Where did you train?

RE: Where did you train?

Hi Avalon,

Good question! (always the sign of a good coach 😉 )

I just qualified last week after training with the Coaching Academy.
The course cost about £2000, but I've heard many other courses cost a lot more so I think their fees are about right. It was a while ago though so I'm not sure how much they cost now. As I've only just qualified I haven't truely found my niche yet, however I do tend to mostly coach people on career and confidence issues. Which is fine with me as I have struggled with those in my past too, so it's easy to relate to.

One thing I do like to focus on is coaching men. Being a man myself I always seem to be in a bit of a minority as a lot of coaches are women. I've no idea what the statistics are but that's just my perception. But one thing I have enjoyed during my training is the challenge of coaching men...... Don't get me wrong I love coaching women, but sometimes they just seem to coach themselves. They tend to be more adaptable, organised and are more used to talking freely. Men aren't. I like that, it makes me work harder when coaching them. If you ask a man "So what are your options" they say "dunno!", where as women normally do! 🙂

My training took about 2.5 yrs, but then I did take a year out. I'm sure if you really wanted to you could complete it in a matter of months.

RE: Where did you train?

I too would be interested in where people have trained, and what they thought of the course's.
Did the course prepare you enough for what coaching is actually about?
I have not trained as a Life Coach though i have done an internet course and got a certificate for it.It was a good course for information on what Life Coaching is but it didnt need anycase study's or hands on experience, it was acopy and paste type of course. Are there many of these course's about?

RE: Where did you train?

I trained with Coach University ([link= http://www.coachu.com ]www.coachu.com[/link])

It's an American based training school - and the teaching is 'virtual' - via teleclasses. A lot of people in the UK take the course.

It was expensive at the time (I started in 2001) and I don't know what it would cost now.

I found it to be thorough and comprehensive - paying attention to coaching skills, your own personal development and business development. I would say that any course worth its salt needs to pay attention to all of these areas.

There are also plenty of opportunities for teaming up with other course participants for 'buddy coaching'.

It took me from January 2001 until November 2003 to complete the course.

I would say that this course prepares you as much as is really possible for what coaching is all about - but there are bits that it can't cover.

If you are already working with people as a therapist, the chances are quite high that you have already done a lot of work on yourself. My experience, and the experience of others on the course, was that we changed whilst we did the course and that this change was an important part of the process. This bit, which is really about walking your talk, is something that you have to do by yourself -and is where you really benefit from working with a coach of more extensive experience whilst training and developing.

Out in the 'real' world, everyone's experience is different. If you have been in the corporate world, it's reasonably easy to take your new skills back into that arena. If this isn't the case - then finding a niche becomes important. People don't tend to buy 'general life coaching.'

In finding your niche, it becomes important to find out what you care about (rather than where you think the money is). Integrity and congruence are very important and people can be very discerning.

In all, the whole process becomes less of a training and more of a 'whole life' experience - expect change!

Wishing you well,

Alison

RE: Where did you train?

Thanks Paul and Alison for sharing your experiences... My expectations in responses have been exceeded!

I like your prespective, Alison, about your own personal journey, and thenlooking where your heart is for business, rather than where you think you'llmake the most profit... and interesting that there isn't really a huge market for individuals and general life coaching...

I look forward to more posts 😀

Best regards
Kate

RE: Where did you train?

I'm happy to help, Kate. If you have any more questions - please feel free to ask.

Wishing you well,

Alison

RE: Where did you train?

Hi.
I trained with The Coaching Academy over 5 years ago. It cost me over £2000 and I'm sorry to say I didn't feel it taught me very much. I was very disappointed with the lack of proper information, and my mentor coach was awful.
The Academy runs brilliant residential weekends with wonderful motivational speakers and you leave on a high, however, this is not sustained and then you have to wade through tons of largely irrelevant information for your diploma.
The course now costs £4,500 for personal coaching. Another £4000 for corporate.
I have their recent sales booklets promoting their courses and they say that the Academy is onlya training organisation and does not need to help you get clients etc. and to look on coaching only as a part-time career.

Lately I have been helping people who have newly qualified with the Academy, and they do not know how to proceed. They do not know how to get clients; what to charge; when to use the Grow model or even what type of coach they want to be etc. They cannot even define what coaching actually is, and what is not. I feel this is, quite frankly, appalling.

Coaching is about individual needs and defining what it is that a person wants to do and how they wantto proceed, and I feel that thetraining should reflect this.
Some of the best coaches I've met have had no official training at all...they work through intuition, have agenuine interest in the person they are listening to, and have oodles of common sense.
I look at the questions on theCoaching Forum I belong to andeverything has become so exclusive and complicated now, leaving behind what I believe coaching is really about, which is about helping and supportingpeople, and not about complicated tests and charts, and to get wonderfulresults, for the coach.
There seems to be a lotof ego attached to coaching these days.Coachingis not exclusive, it is aboutlife and we all live it and in it.

RE: Where did you train?

There seems to be a lotof ego attached to coaching these days.Coachingis not exclusive, it is aboutlife and we all live it and in it.

I think that this is worthy of a discussion all by itself...

Coaching does take many shapes and forms - depending on where the client is at.

I found that my own work changed when I was working with someone who was earning a lot of money and who was driven by his work and his business, wanted 'life balance' yet couldn't (wouldn't)extricate himself from his self made business.

Money was very important to him and he had lots of it- yet he wasn't enjoying his life. I didn't have the maturity and the insight at that point to guide him to wherehe really needed to go (although he did make some changes which he was more than satisfied with and I probably did sow a few seeds for the future) -but for me it felt like I had just applied a sticking plaster and I wasn't happy with this.

I stepped away from this experience - and out of coaching for a while - just in order to sort my thoughts out and find out what was really important to me. I didn't want to be applying sticking plasters all the time!

Wishing you well,

Alison

RE: Where did you train?

Hi Alison.

I agree...Coaching isn't about applying sticking plasters, and you had the maturity to walk away and look at yourself through this.
However, don't be too hard on yourself...seeds were sown and sometimes they can take years to grow and that is all that really matters. Change is not easy, not at all, in fact it is downright scary and people will change and adjust as itfeels right for them, and a coach needs to realise this and to not judge results whether they be sticking plasters or not.
Alison, what may have felt a sticking plaster to you, may have been a proper 'sewn up' job for your client...whatever it was, hecame to you prepared to make changes and did.
Coaching always starts with ourselves, and will carry on throughout. Each client will bring something to us andfor us, as the coach, and we need to put time aside, for ourselves, for this.

Coaching personally develops the coach as well as the client.

RE: Where did you train?

ORIGINAL: Sarahk

However, don't be too hard on yourself...

Hello Sarah,

Sorry, I obviously didn't make myselfas clear as I might have done. That experience is in the past and was a powerful growing point for me.

I wanted to illustrate your point about ego - it can be quite an ego boost to work with wealthy clients - and ego tends to come to the fore around money. But I didn't enjoy it. I didn't want to be there.

The learning I suppose, is that if you're going to make a real difference, then listening to your heart isvery important.

Coaching does, indeed, always start with ourselves.

Wishing you well,

Alison

RE: Where did you train?

Hi Alison.

You sound, and feel, a wonderful coach and I wish you well too.

Happy coaching.

RE: Where did you train?

Thank you Sarah.

And happy coaching to you!

Wishing you well,

Alison

RE: Where did you train?

Save your money.
Life coaching is somthing i feel you can not be trained in. but what you can do is take a course in counseling. then take your teaching degree.
to many are making money by setting up life coaching course.

I good life coach willchange they way he/sheteachers theclient depending on their needs.
nothing winds me up more that life coaches that say the same stuff to all thier clients.

RE: Where did you train?

ORIGINAL: Sarahk

There seems to be a lotof ego attached to coaching these days.Coachingis not exclusive, it is aboutlife and we all live it and in it.

you are so right.
I am not saying that going to training school is a bad thing, but i feel that some do come out and feel they are better than the rest.
if a bloke come up to me and said " hi mate i just done a course on how to take your car apart and put it back again, how about i try it out on you".

they can get lost. but i would let a guy who has never read a book on cars do it if he has worked on cars all his life.

RE: Where did you train?

Hi Kate

You ask a very valid set of questions in terms of training, etc, so here's my take on it ...

If you (or indeed anyone) are interested in training as a coach, then do your research ... speak to the Directors, trainers and graduates. Get a feel for their methodology and philosophy - if it clicks with you then perhaps they're the right people to train with. If not, perhaps you should move on.

Beware of those that declare themselves the biggest and best ... or offer so-called Certificates and Diplomas.

When I began training in 05 I shortlisted CoachU and CTI, both of whom are amongst the most established and genuinely respected trainers out there (in terms of the quality of coaches they "create", not the volume they "manufacture"). These two also offer ICF accreditation - not many others do. In the end I chose CTI - genuine, sincere, authentic, and with a very good support network. Their training is also hands-on, not "worksheet-based."

Having said that, I personally feel coaching is something you "take to" over time - if it's right for you, that is. In other words, I don't believe you can force it to manifest, regardless of the training or indeed coaching you receive yourself.

Hope that helps.

BTW Shane, I agree with you that many coaches do indeed carry an ego ... but your comments regarding "counselling course" and "teaching degree" are somewhat of the mark: coaching is neither counselling nor teaching ... and while there may be " many life coaches that say the same stuff to their clients" there are also many that are genuinely making a difference.

Best wishes

Simon

RE: Where did you train?

Thanks Simon

At the moment, I'm doing another NLP Practitioner certification, this timewith PPD Learning in London... they're afantastic training organisation for NLP - actually, it's awesome. It's a 21 day course, teaching really how it works (rather than the semi-hypnotic courses that are run in much fewer days). The course isn't just using NLP forcoaching, although there's a whole module with coaching, and isn't aimed as a coaching course per se.

I agree with you that it's really an art rather than a science, and you take to it as a natural skill, and then get better with practice. I LOVE it and really feel like I'm 'on purpose' when I'm coaching. 😀

kate

RE: Where did you train?

Excellent advice, as ever, Simon! 🙂

ORIGINAL: RightLife Coach

BTW Shane, I agree with you that many coaches do indeed carry an ego ... but your comments regarding "counselling course" and "teaching degree" are somewhat of the mark: coaching is neither counselling nor teaching ... and while there may be " many life coaches that say the same stuff to their clients" there are also many that are genuinely making a difference.

Totally endorse what you have said here, in both respects. On coaching being neither counselling nor teaching, I've just pinned a "sticky" thread to the top of this forum ... links to training and related resources ... and there's more on these fundamental differences on several of them. I'd particularly commend the pdf article from the ICF on coaching language. Link to "sticky" thread:

[link= http://www.healthypages.net/forum/fb.asp?m=450294 ]http://www.healthypages.net/forum/fb.asp?m=450294[/link]

As for the ego aspect ... oh dear, I've been on the receiving end of a few, I regret to say, when availing myself ofsome free intro sessions. Never one to be pigeon-holed, I was dismayed at the total lack of interest in me or mine, only a message coming across of "this is my standard package for coaching, so you'll have to fit into it". One even tried to enviegle me into joining an organisation with a reputation for being a "cult". Thank you for your time and goodbye [sm=wave.gif]

Ah well, useful lessons in how NOT to do something were well learned at that time ;):D

Holistic