Funny side of self-help in Lifecoach

Life coaching gets a bad press in the UK because we practitioners want to help people feel better about themselves. We are criticised for giving people "false hope". The theory goes that we encourage people to strive beyond their capabilities while charging £200 for our trouble.

Au contraire, the good coach is rooted in reality, eager to inspire and uplift while pointing out the road ahead. I call it dreaming and scheming. Pursue your dreams with a practical plan.

So I approached Nick Reed’s play, Lifecoach, with some trepidation. Phill Jupitus plays Colin the life coach with his "Believe in yourself; Let go of the past; Take responsibility" plan (BLT for short). As the author of Be Your Own Life Coach and four other motivational books, I may bear some of the responsibility for providing Jupitus and Reed with a little inspiration.

Colin is given the task of transforming Wendy, a hapless PA with major self-esteem problems — sorry, challenges. Essentially his job is to help her feel better about herself. Colin arms her with affirmations and assertiveness techniques and urges her to stand up to her bullying boss and exploitative boyfriend. Jupitus’s Colin is brilliant and frighteningly familiar. Think Paul McKenna on caffeine, then add a touch of David Brent.

Wendy succeeds, though not quite in the manner Colin would have liked. In fact, so empowered is she that she stands up to Colin and eventually dismisses his services. The BLT sandwich has worked! It’s hilarious and I cringed in parts as I heard my own words and phrases.

But how realistic is this compared to real life coaching? Colin has a pat answer for all of Wendy’s questions, which he recites until she is worn down into believing she is a wonderful, worthwhile human being.

I’d like to hope we coaches are a tad more subtle and sincere, but at least he gets a result. At the end, we see Colin undergo his own soul-searching transformation, but I won’t spoil that for you.

If there weren’t a need for coaches we wouldn’t exist. And only the best survive. Making people feel good about themselves is a subtle art. Take note Colin.

Until 14 June. Information: 0871 297 5461.

Fiona Harrold is a life coach whose latest book, The 7 Rules of Success, is published by Hodder Mobius.

Lifecoach
Trafalgar Studios
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY