Coaching Certification

"My experience was nothing short of exceptional in every way - the quality of the faculty, the calibre of the learning community, the structure of the program, the location and facilities, administrative support, the reading list, the evaluation process...."

J. Fries

The Professional Certification in Individual and Organizational Coaching

What our participants say about Hudson's Coaching Program:  

Hudson's outstanding coaching certification program successfully helped me launch the next stage of my career and profession as an executive coach.

- David Dan, President D Square Transformation Consulting Inc. and former Intel Taiwan & China General Manager

I wanted three things from a coaching certification program - training that would be appropriate for working with executives, confidence in my coaching abilities, and a community that would provide growth and support well after I left the program.  I got everything I was looking for and more!  I did a lot of due diligence before selecting The Hudson Institute, and I am certain I made the right choice.

- Karl Grass, executive coach - formerly a partner with Arthur Andersen and a technology GM with Intuit and Sage Software

Overview

Our Professional Coach Certification Program is a rigorous learning opportunity well suited for seasoned professionals who wish to deepen their skills in the coaching domain. This eight-month program, begun in 1986, combines three robust face-to-face sessions with intensive distance learning in the interim phases including conference calls, mentor-coach sessions, webboard discussions, coaching clinics and distinguished contributor learning calls.

Our program is one of the oldest in the field and it has a highly regarded reputation for combining a holistic and developmental perspective with current best practices, evidence-based theory relevant to the field and seminal thinking in those fields informing the work of coaching today. Founded by a developmental and a clinical psychologist, both with deep academic roots; the program emphasizes conceptual clarity and experiential learning in order to maximize the participant’s skills and overall effectiveness in providing coaching that sustains positive change.

At The Hudson Institute we believe four elements are essential in the training of outstanding professional coaches. These four elements are foundational to our coaching certification program:

  • The Theories and Concepts relevant to the Profession of Coaching: The theoretical underpinnings of the field of coaching are informed by seminal work in the matured fields of psychology, management, leadership, organizational systems, organizational development, adult learning, and developmental theory. In addition, the growing literature in the field of coaching, and current evidence-based research supporting best practices in coaching provide an essential framework for our work as coaches.
  • Understanding The Process of Coaching: A good coach understands and experientially masters the underlying process of the coaching engagement. Sustainable change is a fundamental goal in coaching and this requires a coaching approach that sustains deep learning and change through conceptual, emotional and decisional growth.
  • Understanding Self as Coach: A coach must possess an acute sense of self in order to operate effectively in the coaching relationship. This requires that a coach understands the underlying dynamics of the shadow side of the coaching work. This requires that a coach examines ‘blind spots', judgments, prejudices, biases and self-interests; and actively seeks feedback from peers, coaches and mentors while in this program.
  • Coaching Practice and Integration: This program strives to create transformational learning for participants through the careful combination of theory and concepts with the highly experiential component of our onsite program that focuses on real-time coaching practice with feedback and learning plans that are consistent with a well constructed set of coaching competencies.

Our participants learn from an outstanding team of practitioner/scholars all of whom have years of experience as master coaches in the field. Hudson's underlying developmental model, pioneered over the past twenty years by Dr. Frederic Hudson and Dr. Pamela McLean, provides a holistic backdrop for the work of coaching. The program integrates this holistic perspective with a coaching process that is carefully tied to leveraging key changes the client targets as critical. These changes become the goals of the coaching engagement and create the important structures for measurable outcomes in the form of sustainable changes.

Who Will Benefit

Seasoned professionals with expertise in related fields of study interested in adding coaching to their domain of practice either independently or inside an organization. This program attracts professionals with significant life experience and professional backgrounds in fields such as management, human resources, consulting and organizational development, health science, law, psychology and more.

Benefits

At the Coaching Certification Program you will:
  • Master the basic conceptual frameworks of the coaching process so that you think and perform as a professional coach.
  • Become thoroughly grounded in an understanding of normal and superlative life cycle development as well as executive development and human systems' renewal processes.
  • Internalize the coaching skills and become competent to facilitate deep development for change and renewal with individuals, groups, and organizations.
  • Work effectively with profound developmental issues that prevent clients from making important changes in their lives.
  • Acquire specialized coaching expertise in a professional area that adds significantly to your life and career.
  • Continue your own personal development as you explore your own life scenarios through coaching conversations.
  • Network and form lasting relationships with a diverse group of talented individuals from around the country and world.

Learning Process

Three (4-day) intensive training sessions in Santa Barbara form the backbone of the learning process, bracketing the beginning, middle, and end of the eight-month Certification Program. These face-to-face Coaching Intensive Trainings (CITs) integrate dynamic, professional presentations with small, intensive coaching groups. Didactic and experiential learning takes place in these profound workshops. In between the CIT sessions, participants continue learning through web board interaction, weekly small group conference calls, mentor coach calls, coaching clinics, a buddy system, individual coaching relationships, and individual reading and application.

Additional features

As a coach in training, you will have access to attend our monthly author lecture series, featuring thought leaders in the field of coaching as well a variety of teleclasses. Upon graduating, you will be invited to join our annual Advanced Coach Learning Conferences highlighting best practices in the field of coaching, thought leaders related to our work and pre-conference certifications and trainings in various modalities and tools.

Prerequisites

  1. The gateway to our certification program is our foundational transition and change program, LifeLaunch™. This four-day intensive seminar provides potential coach participants with immersion in our developmental model of normative change accompanied by coaching and a dynamic experiential learning environment.
  2. The next step is attendance at The Coaching Seminar, a powerful one-day introduction to the art of coaching, a preview of Hudson's holistic and developmental approach to coaching, an overview of the models informing the emerging field of coaching and opportunities for skill development as well.
  3. Once these requirements have been met, we require those professionals interested in the certification program to submit an application for entry into the program.

Program Agenda

Download a sample agenda.

Completion Requirements

  • Creation and acceptance of a self-directed Professional Development Plan
  • Receive 15 hours of coaching from a recognized professional coach
  • Provide 50 hours of coaching practice with individuals and groups outside of the coaching program
  • Submission of 3 taped coaching sessions for review by an ICF credentialed coach
  • Successful completion of three consecutive onsite Sessions
  • Maintenance of a personal journal
  • Written longitudinal case study of a coaching client
  • Participation in monthly Coaching Clinics, WebBoard Learning Center, and calls with a designated mentor coach
  • Demonstrated competence in coaching
  • Final Portfolio of learning outcomes
  • Final Oral and Written Exam

This program is an Accredited Coach Training Program through the International Coach Federation (ICF). This qualifies certified graduates to apply for ICF credentials.