When people search for spiritual coach certification, they usually find one of two things: a long list of programs with prices and hour counts, or a vague description of what spiritual coaches do.

Neither of those tells you what actually matters when you're choosing a program. And if you're serious about this work, the difference between a good choice and a mediocre one is significant, both for your clients and for you.

I've spent 12 years training coaches. I've also spent a long time watching…

When I first started coaching, the whole coaching philosophy was night and day from what I had learned in the School of Life. I had spent years in a world of certainty, right and wrong, reward and punishment, and looking to others as authorities in my life.

In coaching, I began to experience something entirely different. I leaned into choice, agency, imagination, and possibility. That shift changed my life.

Yet as I continued growing, I realised that my early coach training was still built on …

In the landscape of professional development and coach training, an insidious narrative of growth creeps in. It is usually framed as a series of upgrades: perform better, achieve more, and finally arrive at a version of yourself that is enough.

I call this living life backwards.

What Most Coach Training Programs Miss

Some people think you need to progress along Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Once you find safety, then you can achieve belonging, which leads to success. Then happiness, followed b…

Before I started gathering people into groups, I watched my clients carry things alone.

I was known as the forgiveness coach back then. People would come into my office and share the most tender, unspoken parts of themselves. Stories they had never told anyone. Not their partners. Not their closest friends. Just me, a coach they had known for a few hours.

I kept sitting with the question: why are you telling me this when your best friend doesn't know?

Their best friend would come in the follo…

If you've been coaching for a while, and you didn't get your training through Awaken Coach Institute, you might have a very yucky problem on your hands, through no fault of your own.

This isn't my favorite kind of blog to write, because I hate even THINKING about admin and paperwork. But I hate to see you struggling with it even more, so I'm willing to put in the effort. You can thank me later. ;-)

Let's say you love coaching. You've taken the training, you have the skills, and you're ready to…

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…

The red earth of Kenya, called murram, has a way of grounding me before my head even realizes I've moved. I remember standing at the entrance of the 7-circuit Chartres labyrinth at the Mwangaza Jesuit Spirituality Centre, under an acacia tree, the sun dappled on my shoulders, and the silence of the retreat grounds humming around me.

In a labyrinth, unlike a maze, there are no dead ends. There is no way to get lost. Yet, as I begin to walk, my ego brain is still in that achievement orientation o…

Creating transformational group coaching experiences requires more than gathering people together. The most powerful group programs are built on five essential elements that create the conditions for lasting change. Whether you're facilitating your first group or deepening your existing practice, this framework will help you create experiences where transformation multiplies through connection.

I've loved group dynamics and observing how people connect since I first studied it back in my univer…

Before I started coach training, I was terrified to begin. I thought of myself as a complete basket case and didn’t want to waste money on myself to study coaching. Whoa - it’s odd to recall how true that felt at the time. 

It’s not that I wasn’t successful, as I had been called the "Rising Star" or the "Stealth Bomber" in my high-powered career in press relations and lobbying in the world of nuclear energy. It’s that I didn’t know how to be kind to myself in a deeper way, recognizing the spiri…

Some people think coaching is about doing more. Setting sharper goals, pushing harder, keeping clients on track, and measuring progress at every turn. That kind of coaching can look productive on the surface, and I certainly found it exciting back when I first started coaching in 2009. I remember being stunned by how quickly people could reach their goals in just a few sessions.

But in an AI-driven world, where apps and algorithms can already remind us of our goals and track our steps, that kin…