Parenting drama, grief and career struggles are fueling a $5B coaching boom

Mo Shema figures she’s spent around $10,000 on all the life, career and parenting coaches she’s used throughout her life. “I’ve gotten so much out of it,” Shema, a brand marketer and mom of two living in Los Angeles who asked not to use her full name, tells Yahoo.

But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Early in her career, Shema’s then employer arranged for her to work with a coach. It was a “really bad experience,” says Shema, who felt like she was being set up to fail. “I didn’t feel like she was my coach, but the company’s coach. She wasn’t really advocating for me.”

Years later, she turned to another career coach, and while that wasn’t the right fit either, the next one was. Ever since, she’s turned to various coaches to work through challenges ranging from communicating with direct reports at work to addressing bath time conflict with her husband and kids. How does she make sure she’s found the right person? “Reddit reviews help a lot, but also an immediate vibe check can tell you if they’re not a fit,” she says. “Is this person off? Do they fit my needs specifically?”

It was grief, not work, that prompted Emily Griffith to seek help from a life coach. She was 19 when she lost her father. He died on a Sunday, but the following day, the family went to work and school as if it were any other Monday. Seven years later, her mother and sister were diagnosed with cancer within weeks of one another, and Griffith’s unresolved grief began to bubble over. “That sent me on a journey of exploring all different kinds of healing modalities,” she tells Yahoo.

Therapy, shamans, Reiki, yoga — Griffith tried it all. It was a mix of therapy and life coaching that helped her see a way through her pain. She credits her coach with helping her “forge ahead.” She learned how to set boundaries, see her life through a new perspective and gain the confidence to leave corporate America behind, launching what she calls an “emotionally intelligent business that helps others channel that energy to move forward.” That business? Being a grief coach.

The rise of niche coaching — and some caveats

Globally, coaching is a $5.34 billion industry, according to the International Coaching Federation’s 2025 report, which also ranks it as one of the fastest-growing careers in the United States. Coaching’s low barrier to entry no doubt has something to do with that. Since coaching is seen as a consumer service — akin to personal training or tutoring — and not a health care service like therapy or psychiatry, there are no governing bodies monitoring this growing industry. What started out in the late 1970s as an opportunity to help people advance in their careers with executive coaching has now expanded to serve more focused areas: living with ADHD, parenting, divorce, grief and so on.

Fortune 500 companies are also investing in coaching to level up their employees’ professional growth, with Google, Salesforce, Hilton and ButcherBox partnering with the likes of BetterUp, the human transformation platform. Alayjah Watson used her company’s coaching service when she came back from maternity leave to help balance motherhood with being a leader at work; another career coach helped her when she took on a new role years later.

What that costs can vary widely; BetterUp starts at $109 a month for a single session. Shema paid one coach $800; another charged around $6,000 for 12 sessions over a 12-week period. She also came across coaches who cost up to $25,000 for a handful of sessions.

While anyone can technically call themselves a “coach,” there are a number of organizations — most notably, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) — that offer training certifications. “ICF was founded to help develop professionalization of the coaching profession … and put some standards and systems in place to support professional coaches, whether they are into life coaching or executive/leadership coaching and all of the other specialized fields that have emerged in the last 30 years,” Carrie Abner, vice president of ICF credentials and standards, tells Yahoo.

But not every coach has these certifications, and not everyone considers that to be a deal breaker when looking for a quality coach. “I have no idea if they’re certified,” Griffith says of the coaches she’s hired over the years. What counts, the Felt Write founder adds, is a coach who actively listens, works with clients without telling them what to do and has relevant life experience.

Psychotherapist Amy Morin has worked with clients who have consulted with unaccredited coaches. She tells Yahoo that results vary. “I’ve worked with people who have ADHD coaches who have helped them learn and practice specific strategies,” Morin says. These positive coaching experiences tend to involve more one-on-one training or in-home help, which isn’t something a therapist can provide.

She’s also seen situations that crossed a line or jeopardized a client’s safety. “One unaccredited grief coach was working with my client and didn’t recognize how the individual’s history of trauma was playing a role in their recovery,” Morin says. Another individual discovered the coach was sharing identifying information with other people about their conversations. “As a therapist, I’m bound by a code of ethics,” she says. “If I break that code, clients can contact my licensing board. I am held accountable if I do things that may cause harm. For many people, that’s an extra layer of protection.”

How it works

The job of a coach is to help bring a magnifying glass to a client’s negative or repetitive thought patterns and add structure and strategies to expand their thinking, explains Abner. In this way, clients can get out of “analysis paralysis” and start moving forward.

Griffith, in Washington, D.C., says that action-oriented movement was vital for her healing and her growth. She bumped into her first coach, Stef Ziev, in a food hall at a spiritual awakening adult sleepaway camp. “She came up to me and struck up a conversation,” Griffith says. “There was this ease about her that put me at ease immediately.”

Her first cohort with Ziev in 2015 taught her the importance of having a good group of people around you, setting boundaries and unlocking what you really want. “We meditated, we were accountability buddies for each other, we shared our dreams, got into action and did so much together. It was healing along with empowering,” she says. Ziev gave the group worksheets to complete and set up check-ins with peers outside their group sessions. “I felt so lit up being in this space and energy.”

When Griffith decided to start her own coaching business — which was then focused solely on life coaching — she decided to work one-on-one with a new coach. “She was a lawyer who got burned out and decided to change her life,” Griffith says. “That’s the kind of vibe I’m drawn to. I worked with her for a year, and we did a lot with mindset work, which helped with emotional intelligence/regulation, which led to making decisions from a grounded place and not out of fear/anxiety.”

It was at her coach’s suggestion that Griffith turned her focus to grief coaching. “She pointed out that I wrote about grief a ton on LinkedIn … and that maybe I should help my clients with their grief.”

LinkedIn also helped Rachel Akst, a children’s apparel design director in New Jersey, find the career and life coach, Kristine Scichilone, she’s been working with since March. Impressed with Scichilone’s posts and credentials, Akst set up an exploratory call — and was instantly hooked. “One conversation led me to feel that I needed to work with Kristine,” Akst tells Yahoo. “I felt that she was the key to help me get where I needed to go. I was having trouble with someone at work. She gave me her perspective on how I was contributing to the situation. She was direct yet empathetic. It was the jolt that convinced me this was my next step.”

The two now meet virtually once a week to discuss challenges, look at what Akst is doing well and figure out where she wants to go. Akst completes a pre-meeting form so that her coach can assess her current needs. And there’s usually homework — next steps that are all in the spirit of moving forward.

Akst says she noticed a change in herself early on. “By the third or fourth session, I felt that I was showing up to the meetings more confidently.” The entire process has fulfilled her more than she anticipated. “I have been searching for what felt missing in me; that feeling … is gone. I have more clarity on myself and my path of what works best for me. I feel that I could tackle a lot of extra challenges should I choose to pursue them because I have Kristine in my corner.”

Théa Iacovelli says coaching improved her career, finances and relationships. Now a managing director at Global Gateway Advisors, Iacovelli was at a different company when she started working with Taren Sterry from Big Time Coaching. While she initially focused on goals specific to her professional growth, like getting a promotion, Sterry nudged her to think bigger.

“Early on, Taren asked me how I achieved success at work,” Iacovelli tells Yahoo. “I said, ‘I write a plan.’ She then asked, ‘Have you ever written a life plan?’ That question changed everything.”

Iacovelli began treating her personal goals with the same level of dedication as her professional ones. She wrote a relationship plan, a financial plan and a wellness plan. “I like to think I wrote my husband into existence,” she says. “My relationship plan included a detailed articulation of who he was, what his values were and how I would feel around him. Many years later, I showed this plan to my then boyfriend, now husband. He was flabbergasted at the details and manifestation I had done to really narrow down what was important to me and what to not do with my time and energy.”

The experience was structured, intentional and full of “reflective” homework that helped her clarify what she wanted out of life. “It was one of the most empowering processes I’ve ever gone through.”

What it can’t do

As Morin notes, coaching runs the gamut, and she urges thorough vetting — what is their expertise and training, what skills do they teach, what are their limitations? Anyone seeking out a coach for a mental health issue, such as depression or anxiety, should seek out a therapist first, she adds, as they have specific training to address those challenges. And watch for red flags, Morin says. Inflated claims — “You’ll transform your life in a week!” — are a big one.

Abner, meanwhile, recommends managing your expectations with coaching. The biggest coaching misconception she sees is clients expecting a coach to tell them what to do. If you’re looking for direct answers and not a thought partner you can work with, you may be better served by a consultant or mentor, she notes.

But that “thought partner” role can be meaningful, says Susan Gilman, who has used both career and life coaching since 2020 to build self-esteem, identify her strengths and resolve conflict. She also credits coaching with helping reignite her love of acting, reevaluate her relationships and realize she doesn’t have to do life alone.

“Over the last several years, I’ve embraced the idea that I don’t have to figure everything out on my own,” she says. “I now have a therapist, a personal trainer and a coach — and they each support different parts of my journey.”