Life Coach Certification

Being a life coach can be an extremely rewarding career. It provides an opportunity for assisting others in setting goals to improve their lives, and for supporting and encouraging them to achieve those goals. Other benefits include the convenience and flexibility of setting your own hours, the low overhead costs of starting and maintaining the business, and the increasing market of clients seeking assistance in getting more out of their lives.

Those with good organizational skills, a desire to help others, and a passion for living may find this to be the job of their dreams. Many people looking to hire a life coach, though, will opt for those who have some kind of independent accreditation over those who don’t. Getting accredited can be the first step towards a great new profession, and there are many options available.

Perhaps the cheapest and easiest to find are short-term training classes such as those offered by various adult learning centers, civic groups, and colleges. The training requirement for these is generally only a weekend or two of focused instruction, followed by an exam on the material covered. The difficulty of the exam varies widely depending on the individual course, but those who pass receive a document of completion, while those who fail must schedule a time to retake the test, possibly even having to repeat the course. The document of completion certifies that the coach completed the course of instruction, but it may not be recognized as valid beyond a small local area.

Somewhat more involved are schools that specialize in training and certifying life coaches. These programs take longer to complete, sometimes up to six months or even a year, but they offer much more comprehensive instruction, including ways to find new clients and market a new business in addition to the actual courses on life coaching. They too will grant certification to all students who successfully complete the requirements, but most have their own certifications, which may or may not be recognized nationally or globally.

Currently, the oldest and most widely known independent certifier of life coach programs is the International Coach Federation, or ICF, founded in 1995. Any school that is ICF accredited has met the most stringent requirements in the industry, and can provide its graduates with the most widely accepted certification available.

Being a life coach is an excellent career, and acquiring certification can make it happen.