Life Coaching, Resilience, & Well-being

Coaching Educators| Coaching Students| Educators as Coaches in the Classroom| The Science of Empowerment Coaching

October 08, 2025•7 min read

Can life coaching increase teacher resilience and well-being?

Many of us know that teachers face a lot of stress in the classroom. This 2019 study by Galazka and Jarosz acknowledges teacher stress and offers life coaching as a solution. In their review of literature, they found that “teaching is associated with [the] second highest level of stress amongst analyzed occupations, preceded only by ambulance car drivers (Trendall, 1989; Hepburn & Brown, 2001).” They also found that “according to a survey by the Guardian Teacher Network, 75% of teachers admit that their work is negatively impacting their physical and mental health,” and that “many are considering or are already planning to leave the teaching profession (Lightfoot, 2016).” In 2022, “twice as many teachers are thinking about quitting than at the start of the pandemic,” and “more than a half-million have left the profession since the start of 2020.” Causes of this can be attributed to low pay, high workload (often from staffing shortages), and the unsafe pandemic environment. NPR also reported that National Education Association polls taken this January showed that 90% of its members feel that burnout is a serious problem. We are in the midst of a teacher wellbeing and retention crisis. Can individual and group coaching sessions utilizing life coaching help teachers be more well and content in classrooms and with themselves?

This study examined the effects of life coaching on teacher resilience and wellbeing. Life coaching is a type of coaching to help improve someone’s quality of life by helping them achieve important goals that can maximize their potential. It is becoming very popular because it is shown to be effective in helping to enhance and improve peoples’ lives. Resiliency is a scientific term that is the ability to adapt (or emotionally and mentally "bounce back”) and stay positive despite the same stressful events that might keep occurring in life. Resiliency is often commonly associated with the term “grit”, but the two differ in that “grit is about sustained, consistent effort toward a long-term goal even when we struggle,” whereas resiliency is the ability to get back up and keep going after failing or struggling. Resiliency is more of an optimistic mindset and feeling of “ok’ness”, whereas grit is a trait of immense effort. Kori Miller summarizes the two saying, ”Grit is the engine that moves us toward our goal. Resilience is the oil that keeps the engine moving.” We don’t want teachers having to use grit every day…that would be exhausting. Resiliency is a more long term mindset that has a relationship to the work environment and is an important aspect of wellbeing. Wellbeing is the state of optimal psychological, physical, and social health. Learning to increase well-being will help a person build resilience and know how to experience wellbeing even in the midst of negative times.

The sample in this coaching study consisted of 80 English teachers aged from 25 to 55 who were all members of IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language). The majority of the sample was female (80%) and they varied by their location and grade level taught. These teachers first took part in a pre-assessment of wellbeing using Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB) which determines factors that contribute to wellbeing, contentment, and happiness (such as positive relationships with others, personal mastery, autonomy, a feeling of purpose and meaning in life, and personal growth and development). Teachers then participated in a 6 hour coaching group session (4 groups of 20 participants) and a 10 hour individual coaching session. Then, the PWB scale was used again to assess progress and interviews were conducted after each coaching session to get teacher feedback.

The coaching sessions utilized two coaching frameworks.

The GROW model

The GROW model stands for Goals, Current Reality, Options, and Will. Coaches using this model first help people set goals. In setting these goals, coaches then examine individuals’ current reality in relation to their goals. Coaches then explore individual options in reaching their goals. Lastly, coaches establish individual will and dedication to achieve individual goals.

The KASH model

The KASH model stands for Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, and Habits. Coaches use this model to assess a situation or behavior. Coaches begin by finding individual areas that need work by asking questions about the individual’s knowledge of the facts of their situation or behavior. They then ask for individual attitudes and feelings towards this situation or behavior. Coaches will then go through an analysis of the individual’s skills and have a discussion of how to utilize their skills in the situation or in conjunction with or instead of the behavior. Coaches then identify any habits that are related to the behavior or situation. The final step is for the coach and the coachee to go through the individual’s knowledge, habits, attitudes, and skills of a behavior or situation and identify gaps that the individual would like to work on.

The coaches in this study also used metaphors to help simplify and communicate with the teachers.

The study found that positive relationships with others, stress management techniques, better feelings of purpose and sense in life, self-acceptance, and knowledge about wellbeing and resilience all increased in teachers after 16 hours of coaching. The teacher interviews suggested that most teachers thought that the coaching tools were beneficial and helped build their resilience. They were able to see things from a different perspective and felt listened to. This study also enabled teachers (who were new to coaching practices) to get new perspectives on themselves that helped them see their problems in a different light. Lastly, the coaching practices used in this study resulted in an increase in teacher well-being.

These positive effects on teachers suggest that teachers would benefit from life coaching. It supports the idea that life coaching has powerful effects on wellbeing and resilience, which ties into our mission to support and coach teachers to help them grow and feel well in their classrooms. We have determined that life coaching is not only a skill that educators can learn, but also a way of being and that the coaching approach is the key to building good environments for teachers and students. The authors of this study suggest that a teacher's level of resilience determines how they will act in stressful situations which affects the classroom environment. The results of this study, then, suggest that increased resilience from life coaching could also affect the lives of students in the classroom.

Implications

This study is an example of how life coaching can increase resiliency and other aspects of well-being in educators. 16 hours of coaching may seem like a lot of time, but this study suggests that life coaching can help teachers manage stress better through resilience which could help teachers overcome high levels of burnout and negative mental health. Increased teacher resiliency and life coaching can also potentially help teachers stay and feel more supported in the workforce. If you feel like you and your classroom could benefit from life coaching, please consider being a part of our coaching sessions. Our coaching sessions want to form connections between educators and students and will help teach educators how to use strategies to empower themselves as well as their students. We will be launching our life and learning coaching for educators by the end of this year. Please message us if you have any questions or interest in this opportunity!

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