At Awaken, our foundation has always been community, presence, and deep connection. Every member of our faculty is a trained, experienced mentor coach with a thriving coaching practice, and together we span four continents. Our commitment to this work doesn’t stop with our own practice. We wanted to cultivate a space where mentor coaching is rooted in love, courage, and fierce kindness, rather than just checking credentialing boxes.

That’s why we created our love-based course, Awakening Love an…

The coaching industry is in the middle of a real shift. The ICF is introducing a new standard for mentor coaches, the Mentor Coach Specialization, which will be required for registry as a mentor coach in 2027. Coaches at every stage are asking the same question: what does this mean for me?

Here's what we believe it means: freedom, not restriction.

For years, credentialing has pushed coaches toward memorizing behavioral markers and treating a checklist as the goal. We understand why. When you'r…

When I was a child, I was raised in a tradition of reward and punishment, a religious mindset that put people into categories of good and evil, of chosen and not chosen. I knew myself to be in the evil category, and was praised for that knowledge. I hid my knowledge that I was not chosen.

But when I was 28 years old and in deep despair after a miscarriage, the beauty and honour of human life became perfectly evident to me. I was so sad about the loss of my child and so aware of her inherent wor…

My kids bought a big, black plastic composter bin and set it in the corner of the garden. Now, instead of throwing all biodegradable waste into one pile for the town to collect, we're keeping lemon and banana peels, eggshells, coffee grounds, and the lettuce that sat in the fridge too long.

The bin's contents are smelly, unpalatable, and attract thousands of pests specifically designed to break down the very things that we spent good money on at the grocery store.

Decomposition is a complex, m…

Because you've found your way here, I know this about you: you deeply care about contributing to a world anchored in love and courage. You feel a calling to create a world that works, helping people step into their fullest, most vibrant potential.

When you start looking into becoming a coach, or elevating the coaching work you already do, it can often feel like you're being forced to make a compromise.

On one side, you see the world of high business standards, strict academic rigor, and ICF (I…

If you searched for a way to earn your ICF continuing education hours, you have probably found the same thing everyone else does: a checklist.

• Forty class hours to renew your credential, including
• At least twenty-four Core Competency hours
• Three of Core Competency hours in ethics
• Up to sixteen more hours in Resource Development
• Submit your documentation, done.

Every guide on the topic, including the ICF's own, walks through the same math and stops there.

Here is what most of those gui…

When you look at the landscape of coaching today, the environment can feel as though you are being pushed into a corner. You have your credentialing requirements, your hours to track, and an ever-evolving set of standards to meet. Some people might tell you that the path to your ACC or PCC is simply about memorizing behavioral markers and locking you safely within a predetermined line.

At Awaken, we hold a distinct vision. We feel that an over-reliance on rigid behavioral markers is jeopardizin…

Coach Certification Training: The Complete Guide

When you first feel the pull toward coaching, that sense that you're meant to hold space for others' transformation, the path forward can feel overwhelmingly complex. Do you need certification? Which credentials matter? How do you choose among hundreds of training programs? And how much will this cost, both in money and in time?

I've spent years training hundreds of coaches and guiding them through the credentialing process. I personally intervi…

Awaken trains coaches to sit with one person with real depth and presence, and many feel a natural pull afterward to take that same gift and offer it to a room. Group coaching certification is exactly that progression, training you to hold a whole room's process at once, and to trust the room itself as sacred ground where healing multiplies.

Awaken's ICF-accredited group coaching certification course is built on our bespoke five-element framework for what actually creates lasting, soul-level ch…

I've got a pretty wonky body because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a collagen issue. Things that are meant to be highly elastic (like skin, veins, and the digestive tract) are kind of saggy, like a worn-out rubber band.

That means that I often have mysterious aches and pains. Often the issue really is physical, and I need to drink water, take my magnesium, increase my salt intake, wear good arch support, and put my feet up.

Those are all responsible choices, and I'm not advocating fo…