Coaching Glossary
What Are Limiting Beliefs in Coaching
Limiting beliefs are ideas, judgments, or assumptions that a person holds as true and that limit their ability to act, grow, or reach their goals. They are learned over the course of life and operate automatically, often outside the client's awareness.
Origin and History
Work on limiting beliefs has roots in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s, and in Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy. In coaching, working with beliefs is one of the fundamental axes of change.
How It's Applied in Coaching
- Detection: Pay attention to phrases like 'I can't', 'I'm not capable', 'it always happens to me', 'I'll never achieve it'. These are signs of a limiting belief.
- Socratic Questioning: Ask the client: Is this absolutely true? What evidence do you have? What would happen if it weren't true?
- Origin: Explore where that belief comes from. Who told you that? At what moment did you decide it?
- Reframing: Help the client build an alternative belief that is more expansive and aligned with their goals.
- Action: Design small actions that contradict the limiting belief and reinforce the new one.
Benefits for Your Client
- Frees the client from patterns that have held them back for years
- Generates deep, lasting change
- Increases self-confidence and self-esteem
- Opens new possibilities for action
- Reduces self-criticism and fear of failure
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