification of “blocks” can be an emotional call for help, signaling the need for deeper support. A person struggling with motivation or self-worth might be dealing with unprocessed trauma, low self-esteem, or chronic stress—issues that require qualified mental health intervention. Life coaches, though well-meaning, are not equipped to handle these concerns. Without recognising the underlying emotional need, a coach might exacerbate the client’s distress by pushing them toward unrealistic goals or by minimising the complexity of their struggles.
Coaches who genuinely want to help their clients should be trained to recognise the limitations of their role and understand when it’s time to refer clients to licensed professionals, such as therapists or counselors. Instead of framing emotional challenges solely as mental blocks to be overcome, coaches should consider the possibility that these blocks are symptoms of deeper psychological issues that require specialised care. Referring clients to mental health professionals when necessary is not only responsible but essential for the client’s well-being.
Crossing Ethical Boundaries
Another area of concern is the ethical boundaries that are often crossed when life coaches offer advice on personal matters, especially when they veer into spiritual practices like manifestation, visualisation, or energy work. While these practices may have value for some, they can also carry wider implications when not handled properly. Encouraging clients to manifest wealth, for example, can promote unrealistic expectations or foster a belief that failures are due to personal shortcomings, rather than acknowledging systemic or external factors.
In some cases, coaches may encourage clients to abandon or downplay their family relationships in pursuit of their own goals, leading to estrangement or emotional fallout. This is particularly dangerous when a coach does not fully understand the family dynamic or how their advice might affect the client’s support system. Coaches must be cautious when entering into spiritual or emotional territories, as they risk causing unintended harm by providing guidance that is beyond their expertise.
Professional Help vs. Coaching
Life coaching has its place in helping individuals set and achieve goals, stay motivated, and improve certain aspects of their lives. However, there is a clear distinction between the role of a life coach and that of a licensed therapist, psychologist, or counselor. Coaches should be clear about the limitations of their scope and avoid crossing into therapeutic or psychological realms where they lack the training and ethical guidelines necessary to handle complex emotional and mental health issues.
It is vital that coaches:
Understand their limitations and know when to refer clients to mental health professionals.
Recognise that emotional or mental blocks might signal deeper issues that require therapy.
Avoid crossing ethical boundaries by offering advice on spiritual or psychological matters that they are not qualified to address.
Consider the broader implications of their guidance on a client’s relationships, family, and emotional well-being.
Be cautious of encouraging practices, such as manifestation or extreme goal-setting, that can have harmful consequences if not grounded in reality.
The Importance of Ethical Coaching
While life coaching can be a helpful tool for personal growth, it carries inherent risks when coaches operate outside their realm of expertise. Blocks, as described by many coaches, are often indicators of deeper emotional or mental health concerns that require specialised support. Coaches should be careful not to oversimplify complex issues and must recognise the limits of their abilities. By referring clients to qualified professionals when necessary and involving family or other support systems, coaches can maintain ethical boundaries and ensure their clients are getting the help they truly need.
Ethical, responsible coaching requires an awareness of the whole person—not just their goals, but their history, relationships, and emotional well-being. Anything less risks doing more harm than good.