How Culturally Responsive Life Coaches Promote Community Wellness

Life is full of challenges and opportunities. Friends and family try their best to assist, but sometimes people need more specialized support to help navigate life’s many twists and turns. 

For some people managing family life, personal finances, careers, and community issues can feel overwhelming. Now factor in for Black, Latinx and other people of color, systemic injustices, discrimination, and immigration issues, and life can feel draining

We at FIERCE Advocates believe that culturally responsive health and healing services are crucial to support the Black and Latinx residents we partner with on their wellness and healing journeys. 

More than two years ago, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched no-cost life coaching services for Black women to support their well-being as an extension of our Black Woman’s Sanctuary peer support group. And earlier this year, we are proud to have launched our no-cost life coaching for Latinas and men of color. 

What Is Culturally Responsive Life Coaching?

Life coaches create a safe space for people to explore and strategically pursue personal and professional goals. They partner with clients to create an action plan to help guide them to more fulfilling lives. We fully embrace mental and emotional well-being support, including therapy. However, life coaching is not therapy because it focuses on setting and achieving goals rather than mental health. 

Life coaches of and from the communities we work in can provide an extra source of well-being support. Culturally responsive coaches foster a sense of safety and partnership when among other things, they center the client’s social identities, cultural values, and viewpoints; consider current events in their clients’ communities; and develop culturally relevant strategies and solutions with their client; and continuously reflect on how their own personal identity, judgments, and values influence their thinking and coaching. 

Although effective life coaches may or may not share the same culture and language as their clients, there is something to be said for those that do.

Managing caregiving responsibilities and learning culturally adapted parenting solutions are just a few of the issues that can be compounded by issues like immigration, discrimination, and language barriers.

This is why, for communities of color like ours, skilled culturally responsive life coaches are a must. Their unique understanding of cultural intricacies paves the way for culturally relevant solutions.

You can learn more about our life coaching and how it can provide a viable wellness option here.