Life coaches and the contemporary search for perfection

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The Home section takes a look at the proliferation of coaches who can guide you on how to plant a garden, raise a baby, get a teenager into college -- and everything in between.

Somewhere along the way, reports The Times’ Mary MacVean, we have decided that ‘muddling through on our own’ is no longer an option. If we have a desire to bake bread, we might find ourselves in a bread baking workshop rather than simply reading a recipe.

But what’s behind all this coaching?

Evan Marc Katz, a dating coach in Los Angeles offers this assessment: ‘I think it’s an offshoot of an evolved and specialized world. There are fewer generalists and more specialists in everything. You can find the person who is the best bathroom caulker instead of just finding a handyman.’

MacVean’s full story dives head first into the whole life coaching phenomena.

-- Deborah Netburn

Illustration credit: Bonnie Dain / For The Times