Do you think you have a knack for helping people find meaning in their lives? If the answer is yes then you just might have the makings of a spiritual life coach.
If this 2021 Pew Research Center study is any indication, Americans are spiritual people. Of the 17 advanced economies surveyed, the US had the highest number of respondents who believed that spirituality gives their lives meaning (at 15%).
What the above study means for you is that spiritual life coaching could be an excellent way to make money while improving other people’s lives.
This article reveals what this business entails and details the steps required to start a business in this lucrative niche in the coaching industry.
But let’s start with the basics.
What is a spiritual coach?
A spiritual coach (also called a spiritual life coach) is a professional who helps another person achieve spiritual growth and live a fulfilling and meaningful life.
These coaches encourage their clients to practice self-love and push past their limiting beliefs. This is usually done in one-on-one or group sessions. In return, clients who work with spiritual coaches gain a deeper understanding of their inner selves and the spiritual journey they’re embarking on.
Spiritual coach vs. religious coach vs. life coach
People occasionally confuse spiritual coaches with religious leaders. However, the two practitioners couldn’t be more different. While a spiritual coach is more concerned with helping other people live fulfilling and purposeful lives, religious leaders tend to prepare their followers for what comes after life.
Similarly, it’s easy to draw parallels between a spiritual coach and a life coach. After all, both types of professionals help others improve their lives. The difference between the two coaches lies in how deeply the improvement takes root.
A life coach can help someone achieve their dreams. In contrast, a spiritual life coach can help them break down the internal blocks that are impeding their spiritual well-being and equip them with the tools needed for lifelong peace.
Spiritual life coaching is a subset of the overall coaching niche, focusing on spiritual life and self-discovery.
How to become a spiritual coach
Here are six steps to help you become a spiritual coach and launch your spiritual coaching business.
1. Get certification from an accredited institute
Let’s get this out of the way: it’s not mandatory for spiritual life coaches to be certified.
The overall coaching industry isn’t regulated, which means there aren’t any rules that preclude uncertified people from acquiring and working with spiritual coaching clients. On the contrary, you can get the training you need by initially discounting your spiritual coaching services to attract your first clients.
With that said, it’s still a good idea to get certified by an accredited institute.
The biggest benefit an aspiring spiritual coach gets from earning a certificate is the veneer of credibility that comes with being a certificate holder.
While there’s no guarantee that earning a certificate will fill your schedule with coaching sessions, it can make you look more professional and boost your credibility. Your certification signals that you qualify to work in the spiritual coaching niche and that you’ve acquired the knowledge required to do so.
One thing to note is that not all institutes are created equal, hence the importance of seeking out an accredited one. Excellent options worth looking into include:
- Natural Wellness Academy
- Certified Life Coach Institute
- Life Purpose Institute
- Coaching and Positive Psychology Institute; and
- The Center for Transformational Coaching
You might also want to look into earning your certificate via an accredited online course. You’ll find a few on e-learning platforms like Udemy.
Regarding how long it’ll take to become a certified spiritual life coach, the duration differs from institute to institute. You could get certified after taking a 48-hour course or attending a program that lasts a couple of months.
2. Pick a platform for your business
Whether you choose to get certified or not, you’ll need to set up the infrastructure needed to work with your spiritual life coaching clients.
The way you carry out this step will depend on whether you’ll be offering spiritual coaching services in-person or online. If you plan to run a virtual spiritual coaching business, you’ll need a platform that provides the tools required for online coaching sessions.
Software platforms like Mighty Networks and Kajabi have the features spiritual coaches need to run their businesses. A handful of these core features include:
- Scheduling tools for appointment booking and scheduling
- Cloud storage security for keeping and managing client data
- Video conferencing features for virtual meetings
- Payment infrastructure for receiving payments
You probably won’t need the full suite of features many of these platforms offer. However, they include the above-listed functions at the minimum and will help you with the administrative tasks of your spiritual coaching business.
Other than a coaching platform, you’ll need an online presence for brand-building purposes. It’ll be easier to earn potential clients’ trust when you have a website that markets your services. Therefore, you’ll need to register a domain name and get web hosting.
Here is an example from the renowned spiritual life coach, Susan Telford.
Being active on social media is also essential to becoming a successful spiritual life coach. Create accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, or wherever you think your clients frequent.
In the image below, spiritual life coach Sarah Lockwood uses Linkedin to market her services.
Finally, don’t forget to handle the legal side of your business. That involves registering as a sole proprietor or legal entity (e.g., a limited liability company) for tax purposes, opening a business bank account, and so on.
3. Attract the right clients
You’re going to need to get clients to make your own coaching business a success. That means you must think about who the right clients are for your business and how to attract them.
In the case of identifying your ideal clients, ask yourself who you’d like to cater to. As a spiritual life coach, you can offer your services to a plethora of people, including:
- business leaders
- Housewives
- Female STEM professionals
- Single men in the 30-40 age bracket
- Veterans
- Senior citizens
While there’s no rule stating you can’t cater to everyone, you’ll have an easier time focusing on one or two customer segments. The narrow focus allows for a clearer marketing message and uniform brand identity.
Additionally, choosing a specific set of people provides the consistency needed to reach your business goals.
Once you’ve identified your ideal clients, it’s time to decide how to attract them. Some excellent strategies for acquiring your first coaching clients include:
- Tap into your existing professional network
- Leverage other people’s audiences via podcast appearances and guest posts
- Engage in email marketing to turn leads into paying customers
- Use social media channels to cultivate relationships; and
- Attend niche-related conferences (e.g., conferences for female STEM professionals).
Whatever you decide to do, make sure to limit your scope in the beginning. You’ll want to avoid spreading yourself thin and burning out before you’ve gained any momentum.
On the subject of momentum, you’ll need to be consistent to gain traction and build trust. This statement is true whether you decide to use content marketing or leverage your network.
4. Maintain transparent communication
You have to be transparent about what your service can do for your clients. Being transparent makes you more trustworthy. It also provides another benefit: they help you control your prospective clients’ expectations.
Your future clients will want to know what benefit they’ll derive from your coaching sessions. Due to the nature of the coaching niche you’ll be operating in, your service should offer spiritual transformation. These results aren’t tangible so you’ll have to work hard to communicate the value you offer.
Think about the ways your coaching will help your clients, specifically how you meet them and how you’ll leave them. What two states will mark that transition? They can go from:
- Sad to happy
- Stressed to relaxed
- confused to enlightened
- Negative to positive
- Directionless to purposeful
For example, on her website’s home page, coach Terri Wade markets her services as transitioning clients from directionless to purposeful.
When you know what results you want to achieve for your clients, it’ll be easier to communicate the utility of your coaching sessions. You’ll also have more to work with when structuring your coaching packages because there’ll be a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Additionally, your clients will know what they’re getting and have a means of measuring their progress. You’ll both be on the same page about desired outcomes and estimated timelines.
Finally, transparent communication from the outset could put your burgeoning business on the path to success.
When your client goes into your coaching sessions knowing what they’re getting, and derive results, they could refer you to their family, friends, and colleagues. In time, you’ll cultivate a reputation for trustworthiness and excellence and reap the financial benefits that come with this goodwill.
💡 Improve your communication with these coaching email templates.
5. Set the pricing
Unless you plan to be a pro bono coaching practice, you’ll need to set a price for your service. You have two options in that regard: you can either charge an hourly rate or offer your services as a coaching package.
The hourly rate option is self-explanatory. In the case of packaging your coaching services, you can set a timeframe during which you and the client can commit. For example, a 3-month package provides enough time to help them gain spiritual perspective and put them on the path to personal growth.
But which option should you choose?
We recommend the coaching package option for the following reasons:
- Consistent income: When you offer your certified spiritual coach services as a package, you gain more control over your income. Charging hourly lets your clients set the pace, as they can decide to unilaterally reduce their hours. Offering your services in exchange for a fixed sum means you can avoid the income fluctuations that are common with hourly rates.
- Understandable value: Packaging your services gives you more time to deliver results for the client. Thus, it increases the likelihood of them seeing the value in your service once they reach the program’s conclusion. This benefit is harder to come by when you charge hourly.
- Renewal/Upsell opportunities: A package deal provides the opportunity for a client to renew their subscription when they reach the end of their coaching journey. Also, if they feel that the package was beneficial, they may be open to purchasing higher package tiers (where applicable/available).
Regarding specific pricing figures, the amount you charge will depend on factors like your expertise and target audience.
For example, business leaders will likely have more disposable income, meaning you can get away with charging at least $1500 per package. Conversely, you’ll need to be more conservative when charging housewives or senior citizens.
A good rule of thumb to follow when setting your prices is to do your market research. If you find spiritual coaches who are serving a similar audience, you can use their pricing to inform yours. But, consider your specific value and expertise to ensure you’re not undervaluing your services.
6. Network thoroughly
As you help your existing clients achieve spiritual fulfillment, you’ll need to bring in more clients to ensure business growth.
Thus, you’ll need to network extensively to generate awareness and leads.
Attend more events where you can meet prospects face-to-face and exchange business cards. Use online platforms like LinkedIn to reach out to publications and potential clients in large companies. You can also contact players in the same industry for collaboration opportunities like podcast interviews.
Additionally, keep publishing free and helpful content to your website’s blog and social media accounts to attract more people and build your email list.
In summary, keep putting yourself out there and marketing your coaching services to bring in new business.
Examples of spiritual coaching practices
When setting up your spiritual life coaching business, incorporate the following spiritual practices into your sessions to help your clients attain inner guidance:
- Meditation: Meditation is a well-known practice that aims to quieten the mind and enhance the feeling of being present in the world. Its calming effect can help reduce stress, encourage mindfulness, and help clients get more in touch with their own spirituality.
- Journaling: Through journaling, clients can reflect on their experiences, explore their emotions, and seek answers to their deepest questions. It doesn’t require writing experience and is an excellent tool for discovering the inner self.
- Visualization exercises: Visualization involves encouraging your clients to imagine a desired outcome as if it were reality. This powerful exercise helps the participant tap into their spiritual element, attain clarity, and envision their spiritual growth. The imaginative aspect of the exercise helps the client draw from their inner wisdom and unlock their creativity and intuition.
- Intuitive guidance: The spiritual practice of intuition guidance involves helping clients through spiritual challenges by providing insights based on intuition.
- Daily affirmations: Affirmations can help your client cultivate a positive spirit and grow beyond the beliefs that have halted their progress. You’ll instruct your clients to state one positive affirmation about themselves in the present tense (e.g., “I am lucky”) every day. Your clients can combine this spiritual practice with meditation.
- Gratitude tracking: Like journaling, gratitude tracking involves recording thoughts on paper. However, rather than keeping track of every thought (both good and bad), your clients will note down what they’re grateful for. The benefit of this exercise is it can help clients to accept what has passed in a healthy way.
- Energy healing: This practice focuses on the client’s inner energy and vibration frequencies. As an energy healer, you’ll help your clients clear energy blockages, heal spiritually, and find balance. You might need to take a certification program that lets you become a Reiki master or other energy-healing practitioner to instruct on this practice.
As the above list shows, there are multiple practices you can use in your spiritual coaching program to help your clients reach their spiritual goals.
Here is an article where you can learn more about starting an online coaching business.
Spiritual life coach FAQs
1. What does a spiritual life coach do?
A spiritual life coach helps other people achieve spiritual growth and live a fulfilling and meaningful life. This can be done through group or one-on-one sessions.
2. What qualifications do you need to be a spiritual life coach?
There are no strict qualifications that you must meet to be a spiritual life coach because the industry is unregulated. However, getting certification from an accredited institution is advisable if you want to be a successful spiritual life coach.
3. How much does a spiritual life coach charge?
The amount a spiritual life coach charges can vary hugely depending on their expertise. Some can charge as much as $200 per hour while others price their services in packages.
In closing
Becoming a spiritual life coach takes planning and thought, but it’s not impossible.
To start, consider getting certified by an accredited institute like the Natural Wellness Academy. It isn’t a must, but it could lend you more credibility in the eyes of potential clients.
You’ll also need to choose a platform for your spiritual coaching business. If it offers conferencing tools, scheduling technology, and similar features, you’re golden. Next, attract the right clients and be transparent when communicating the benefits your coaching will provide.
When you have all of the above in place, set your prices and network extensively. We recommend selling your services as a package rather than collecting an hourly rate. And networking puts you out there for more paying clients to discover you.
Follow the above steps and you’ll position yourself for success as a spiritual life coach.