How Do I Become a Life Coach?

HomeFAQsHow Do I Become a Life Coach?

Not all coaches wear a whistle and work with athletes. Instead, life coaches help others achieve their life goals. Coaching is a fulfilling and lucrative career for people who want to help individuals navigate tricky situations in their personal and professional lives. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) says, “coaches help improve lives, relationships, and business performance.” This guide provides education and board certification information to become a life coach, executive coach, or niche-specific coach.

There are many types of coaches out there. Some life coaches focus on helping people with their careers, others help people manage their finances, and others help people with their relationships. Most life coaches see clients for personal or business reasons, while other coaches focus on unique areas, including equine healing, relocation, and public speaking. Some life coaches have board-certified credentials, while others build a career through self-taught knowledge.

There are many pathways to becoming a coach. Enrolling in a program that leads to a credential is an excellent choice for those who prefer more structure and value having credentials to widen their career opportunities. Coach training program curriculums can be broad and general or very specific. Professional coaching organizations accredited many coach training programs that award coaching credentials upon meeting educational and practice coaching hours.

While it’s gained in popularity in recent years, coaching has been around for more than two decades. Established in 1995, the ICF is the largest international coaching organization whose membership base has grown 160 percent in the past 10 years and has added more than 20,000 coaches in the same period. While the US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not keep specific occupational data for the coaching profession, coaches can be considered educational counselors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2022) anticipates that openings for educational counselors will swell 10 percent nationally between 2021 and 2031, double the national average during the same period.

Life coaching programs are offered in face-to-face, online, or hybrid formats. In addition, there are full-time and part-time programs available. It takes time to complete a coaching program, but most programs can be completed in six months to two years or more, depending on whether a coach decides to earn practice coaching hours for certification.

After learning coaching skills, growing a client base, and earning certification, one can pursue a career as a life, executive, or niche-specific coach. Read on to learn more about types of life coaches and a step-by-step guide to pursuing this career.

Types of Coaches: Life, Executive, and Niche-Specific

Here are three types of coaches and credentialing organizations that certify them.

Life & Executive Coaches

Whether working from a cottage office or a corporate board room, life and executive coaches fulfill a shared purpose: to help individuals engage in maximizing their potential. Here are two organizations that offer certification for life and executive coaches:

International Coach Federation (ICF) is the largest coaching organization in the world. Coaches must complete an ICF-approved coaching program and pass an ICF exam to become ICF certified. They offer two levels of certification: Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and Professional Certified Coach (PCC).
Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE) verifies that a coach has demonstrated educational and training requirements, coaching experience, a psychometrically sound coaching examination, and peer references. They offer the Board Certified Coach (BCC) credential.

All ICF and CCE-certified coaches have demonstrated specific core competencies, including professional ethics standards.

Niche-Specific Coaches

Numerous niche-specific coach training programs tailor their curriculum to specific outcomes and audiences. Here is a list of a niche-specific coach training programs that offer certifications:

Coaching shares overlapping skill sets with other fields such as human resources, teaching, psychology, and leadership. Coaching attracts people of all ages and life stages, bringing a wealth of professional experience into their profession.

Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a Life Coach: Education & Licensure

While there are several pathways to becoming a life coach, here is a common step-by-step guide to becoming a life coach.

Step 1: Decide on Type of Coaching Program (Timeline Varies)

The first step in becoming a coach is to choose an area of focus. It helps to take time and think about your existing skills and the types of populations you’d like to serve as a coach. After choosing a specialty, general or specific, aspiring coaches can begin researching coach training programs.

Step 2: Research Coach Training Programs (Timeline Varies)

There are many coach training programs out there. Some programs focus on helping people with their careers, others help people manage their finances, and others help people with career transitions. Speaking to an admissions counselor or someone familiar with the program is vital.

Here are some questions to consider when researching coach training programs:

Do I want an accredited coaching program?
Do I want a credential upon completing this program?
What is unique about this program?
Are there testimonials from recent graduates?
Is it possible to connect with a recent graduate to ask about their experience?
Is there any type of support available to me as a perk of being a student? (e.g., being published in an online coaching database, marketing classes, mentoring sessions, etc.)
Is this program offered in-person, online, or hybrid?
How many start dates are available?
What are the time commitments?
What are the tuition and materials costs?

It is essential to fully understand the responsibilities involved before investing time and money into a coach training program.

Step 3: Complete a Coach Training Program (Six to 24 months)

Once you find a program that works for you, it’s time to start coaching! Coach training programs may require evening and weekend sessions or be offered entirely online. It’s not uncommon for coaching students to practice coaching each other to practice the didactic skills covered in coaching classes.

Here are two programs offering accredited coach training programs.

Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT) offers a 30-hour board-certified coach training program that concludes with a Board Certified Coach (BCC) credential provided by the Center for Credentialing and Education. This program is designed for licensed counselors with a National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential or those with doctoral degrees in counseling. Students with master’s degrees in behavioral science can choose a 60-hour program.

Students have up to one year to complete the self-directed courses, which include elective courses in 360 assessments, cognitive-behavioral coaching, coaching for weight management, and ethical issues for therapist-coaches. ILCT was the first coach training program to be approved for the BCC credential and is also accredited by the ICF, meaning graduates can pursue both types of certifications.

Location: Worldwide
Duration: One year
Accreditation: Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE) & International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Tuition: $1,995 total

Whole Person Coaching (WPC) offers a holistic coach training program that prepares graduates for various coaching styles. With a curriculum rooted in interpersonal neurobiology, positive psychology, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), narrative intelligence, and narrative psychology, this program emphasizes guiding clients by emphasizing and nurturing their intuition and sense of self-awareness to create results-based changes.

In addition, this program offers a school-level certification of Whole Person Certified Coach and ICF- and CCE-accredited programs that lead to professional credentials.

Location: Portland, OR
Duration: Three to six months
Accreditation: Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE) & International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Tuition: $6,995 total

Step 4: Gain Coaching Hours (Timeline Varies)

As part of their education and certification, life coaches may gain experience working with clients. Many life coaches start their businesses while seeing clients privately, while others work for a company that employs life coaches and partners with corporate organizations. In addition, some companies hire coaches with or without certification so long as they are in the process of earning certification.

Step 5: Earn Coaching Certification (Timeline Varies)

Many coach training programs allow you to gain coaching hours after starting a program. To be eligible for an ICF or BCC credential, coaches must earn a minimum number of coaching hours, among other requirements.

For example, to earn an ICF coaching credential at the ACC level, applicants must meet the following criteria:

Complete a coach training program aligned with the definition of coaching, ICF-core competencies, and the ICF code of ethics.
Gain experience with coaching hours after beginning a program.
Receive mentor coaching to strengthen skills within the ICF core competencies.
Pass a performance evaluation that assesses coaching skills through the lens of ICF standards.
Pass a written exam.

Rachel Drummond, MEd

Writer

Rachel Drummond has used her expertise in education and mindfulness to guide aspiring counselors since 2020. Her work emphasizes the importance of integrating reflective mindfulness into counseling techniques, helping readers understand how mental and physical well-being can enhance their professional practice and personal development in counseling.

Rachel is a writer, educator, and coach from Oregon. She has a master’s degree in education (MEd) and has over 15 years of experience teaching English, public speaking, and mindfulness to international audiences in the United States, Japan, and Spain. She writes about the mind-body benefits of contemplative movement practices like yoga on her blog, inviting people to prioritize their unique version of well-being and empowering everyone to live healthier and more balanced lives.

How Do I Become a Life Coach?

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