Training to become a coach
I often receive messages from people asking me what is the right training to become a coach.
I practice Linguistic Empathy and I expect you to do the same. Please bear with me if my English is not perfect.
Let me start by saying I am not an expert in the subject. When I decided to become a coach, I turned to the anglophone world because my intention was to maintain an international dimension in my profession. Depending on the country you live in, and the language spoken in the market or niche you want to address, you might not be interested in my experience.
There is an even more important thing to consider before deciding which language and academy to chose: Your training must be recognized by the International Coach Federation. At the moment, this is the only body that regulates the coaching profession. The number of people wanting to become a coach is steadily on the rise. This points to a scenario where stricter rules will be introduced in order to practice, and those who have trained in a path accredited by the ICF, will certainly be on the safe side. Moreover, accreditation by ICF is a sign of guarantee: If a programme has been analysed and approved by the Federation, it will surely be coherent with the guidelines they dictate, which are the basis for the profession of coaching.
Since being a coach has become a sort of fashion, many are the schools that sell a bit of everything. Some promise to make you become a coache in three days; others offer a two-months training, or a training exclusively online while some will convince you that in order to become a coach you must be trained in presence. I want to give you some insight that I hope will help you clarify how to proceed:
You do not become a coach in two days
Practice during the training is essential to be able to work in a responsible way. Although theory in coaching is certainly important, only repeated practice provides adequate tools to face clients in situations or with problems that can be hard to imagine. It is important to practice a lot, and especially to be coached by a professional, who can show well how the technique works. So, if an academy offers a lot of theory and little practical sessions (both coaching and being coached), let the alarm bell ring.
It is absolutely possible, and even desirable, to be trained exclusively online
The coaching is based on a technique of profound listening, intuition, feed-back to the client, encouragement and accompanying the journey of digging into oneself to find existing but not necessarily visible solutions. All this can be comfortably done via Skype or another online communication tool. A good academy knows that online coaching is the most used form at the moment, and that it keeps on growing. Training a coach to be able to coach online means to equip him with tools that will be useful for the whole length of his career.
I have trained exclusively online with the International Coach Academy in Melbourne, which I warmly recommend. They have been introducing courses in different languages, among which Italian. The majority of teleclasses is still in English, but for instance, as far as Italian is concerned, a substantial part of the programme is carried out in the language of Dante.
What I have shared so far is indicated in case you want coaching to be your main and lasting career. In this case an ACTP (Accredited Coach Training Program) programme is the best choice to start with. However, there are options that allow to acquire some of the tools of coaching to apply to your existing profession, whatever this might be, or that act as a springboard for a longer and more complete coaching training. Here you find all the options offered by ICA.
I hope I have provided some insight to start from, but of course, should you need more information, you can contact me. I’ll be happy to share my experience.