Our Foundational course was designed specifically for human developmental professionals and others with backgrounds in the people business.
This course is the cornerstone of our our coach training program and is required of students who want to become professional coaches. While the original ILCT foundational course was rooted in transitioning therapists and counselors into coaching, it has blossomed into a course that serves all human development professionals to develop the skills they will need to enter the coaching profession. This forty-hour course (see schedule below) provides essential knowledge and skills to launch a coaching career through twice-weekly teleclasses and once-a-week Peer Coaching practice and post-class assignments (called fieldwork). The total estimated time commitment per week is 4 to 5 hours. Since this is an ICF-accredited course, students must attend at least 35 of the 40 teleclasses and complete a written exam of 70% or better in order to successfully pass this course. Students will need to have regular access to the internet and ILCT website.
This forty-hour course is divided into three modules. The ICF Core Competencies provide the basis for the knowledge and skills presented.
Course Modules
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Module 1 – You as Coach (20 hours) covers the definition of coach, distinctions between counseling, therapy, and coaching, the ethics of coaching, and a strong focus on the development of the basic coaching skills or core competencies, including but not limited to creating rapport, reframing, open questions, and active listening. Learning is developed both through readings, in class experiential and observational learning, reinforced through weekly Peer Coaching fieldwork.
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Module 2 - Business of Coaching (5 hours) introduction to marketing your own coaching business, including how to determine if a potential client is ready for coaching, determining your “ideal client” or niche, establishing contracts, the intake process, etc.
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Module 3 – From the Inside Out (15 hours) focuses on life design and personal fulfillment. This is both a personal journey, with students using an assortment of common coaching assessments to advance their personal development, as well as being trained on how to use these with their clients. Some of the issues addressed include needs, values, beliefs; Life purpose; Life design; Integrity, standards, choices and boundaries; reserve and abundance; and self-care for coaches.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the completion of the Foundational Coach Training course, students will:
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Be familiar with and comfortable with basic coaching skills and methods that enable you to serve as a coach.
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Develop an understanding of the evidence-based theories, philosophies, and models on which the profession of coaching is based.
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Understand and apply the ethical standards of the profession of coaching in your work with clients.
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Be able to use basic methods and strategies for personal coaching and for corporate/business coaching.
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Be able to discern clients with whom you most want to work (ideal client), determine which clients are and are not “coachable”, and understand when to refer.
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Be able to design your coaching business distinct from your counseling or therapy practice and the ethical issues which must be considered.
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Identify the transferable skills that form your background and what non-transferable skills, methods, habits, and orientations you need to leave behind.
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Develop a familiarity with the assessment tools used in coaching and how to use them to enhance your clients’ self-growth, strengths, problem solving abilities, and awareness.
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Have identified potential specialties and coaching niches.
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Know how your being as a coach impacts your clients and your business and have begun to work on your own advance personal development
Required Textbook
Becoming a Professional Life Coach: Lessons from the Institute for Life Coach Training
By Patrick Williams
Also Recommended (but not required)
Therapist as Life Coach: An Introduction for Counselors and Other Helping Professionals
By Patrick Williams, Deborah Davis
Course Prerequisites
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Bachelors degree, preferably in the social and behavioral sciences
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Experience in the helping professions
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Strong communication skills
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Application approval
Register for this course
Select a class term from the list below.
