You Can Learn How to Become a Dating Coach From Watching a Movie?

What can you possibly learn about how to become a dating coach from the Wizard of Oz? It’s all there, in Technicolor, for those who are willing to learn. And the best part of this relationship coach training is it’s easy to remember. There are five things that keep people from finding the love they want that you can learn from this story.

How to Become a Dating Coach Using Characters as Your Relationship Coach

How to Become a Dating Coach: Insights from the Scarecrow
It doesn’t take a lot of relationship coach expertise to see where the Scarecrow’s theory falls down. He thinks that if only he had a brain, everything would be okay. He thinks he’s a failure, and it’s not until Dorothy gets him to see that there is hope that he takes action. Eventually the Wizard points out that the action he takes proves that all along he had brains. The message is that most people who say they are looking for a relationship aren’t even taking action because at some level they don’t feel they have what it takes. Enter the relationship coach.

How to Become a Dating Coach: Insights from the Tin Man
He’s rusty, but he does have what it takes to fall in love. He just needs a little oil and he’s on his way. Up until he meets Dorothy, he’s is literally frozen. And while his body was rusted in one position, there really wasn’t any problem with his heart or ability to feel emotions. In some ways, he let what he couldn’t do stop him from doing what he could do. And like the Tin Man, some of your relationship coach clients just need a little strategy to identify ways to get unstuck.

How to Become a Dating Coach: Insights from the Cowardly Lion
The lion must have had a very disempowering peer group before he met Dorothy and the gang, along with some very negative self talk. Once he changed his peer group, he started to make some headway. After the Wizard gave him a more empowering alternative, the Lion completed the rest of the transformation. Note that the wizard was not even a certified relationship coach at that time.

How to Become a Dating Coach: Insights from the Wizard
Here is an example of how trying to be someone you’re not is a bad idea. It wasn’t until the wizard was caught in his lie and forced to play the hand he was dealt that he was able to succeed. As a relationship coach, be ready to call your client out when they’re not being authentic.

How to Become a Dating Coach: What about Dorothy?
As a relationship coach, make sure your clients are not looking for a woman to solve all their problems. The Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man didn’t really transform until Dorothy was trapped by the witch and needed to be saved. At the moment these guys recognized that they had to do it on their own. They put their excuses down, and stepped up to the plate.

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach