COURSE CTIS

Coaching Through Imposter Syndrome: An Intersectional Approach

We often talk about imposter syndrome as if it’s a one-size-fits-all confidence problem. But for many high-achieving clients, the feeling of being a “fake” isn’t simply self-doubt — it’s a rational response to the environments they’ve had to navigate. This 9-hour intensive moves beyond surface-level confidence building to explore why so many capable, accomplished people feel as though they are performing successfully rather than inhabiting it.

Together, we’ll examine how the pressure to “fit in” varies across lived experiences. Factors such as race, gender, neurodiversity, or being a first-generation professional can turn a career path into a constant negotiation with belonging. Instead of seeing imposter feelings as a personal flaw, we’ll explore them as signals shaped by context, expectations, and invisible rules about competence.

We blend psychological insights with practical coaching skills. Participants will develop a specialized toolkit to help clients unmask the “fraud” narrative. We’ll unpack the internal standards clients use to judge themselves. We’ll also apply the ICF Core Competencies to support meaningful identity-level shifts.

Through deep inquiry, listening, and grounded presence, coaches will learn how to help clients move from burnout-driven over-functioning toward a more sustainable stride—one rooted not in proving but in belonging. This course is a working laboratory for coaches ready to help their clients stop performing legitimacy and begin experiencing it.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Differentiate imposter experiences from confidence deficits. Recognize how context, identity, and systemic expectations shape clients’ sense of legitimacy and belonging.
Identify and work with common imposter narratives and internal performance rules, such as Expert or Soloist. Understand how these influence client behavior, decision-making, and burnout patterns.
Apply coaching presence and informed inquiry to help clients examine and reframe limiting self-judgments at an identity level.
Maintain ethical awareness and partnership with clients throughout the coaching process.
Facilitate sustainable client action and growth, supporting shifts from over-functioning and self-protection toward aligned, self-authorized performance.

Required text: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: You Belong at the Table. Author Anthony W. Scott, Esq.

Additional recommended text: The Imposter Cure: How to Stop Feeling Like a Fraud and Escape the Mind Trap of Imposter Syndrome. Author Dr. Jessamy Hibberd