One of my ex-coworkers was working towards becoming a life coach a couple of years ago and was looking for clients to get her hours so I "volunteered," paying $20/hr with the caveat that some of my sessions will be recorded. She's a very thoughtful and motivated person herself and during the time I worked with her we pretty much progressed together.
What she really helped is to provide different perspectives looking at life, relationships and goals, and really get you to ask yourself difficult questions - what you value in life, what you're afraid of, what kind of a spouse/parent do you want to be and why, things like that. There are techniques and exercises that helped me working on these issues. During my last session with her she summarized it well, "In the beginning you think you can live your life the way you want 10 years later; now you know you are already living it."
My husband also worked with her and was able to improve (or accept, depending on how you look at it) his relationship with his family somewhat, and be more comfortable about pursuing his own ideas and dreams.
To me, therapy helps resolving past issues, and life coaching helps moving forward with life. It's not anything magical, and I'm sure people can read a bunch themselves and come to similar conclusion. Would I pay $200/hr for this? I'm not sure, but I didn't know what I know now. Hope this helps.
