Once upon a time no celebrity worth their weight in Oscar trophies could walk the streets of Hollywood without occasionally nipping off for a quick session with their personal therapist. For many years therapy was the only way that stars could keep their heads together under the pressure of their unusually public lifestyles. And, of course, whatever the famous do we all follow, so therapy quickly spread and became de rigueur among everyone from stressed out socialites, to over worked social workers. The stigma of needing therapy soon lost its taboo status and was no longer a reason to hang your head in shame but rather dinner party fodder to be shared with equally lost individuals over a glass of wine. Therapy even became the subject of hit series The Sopranos proving that even tough mafia types need a little guidance at some point in their lives.

Therapy, however, is now as passé as last season’s penchant for ponchos. Its time in the limelight has been and gone, and therapists now play understudy to Hollywood’s latest holistic head helpers, life coaches. Even the name is more empowering and less clinical than the oh-so eighties term therapy. It implies learning, discovery and growth, and has a healthy ring to it that is reminiscent of an all-American high school baseball coach, which could be why so many celebs have decided to play ball.

Madonna, always the trendsetter, has one and so does chat show host Oprah Winfrey. Hilary Clinton swears by hers and so did Cherie Blair until her relationship with Carole Caplin came under scrutiny by government watch dogs. Sporting heroes of our time including David Beckham and Dame Ellen MacArthur have also taken to having coaching on and off the field (or ocean) by consulting life coaches in their spare time. Arsenal Football Club apparently has its own Life Coach to help its players avoid the destructive lifestyle that some famous footballers succumb to.

Big business has taken advantage of the life coach phenomenon too. Many multi-national conglomerates now employ life coaches to train their CEOs. Using one has had particularly good results for IT giant IBM, whose employees benefit from a work life balance programme designed to give them more time with their families. The theory being that a happy workforce is a more productive one.

So what do lifestyle coaches do and what makes them different from traditional therapists? Dubai-based Life Coach Gonan Premfors explained that she concentrates on her clients’ current lifestyle, how they want to change it and how they want to develop as an individual. “Therapy is all about looking at the individuals past and reasons for their problems, whereas life coaches prefer to look at what’s happening now and what’s going to happen in their future,” she said. “There are obviously some overlapping issues, as a client may have past problems that are affecting the way they live their life today and we may touch on them, but we don’t focus on them like a therapist would,” she added.

Gonan is one of the first life coaches to set up in Dubai. Until now the life coach revolution had only spread from the US, where it started 14-15 years ago, as far as Europe, where it has taken hold in the last four to five years. Gonan, who is a member of the International Coaches Federation and completed her advanced level coaching with the Coaches Training Institute in the USA, is excited about bringing this service to Dubai. “It is very rewarding giving people the tools that they need to be who they want to be,” she said. “My job is to show people that they have all the answers but just don’t know it. Therefore, I don’t actually fix anything I just work with them so they figure out the answers themselves,” she added.

Like all life coaches Gonan is a people person, which is the key to being a good coach. She is also good at listening and that’s how she determines what her clients need. “I listen to my clients on a number of different levels. I hear the things they are saying, but I also hear what they aren’t saying. I listen on an emotional level. Then I present them with the issues that they are avoiding,” she said. Gonan then takes things a step further and works out what her client is good at and how to bring it out in them. Her goal is to look at who the person is today and then look at who they want to become in the future

So what kind of person should visit a life coach? According to Gonan anyone who wants to take their personal or professional life to another level. “I would recommend life coaching to anyone who wants personal growth; I can fast track them to where they want to be in their lives.” Her clients include people who have relationship problems, need help setting up a new business or just feel stuck in one place and don’t know how to move on. Her life coaching techniques can be applied to a whole host of problems and work for people from many different cultures, which is a big plus in Dubai.

Just one word of warning, if you are thinking of visiting a life coach, be prepared to answer lots of questions and think about aspects of your life you have never considered before. It’s a bit of an eye-opener and will shake you up, but when you are bouncing around living your life to the full, you’ll know it was worth it.

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