Approaches to life coaching I work on a theological reflection of coaching. I would like to list some basic directions/approaches/ways/schools that differ each other. 

My attempt:


Neuroscience based coaching
Systemic coaching
NLP coaching
Narrative coaching.
Coaching is not as well researched and not as well conceptualized as for example psychotherapy. There are no clear and distinct schools and approaches, especially since many certifying institutes require by contract that the coaches they train must not disclose the copyrighted methods to third parties.

Generally, literature on coaching and the reports of coaches show that coaching uses a "toolbox" of methods taken from any and all schools of psychotherapy (from behavioral therapy to humanistic therapy to Gestalt therapy to psychoanalysis to systemic therapy and so on) and sociology as well as other, even New Age methods (see for example Rupert, 1992) of personality development, most prominently NLP. Usually the tools are used in an eclectic, "experimental" (try-what-works) manner. Rarely is there a theoretic "framing" of methodology (one example is Schmidt-Lellek &amp; Schreyögg, 2008, who use a phenomenological frame).

Sources:


(I'm currently enrolled in a psychological seminar on methods in and evaluation of coaching)
Rupert, G. (1992). Employing the New Age: training seminars. In J. R. Lewis &amp; J. G. Melton (Eds.), Perspectives on the New Age. Albany, NY: SUNY Press., 127-35.
Schmidt-Lellek, C. J., &amp; Schreyögg, A. (Eds.) (2008). Praxeologie des Coaching. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften