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The Best Way Forward

by Astra Chiapelli
(Mauritius)

Hello

I attended a Life and Business Coaching Certificate in Ireland a while ago, and it was my intention to follow it up with a Diploma with the same school. However, due to personal reasons, I had to cancel it. The course would have ran over 6 months, one full weekend a month, coupled with continuous assessment and final examinations.

As I am researching the web, Coaching is not very regulated at all across the globe, and there aren't set standards or minimum qualifications that one must have in order to work as a coach. There are International guidelines, but I have come across a few coaches who have enough experience and knowledge from different backgrounds not to need formal education in the area, and who are actively operating as coaches.

For my own sake, I think I would like to continue on further with my qualifications, and my direction of choice will be Life and Spiritual Coaching, which I guess will narrow it down to a smaller niche market.

I read that you trained with CoachU online, which is what would be ideal for me, as I am moving a lot and this would give me the freedom to be based anywhere.

What would you recommend?

Thanks a lot for all the resources you offer.

Regards

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My answer
by: Wendy

Hi Astra

Thanks for your question.

It's an important one. I agree although many don't. It is equally as important to have a formal qualification for coaching because it is a different discipline from say psychology and counselling or NLP although they are related and the line between coaching and mentoring is becoming increasingly blurred.

As you say, coaching is not regulated and has become something of a generic term, but to have real credibility as a professional coach, even if you have lots of other qualifications, the extra education and certification is good to have.

I think CoachU would be an excellent choice for life and spiritual coaching. When I trained, the emphasis on personal development was very valuable and many of the leading life coaches today are CoachU graduates. I did all my training from Australia by phone on teleconferences so distance and moving around was no problem.

I know things have changed since I trained but I would recommend you do a training that includes the Personal Foundation Module.

I'd also suggest you think about joining an independent coaching association such as (though not necessarily) the ICF as this will give you that extra support and a chance to list your profile and be searched for.

Hope that helps and don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

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