Most of this page is about work you want to change, not work that is wearing you down. A coach helps you choose where to go next, then take the steps.
If the job is harming your health, start with burnout at work instead. If fear or low mood holds you back, each section below says when a therapist or counsellor fits better.
Coaching is not therapy
Coaching has a developmental focus. It works on goals, change and action, not on understanding the past or recovering from trauma. A coach does not treat, diagnose or cure a mental health condition.
If your mental health is the problem, a therapist or counsellor is the right place to start. How to find the right professional.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy says:
While counselling is reparative in nature, coaching has a developmental focus.
Coaching starts from where you want to get to. It is not mainly about understanding the past or getting over traumatic events.
Source: BACP: coaching
Changing career
Changing career might mean a new industry, going freelance or returning to work after a break. Often the hardest part is choosing, not moving.
Free careers advice is a good first call. Each UK nation runs its own service.
Get careers information and advice
England Job profiles and skills tools online, plus a phone line to a Department for Work and Pensions careers adviser.
The phone line is for people aged 18 or over. If you are under 18, ask the careers adviser at your school, college or training provider.
Scotland Skills Development Scotland's careers service, with advice by phone and at local centres.
Wales Free careers advice by phone, webchat or at a centre, in Welsh or English.
Northern Ireland Free careers guidance by phone or webchat, with local careers offices.
The phone line's hours are not published. Webchat runs weekdays 9.30am to 4.30pm.
A careers adviser shows you the options. A coach works with you over several sessions to pick one, try it out and follow it through.
Sometimes the change is forced on you, or it frightens more than it excites. Then a counsellor may help more than a plan.
Direction and growth
Sometimes the job is fine and you still feel stuck. You may want the next role, a new skill or work that fits your values.
This is where coaching is most at home. A coach helps you name the goal, see what stands in the way and agree the next step.
Sometimes feeling stuck comes with a harsh inner voice. If so, our page on low self-esteem may fit better.
Stepping into leadership
A first leadership role changes the job overnight. You stop being judged on your own work and start being judged on your team's.
A leadership coach can help with things like:
- Managing people who used to be your peers
- A difficult conversation you keep putting off
- Deciding with less information than you would like
- Feeling alone at the top of a team
Coaching works on how you lead. Doubt about whether you deserve the role is different. A counsellor can help with where it comes from, and our page on imposter syndrome covers it.
Presence and speaking
Presence is how you come across in a room: whether people listen, and whether your ideas land. You may have been told you lack gravitas, or keep missing out on roles you could do.
A coach can help you prepare, rehearse and get honest feedback. Some nerves before a big talk are normal.
Fear is different when it starts to run your working life. The NHS describes social anxiety as a lasting fear that affects work, including doing things while others watch. If you turn down jobs or meetings to avoid speaking, start with our anxiety page and a therapist.
Source: NHS: social anxiety
Running your own business
Running a business can be lonely. There may be nobody to share decisions with, and the business can start to feel like who you are.
Free business advice deals with the practical side. Each UK nation has its own service.
England Free help finding funding, support and guidance for a business in England.
Scotland Free advice on starting and growing a business, by phone, online or at a local office.
Wales Free business advice and guidance by phone or online, in Welsh or English.
Northern Ireland Invest NI's business support team, with free advice and guidance at nibusinessinfo.co.uk.
Invest NI does not publish the line's opening hours.
A business adviser helps with the money and the plan. A coach can help with carrying it alone: decisions, boundaries and what you want the business to be for.
We found no UK helpline built for people who run their own business.
If the pressure has turned into exhaustion, read about burnout.
Sport and performance
Sport puts your body, your results and often your identity on show. Pressure, injury, selection and leaving sport can all hit hard.
Free support comes first. Sporting Wellness supports UK athletes aged 16 or over who compete above a social level.
Free mental health and wellbeing support for UK athletes who compete above a social or recreational level.
A 24-hour line for current and former professional players in the English leagues.
An International Olympic Committee panel found mental health symptoms common among elite athletes. Retiring through injury or being dropped is linked to a higher risk of those symptoms.
A performance coach works on preparation, focus and routine.
"Sport and exercise psychologist" is a protected title. Only a professional on the Health and Care Professions Council register may use it. If that is who you want, check the register before you book.
Sources: Sporting Wellness: support, Reardon et al. 2019, HCPC: professions regulated
What the research shows
A 2016 review pooled 17 workplace studies of coaching. It found positive effects on skills, attitudes and individual results at work.
The authors call that number of studies relatively small, and ask readers to take care with the results. Nobody can promise that coaching will work for you, and we will not.
Source: Jones et al. 2016
When a therapist fits better
Coaching assumes you are well enough to act on a plan between sessions. When low mood, anxiety or something that happened is what stops you, a therapist or counsellor is a better start.
Not sure which you need? Our guide to therapy, coaching or hypnotherapy sets the three side by side.
Choosing a coach
Life coaching is not regulated in the UK, so anyone can call themselves a life coach. That makes the coach's own accreditation the thing to check.
We accept coaches accredited by the International Coaching Federation. A coach with another accreditation can register it, and we verify it before you see them. Ask how they work, and what they do if you raise something coaching is not built for.
Source: GOV.UK careers: life coach
Thanks for your interest. We're not taking on new clients at the moment.
What do you want to change about your work?
We ask what matters to you, then find professionals who fit.
- I want to change career but I do not know where to start
- I have been promoted and I do not feel ready to lead
- I freeze when I have to present
- I run my own business and I have nobody to talk to
References
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (2026). Coaching. Link
- National Health Service (2023). Social anxiety (social phobia). Link
- Reardon, C. L. et al. (2019). Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee consensus statement (2019). British Journal of Sports Medicine. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2019-100715
- Sporting Wellness (2026). Get support. Link
- Health and Care Professions Council (2025). The professions we regulate. Link
- Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A. & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: a meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. doi:10.1111/joop.12119
- Get careers information and advice (2026). Life coach. Link
