Tomorrow's Life Coach Newsletter - September, 2008 @ lifecoachtraining.com

Tomorrow's Life Coach (TLC) is a monthly online journal from the Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT) that nourishes the intellect, intuition and inspiration of the personal and business coaching community.

I am both thrilled to have discovered the profession of coaching and also proud to be one of the pioneers in creating coach specific training for adult learners with graduate degrees and/or experience as professionals in human service capacities.

To call myself a professional requires that I identify with a profession. The profession provides a knowledge base, an organization (or several) with an association of members, and a place where ethics and standards are described and developed. I was an original charter member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). I aided in the creation of the definitions, distinctions and standards of certification, which have evolved quickly with global input and debate. They are currently undergoing a deep scrutiny, which now includes over 15 years of experience, certifications, assessments, development of competencies and now academic research that both corroborates the standards of the profession or points the way to change.

I was an early member of the International Association of Coaching (IAC,) although I have chosen not to be certified by them. I do, however, respect their standards and the fact that they embrace excellence in professional coaching. I am also a vice president of the Association of Coaching Psychology in the UK. I want to belong where my community stands for the profession and where I can engage in learning and dialogue to challenge me to always become more masterful.

Given that coaching is not a licensed profession, but attempts to be self-regulated by membership in the ICF or IAC, a practitioner does not really have to be certified. And there are many great coaches I know who were coaching before we developed the larger professional body. They are experienced consultants who adopted a coach approach very well to what they do. And they have already built a reputation and a client base. However, for coaches new to the profession, I truly believe the path to certification and training with an ICF Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) such as ILCT is a smart choice.

One of the hallmarks of building a successful practice is credibility. Credibility will be increased if you have received quality training, if you belong to an organization with ethics and standards, and if you have the opportunity for continual learning and competency building.

Having just watched the 2008 Olympics, I am impressed with the mastery these athletes show. They don’t just learn their sport and practice a little bit, They are in the gym, the pool, the weight room, the track for 6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week. They are all already great, but they want to be gold medal winners. They constantly learn new skills, nuances of techniques they can improve. You can liken coaches to these athletes. I was one of the first 24 master certified coaches (MCC) in the world and that came because of my early training and thousands of coaching hours. However, I do not really like the term Master… I am not a master…I am striving toward mastery. And that always can be improved.

So here is my question to you who read this: Do you really want to be a professional coach and have many clients? Have you taken all the classes, but are not marketing your craft? Get coaching to help you build your practice. The world needs your coaching. Do you believe you are a coach but are not learning new skills, getting supervision/mentoring and honing your craft? I believe you will have the greatest chance to be successful with training from an ICF Accredited Coach Training Program. Your clients allow you to build your skills so that you become a better coach. A training program teaches the skills; your clients teach you the art of what works and what does not.

And one more thing…..with ILCT’s training; you can join your community on the telephone, learning with others from all over the country and the world. It is cost- effective and presented in bite-sized learning opportunities rather than an intensive in-person training. We all know the follow-up from training requires ongoing learning and coaching.

So this month, make a commitment to look at our list of advanced classes, or our foundational classes if you are just beginning. And let us help you on your journey.

Please join Dr. Patrick Williams, President and CEO of the Institute for Life Coach Training, author of Law and Ethics in Coaching, and Sara Duiven, Marketing Manager of CPH & Associates on September 24th for a discussion focused on Understanding Liability Insurance.

During this 60-minute conference call Pat and Sara will be discussing the points below plus fielding specific questions submitted during registration:

We will be recording the call, so even though you may not be able to attend, please register to receive the direct link to the MP3 file on our web site.

When: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern/New York/Toronto time, which is

Please register at least 24 hours before the start of the call to ensure that you receive the telephone number!

Join us for a one-hour class that will introduce you to the wonderful career of Life Coaching. We want to share our excitement with you and give you information to help you decide if life coaching is for you!

Pat's guest for the September 23rd Coaching Forum will be Ofer Zur, PhD., consultant, licensed psychologist, writer, forensic consultant and lecturer; discussing the Importance of Continuing Education. Dr. Zur is a pioneer in the development of the ethical and effective managed-care-free psychotherapy practice and is a prolific writer, researcher, and founder of the Zur Institute, LLC. The Zur Institute offers a program of the most prolific and innovative online courses, resources and free articles in the field of psychology, mental health, psychotherapy and counseling.

Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern/New York/Toronto time, which is:

Free Coach Referral Service
ILCT provides a listing of Certified Life Coaches and graduates of our Accredited Coach Training Program. These are coaches who have completed at least 60 to 130 hours of coach training. This is a value-added service for those ILCT students who have reached this high level of excellence!

This list is being offered as a free service to assist individuals in identifying and selecting coaches best suited for their particular need.

If you have your Certified Life Coach credential, and have not registered — Sign up now

Professional Christian Coaching: How Christian? How Professional? by Christopher McCluskey, CMCC, PCC (Journal of Christian Coaching, Summer 2008)

It’s funny, but if I had $1,000 for every time I’ve heard someone utter some version of that phrase, I might seriously be able to retire and never work another day in my life. For more than a decade, I have spoken at national and international conferences, facilitated retreats and telebridge calls, trained ministry leaders, done radio and television interviews, written articles and been cited in numerous publications, mentored new coaches, and directed the Christian Track at the Institute for life Coach Training. This is not boasting—it is simply confirming that I have, quite literally, spoken with thousands of people about Christian coaching from around the world. And the most common response I receive is something close to this quotation.

In many ways, the response is a delight because it indicates that the listener is trying to understand coaching, and one of the natural ways we seek to understand something new is by comparing it with something we already know. But the response, if not gently but firmly countered, can leave the listener thinking they really have been doing Christian coaching all their lives…and the likelihood of that is extremely small indeed.

This is not to say they’ve not been utilizing some of the skills necessary for good coaching, or that they may not have been working with people in a less-directive and more-exploratory fashion than many traditional models of “people helping.” But the complexity and skill required for professional Christian coaching has just begun for them, and it requires years of training, supervision, and thousands of hours of practice. I often feel that only now, after 10 years of coaching fulltime, am I beginning to more fully appreciate just how unique a profession this really is.

Back in the 1990’s when I ran Christian Care Counseling Centers in Clearwater, Florida, I frequently emphasized two things to my therapists and interns. The first was that, as professional Christian counselors, we had to be more professional than any other therapists in our field. Why? Because the secular community was going to be scrutinizing us as clinicians, skeptically asking themselves how skilled and professional we truly were.

If we could read their minds, we might have heard something like, “Christian counselors, huh? so, what do you do—lay hands on people and pray for their demons to be cast out? or spout Scripture verses at them, telling them they can be well if they’ll only believe?” They might question whether or not we even knew our Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or how familiar we were with the latest research on brain chemistry and new psychotropic medications hitting the market. They might rightly ask what kinds of treatment modalities we employed for various kinds of issues, and what theoretical frameworks and outcome-based research supported our decisions.

As much as we might internally bristle at such scrutiny, the truth was that the skeptics had every right to challenge our professionalism. We just needed to be sure we were more than ready to meet their challenges!

The second thing I emphasized to my staff was that, as professional Christian counselors, we had to be more Christian in the integration of our faith into our practice than other counselors who might profess to be Christians, and even than many pastoral counselors. I had found that, in querying many Christian colleagues about how their faith influenced their practice, they could often be more accurately described as “counselors who happen to be Christians,” rather than as “distinctly Christian counselors.”

The standards by which “professionalism” is measured in the therapy/counseling world are fairly well-established. like it or not, all 50 states have mental health licensing boards which regulate the training, skills and standards, marketing practices, and ethics of persons holding themselves out as mental health practitioners. In most cases, this has been good for the profession because it has forced well-intentioned but ill-prepared counselors to either seek more education and supervision or to leave the field to those willing to do the hard work of becoming truly equipped.

It should be noted, however, that in some cases this regulation has become so restrictive that certain practices of licensed Christian counselors are no longer considered ethical (however biblical they may be), and some practitioners are beginning to face persecution as well as prosecution for providing these services. There is a very delicate line to be walked when trying to raise the standards of a profession, especially those that are “soft sciences” like the people-helping professions. Licensing and certification boards can abuse their power by going beyond the establishment of professional standards to the dictating of morality—we see this kind of abuse in any form of governance, be it federal or state governments, the court system, professional regulatory boards, or even religious organizations which become more cult-like than Christ-like.

So how do we establish standards for Christian coaching? How do we raise the bar enough so that we guard against anyone at all being able to hold themselves out as a “professional Christian coach”? And, for that matter, do we even want to establish standards for professional Christian coaching?

Join Dr. Jim Vuocolo, MCC, ILCT's Director of Practice Development, in a one hour call on Thursday, September 4, 2008. The call will be an open discussion about Marketing YOUR Coaching Practice! Jim will address the "7-Layer Cake" of Coaching Business Success — and include an Q & A to address what is working/not working with regard to your marketing efforts, field as many of your questions as possible, and create a great experience!

The call will also include a brief "commercial" to explain the Practice Made Perfect course that begins on Thursday, September 11 at 12:00 noon Eastern - but "no selling" will be involved! We hope you will join us for this great offering!

Informational Call: Body-Mind Life Coaching™: Using the Body to Deepen Awareness and Forward the Action - September 16, 2008

Join Dr. Lauree Moss, MSW, Ph.D., PCC to learn more about this exciting new certificate course, which starts on Tuesday, October 14th for 16 weeks. Using Body-Mind Life Coaching™ tools, coaches will learn ways to work with the powerful messages of the body. It is said that the body never lies. Through habitual ways of thinking, acting and feeling, there is often a disconnection between the mind and body. Coaches, in any niche, who are interested in learning more about how to integrate non- verbal dimensions into their coaching, will gain invaluable skills and tools.

Bring Coaching to its Power in Jacksonville, Florida - Presented by The First Coast Coaches Association, Inc., Dr. Patrick Williams, Keynote Speaker, September 20, 2008

If you are offering professional coaching services or wanting to, this retreat is for you. This is an open learning and discussion forum welcoming all coaching professionals regardless of training, affiliation, or experience. Come be part of this learning community.

First Coach Coaches Association, Inc. (FCCA) is pleased to offer a retreat designed especially for new or seasoned professional coaches building their business or providing coaching in organizations. This retreat is also for individuals considering entering the coaching profession. Here is what you can expect:

Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC, internationally recognized speaker, author, master coach and early pioneer in the field of coaching will deliver an inspirational and informative keynote address on Celebrate Coaching: Where We Have Come From and Where We are Going

Renew your sense of purpose and direction as a coaching professional.
Find ways to be part of a community to build your business and pursue your passion for coaching.
Be a part of building awareness in the Jacksonville community on the value and availability of professional coaching.
Learn from a panel of experienced coaches how to move from " surviving to thriving" as a professional coach.
Leave with a sense of connection and community that creates a "can do" spirit of success.

Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Time: 8:30 a.m. registration and continental breakfast; Program from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Location: Watson Realty, Inc., 4540 Southside Blvd. Suite 1, Jacksonville, Florida

Registration: Pre-register by Wednesday, September 17
Contact Barbara Tolliver-Haskins for more information and to register at 904-221-0380.

Costs: $30 pre-registration and $40 at the door for non-members. Join FCCA at www.firstcoastcoachesassociation.org to enjoy member benefits.

Fall Session of the Employee Assistance (EAP) & Workplace Professionals Course, September 23, 2008

The EA-CS™ certificate program is designed for EA professionals committed to leveraging their skills and fully utilizing their talents to inspire the optimal potential of employees and organizations. Classes are content rich and based on sound theoretical principles; group collaboration of colleagues enhances the depth of your learning. Our high caliber instruction, 200-page manual and 2 texts make this a quality graduate level training experience. The EACS™ program has been preapproved by EAPA for 20 PDH crediits and preapproved by HRCI for 20 PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification credit hours (category: Strategic). Classes meet by teleconference one hour twice weekly for ten weeks.

Course Date: September 23 - December 9, 2008, Tuesdays and Fridays, 12:00 p.m. Eastern

Fall Session of the Foundational Course for Christian Counselors, September 29, 2008

If you answered "yes!" to any of these questions, then consider joining other professionals and lay counselors as they move forward to make their coaching goals a reality.

Course Dates: September 29 - March 4. Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern or 6:00 p.m. Eastern

This year's ICF Conference Education Steering Committee has put a tremendous amount of effort into building a conference program that provides exceptional education opportunities for coaches whether they're new to the profession or have years of experience.

The 2008 ICF Annual International Conference will be held at the Palais des congres de Montréal in Montréal, Québec, Canada on November 12-15, 2008. Over 1,700 attendees are expected to convene for this global event. Pat and many of the ILCT staff will be in attendance - we hope to see you there!

Expand Your Business! Deepen Your Coaching Skills!
Register For Upcoming Classes at ILCT

Additional classes, details and online registration at our course section. Some schedules may change; check listing or contact Edwina Adams, Administration/Registration, at edwina@lifecoachtraining.com.

September 20
Jacksonville, FL
First Coast Coaches Association, Inc. - A retreat for new and seasoned coaching professionals: Bring Coaching to its POWER in Jacksonville. Dr. Patrick Williams is the Keynote speaker: Celebrate Coaching: Where We Have Come - From and Where We are Going.

October 8-9
Denver Coach Federation
Transpersonal Coaching: Mind Body and Spirit

October 16
Philadelphia Area Coaches Alliance - 10th Anniversary Gala
Keynote Speaker: Celebrating Coaching: A Look Back and a Vision for the Future

November 10
Rosemont, IL
Chicago Coach Federation: Transpersonal Coaching: Mind, Body, and Spirit (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) Patrick Williams will show how the wisdom and practices of Transpersonal Psychology can help us to coach the whole human being in the areas of body, brain, and being, and to have deep conversations about meaning, purpose, and spirituality.

In This Issue: