Program REQUIREMENTS

Coach Specific Training: You’ll receive at least 60 hours of coach specific training (“synchronous” hours) as part of the core curriculum of the program. In addition, you’ll be completing asynchronous assignments on relevant life coaching topics. Participants will need to ensure they have not exceeded their absences for the program in order to be certified through our program. Attending our training calls is like attending a class--you’ve got to be “in the room” so to speak. Calls where childcare (or other things) are going on in the background or where you’re driving while on a call will be counted as an absence. Additionally, Mastermind calls and Saturday “swapped session” calls are required and are always to be held at their designated times.

One-on-one coaching hours: As part of the certification, you’ll accrue at least 50 hours of one-on-one hours where you are the coach and someone else is the client. Accrual begins as soon as you begin taking on clients, following our training weekend in January. All trainees are responsible for finding their own clients and scheduling sessions. You may coach others who are in our training program; this does count towards your 1:1 hours. However, keep in mind that at least a portion of the 1:1 hours must be paid hours (see the details, below). “Paying” can mean any fee of $5 or more. Most trainees opt to swap sessions with one another of equal cost.

For the purposes of the the program, you will need to meet the following qualifications for your client coaching experience. More details are available in the trainee manual given to all participants at the start of your training year:

  • Complete at least 50 one-on-one client sessions with you acting as the coach for that session.

  • Of those 50 hours, you must have worked with at least 8 different clients (so in other words, 10 coaching hours per client, x 5 clients, would meet the 50-hour requirement, but it would not meet the requirement of working with at least 8 different clients).

  • These hours must be tracked using the spreadsheet that we provide you with.

  • The total hours are due to be completed by the training hour deadline each year.

  • While you can elect to defer your portfolio review to a different year if you do not feel prepared to finish it during your training year, we do not transfer hours completed during one training year, to another training year. You must finish all 1:1 hours during your training year, if you want to be certified. Failure to finish the 1:1 hours during your specific training year will prevent you from gaining our certification at a later point.

  • Group coaching does not count towards the one-on-one requirement. Only one-on-one coaching sessions with you as coach and someone else as client, count.

  • Completion of Mentor Coaching that covers the ICF Core Competencies and 3 individual sessions.

  • Time spent coaching another trainee during one of our field work calls can be counted towards the hourly requirement (in other words, if you volunteer to coach someone during a field work call, and that session is approximately 30 minutes, then you may log that 30 minutes on your client log). Role playing exercises on program calls do not count towards your hourly requirement. Time spent coaching another trainee during a “mastermind” call does not count towards the requirement; mastermind calls are intended as time for coaches to come together around issues related to coaching, not for actual, live coaching.

Field Work Feedback: When we have “Field Work” calls, where trainees coach one another, you will need to offer timely feedback for the coach who presented on the call. When you are in the coach role for this type of call, it’s required that you post your own self-assessment of your coaching no later than Monday after the call. The rest of our community/trainees will be listening to and taking notes on what they hear on that coaching call. It is required that trainees offer specific, substantive feedback on the session no later than Thursday before our Lesson Call.

  • Trainees in a coach role who fail to post their self-assessment by Monday will need to post it no later than Thursday of that week and there is a penalty assignment added on.

  • Trainees in a coach role who fail to post a self-assessment within a week of their session but who do post it late, will have a penalty assignment.

  • Trainees in a coach role who completely fail to post a self-assessment within 2 weeks of their session will not be eligible for certification.

  • Trainees who receive coaching on field work calls, or who are listening to coaching on a field work call, must post their feedback no later than Thursday before our Lesson Call. Failure to post feedback three or more times may make you ineligible for certification.

  • Trainees posting feedback must post substantive feedback based on the feedback sheets that trainees are provided with through the program. Offering a few comments such as, “Good job” or feedback that does not specifically address different aspects of the ICF Core Competencies or the items on the feedback sheet will not be considered substantive.

Portfolio Review / Final Performance Evaluation: All graduates of our program complete Portfolio Review. We assign each trainee to a Reviewer. The trainee records a 30-minute call of themselves coaching someone. The person who is in the client role for this call must agree to allow the session to be recorded as well as send a Recording Authorization to the program. We provide you with information on how to do this. The trainee then listens to their own recording, and completes a written self-assessment. The audio and self-assessment are turned in to the Reviewer. The Reviewer listens to the call, reviews the audio and self-assessment, and writes their own feedback assessment for the trainee. The trainee and Reviewer get onto a one-on-one call where the Reviewer shares their feedback with the trainee. The program will also require that the trainee has established a website, has a headshot, and has written a short bio. The trainee also has an opportunity to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of her skill-set on this final call. The ICF has their own process for reviewing a portfolio for their own certification policies, though the program process is modeled after ICF certification standards.

Minimum Skill Requirements/Core Competencies: The ICF “Core Competencies” are interwoven throughout the training and all graduates of our program must meet minimum skill requirements in each competency. As always, however, the program cannot guarantee that the ICF will give a credential to one of our graduates.

There are some things that can disqualify you from being able to say that you are a graduate, using the “CLCC” acronym as a professional designation following your name, or stating that your credentials were earned through this program.

  • Trainees who do not fulfill all certification requirements cannot receive certification, represent themselves as being “certified,” or otherwise represent themselves as having completed or been trained by our program, and if they apply for ICF certification and the ICF requests confirmation that they have completed a program, the ICF will be told that the program was “not completed.” Trainees who do not fulfill certification requirements will not be issued a graduation certificate.

  • Trainees are expected to treat our program as they would showing up for an in-person class at a college or University. Trainees who leave training calls early or arrive to training calls late would have time docked. There is a penalty for failure to report a late arrival or early departure. Going over your allowed absences and missing too many calls (of any kind--our group calls, field work calls, mastermind calls, etc.). Reminder: calls where other things are going on in the background (i.e., you’re doing child care at the same time that you’re trying to listen to a call; you’re driving) will count as an absence. Multiple late arrivals or early departures will also add up.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you fail to pay for any part of the program.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you fail to complete all hours of one-on-one client coaching experience by the deadline.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you fail to complete and pass any part of the program exam or submit the final Portfolio in full and by the due date requested.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if there are repetitive or chronic issues with accountability or integrity, including, but not limited to such examples as: missing classes and failing to notify the group well in advance; skipping mastermind meetings; chronically arriving late to group calls; not completing practices outside of our class time; leaving group calls early.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you there are indications that you have not mastered the training, as evidenced by issues with the final recorded call or ongoing issues that present themselves during training. Please note that determining whether or not a coach in training is “qualified” is up to the program’s sole discretion.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if there are ongoing issues present during the training, participants will be given verbal or written feedback and invited to correct the issue. A trainee may be asked to leave the group if issues presented are disruptive for the group. Expulsion is immediate in cases where a trainee is directly disrespectful to members of the group in some way, particularly if it is intentional. Review the chapter “Expulsion” in this guide, for more details.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you are expelled.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if the Final Performance Evaluation / Portfolio Review does not demonstrate mastery of the program’s training guidelines, the trainee will be given feedback and allowed to another attempt. Guidelines for this process will be given to all participants. If the second call is not completed and submitted within the timeframe requested by the program, and/or if the call still does not indicate that the trainee is qualified, they cannot represent themselves as having trained with nor completed our program, nor can they call themselves a “certified” coach.

  • You may not represent yourself as certified or trained by us if you are unwilling to adhere to the Code of Ethics/ICF Code of Ethics.