THE BRAVE, WHOLEHEARTED PROGRAM FOR COACHES WHO WANT TO GO DEEP
Dive deep into your spirituality, identity and beliefs, become a braver, more compassionate leader and receive everything you need for your coach credential from the International Coaching Federation.
OUR ALL-INCLUSIVE TRAINING RETREAT IN SPAIN STARTS IN...
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We do coaching differently.
We're looking for loving, brave people who are seeking spiritual alignment, belonging and bravery – not just a coaching qualification.
When I'm with someone who is congruent within themselves and who has expert listening skills, I can grow and change and thrive. I feel so much more relaxed, known and loved. I find myself wishing everyone around me had those skills – and I feel as though we need them now more than ever.
I've been through hundreds of hours of coach training, and I wish someone had just started out with the deep stuff right away.
At the beginning, I learned a lot about action, goals, progress, success – and there is nothing wrong with that. Learning those skills helped me in my career. But, I wish someone had taught me earlier on about embodied spiritual and identity alignment. It would meant my goals had more meaning, and my actions were deeply engrained and sustainable. It's taken me more than 10 years to put the pieces together.
I feel most alive when I'm passing along the universal principles that have been transformational in my own life. The principles that allowed me to forgive, to see myself and others clearly, to be true to myself and my values, and to love beyond what I thought possible. I want that so badly for you! And I want us to create a ripple effect across the world together.
I promise you, this is not your average, transactional-level coaching course. This program is for the few, the daring, the ones who long to be more. This course goes deep.
When you become part of building a world where self-compassion and empathy are the norm, you become a braver and more loving human being. As your inner reality shifts, you'll notice changes in your environment. And that change will extend to everyone who comes in contact with you.
Our teaching faculty cares deeply about creating a cohesive world which starts with depth of presence, solid connection to your values, and alignment between your spirituality and your actions.
If you're looking for deep-seated transformation, and not "just another certification", this is the course for you.
We accept only TWELVE students per cohort, because we want our students to have a personalized, expansive experience. We care deeply about you, and want to honor your presence with our undivided attention.
With great love,
What's Included?
Scholar's Self-Study Course: From January 2025
Access our self-study content for the All-In-One Coach Certification Program from January 2025 and work your way through all the modules to get ready for our in-person training.
Intensive Coach Training Retreat: 25 May - 6 June 2025
Flores del Camino Retreat Center, Castrillo de los Polvazares, Castilla y León, Spain
Arrival on May 25, 2025 and departure on June 6, 2025
The training course dates are May 27-30 and June 2-5, 2025
There will be 6 hours of training per day during those 8 days (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00)
You'll also enjoy movement, sacred geometry artwork, photography, and spiritual activities on evenings and during the weekend.
Mentor Coaching & Coaches Community Membership: June – December
You'll complete at least FIVE sessions of mentoring in a group of Awaken graduates, focusing on your strengths and offering opportunities to improve your skills further.
3 of your mentor coaching hours will be one-on-one between you and our senior faculty.
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This All-In-One course is comprehensive and provides you with all the coaching education and mentoring you need to apply for a credential with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Your total investment in the program is $11,000.
The Village of Castrillo de Los Polvazares
A Dream Location for Learning
Our retreat center, Flores del Camino is situated around 250km east of Santiago de Compostela along the Camino Frances pilgrimage route. It is nestled in the historic village of Castrillo de los Polvazares, considered one of the most beautiful villages in all of Spain.
Castrillo de los Polvazares is a heritage site dating back at to the 16th century, famous for its perfectly preserved traditional Maragato architecture.
It is made up entirely of red and orange coloured stones which contrast to the old arched wooden doors painted green and blue.
The village sparkles in the warm Spanish sunlight and the stones seem to catch fire and glow at dusk. You can see beautiful traditional Maragato dresses and dances at the annual La Magdalena festivities in July.
The retreat space is a traditional Maragato stone house made up of beautiful renovated ensuite rooms nested around a charming courtyard shaded with a vine and fruit trees, with plenty of spaces for gatherings and creativity.
Making this ancient village our own
The village is ours for two weeks! We have pre-booked your room in the village for a spacious experience of depth of community.
You will luxuriate in a beautiful room with a private bath at Flores or in one of the charming boutique hotels nearby.
Rooms may have a vine-covered balcony and views over the local church and rural vistas.
Your accommodation, from arrival until check-out, is included in your investment.
Delicious, healthy meals
Our hosts at Flores del Camino are passionate about cooking. They will provide you with delicious and healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with fresh, local ingredients. You can delight in flavorful dishes in the dining area or in the courtyard under the pergola. Your evening wine is handpicked and local.
Please let us know how we can make the dining experience perfect for you, whether vegetarian, gluten-free, or carb-free.
Your meals are included in your investment.
Beautiful meeting spaces
For our deep-dive coach training experiences, we'll meet in
a spacious stone room and in courtyards and nooks around the site where we can practice all we're learning in pairs, triads, and dynamic coaching circles.
A kitchen and dining area with light refreshments is ready for your use all day, so you can easily access fresh drinking water, coffee, tea, snacks, and restrooms.
You'll have the use of the courtyard and the pergola for your activities, meals, chats, or a rest. And you can access the art gallery and workshop area for optional painting, carving, stained glass or yoga.
What's Included In The All-In-One Coach Certification Program?
Your online self-study course and two-week intensive training at the retreat focuses on the core coaching competencies outlined by the ICF while incorporating our spiritual Awaken philosophy – to create a braver, more loving world starting with ourselves.
View All Course Lessons
- Creating Brave Space: Become a person clients can trust with their dreams.
- Definition of Coaching: Know when you’re coaching, as compared to mentoring, counseling, consulting, or befriending.
- The Flow of a Coaching Conversation: Feel comfortable structuring the beginning, middle and end of a coaching session.
- Coaching Models: Learn a variety of coaching models you can rely on. Choose which model to use in real conversations.
- Ethical Coaching Practice: Know how to operate your conversations within the International Coaching Federation ethical guidelines.
- Embody the Coaching Mindset: Become an open, curious, flexible and client-centered person.
- What Are Coaches Listening For? Listen at sixe consecutively deeper and more nuanced levels
- Establishing Coaching Agreements: Know how to partner with your client to set goals for the coaching engagement, and for each session
- Powerful Questions and other Coaching Responses: Ask more powerful questions and make more useful observations
- Coaching Presence: Use your head, heart and gut intelligence to manage your own emotions and stay observant, empathetic and responsive to the client.
- Evoking Awareness through Language and Metaphor: Challenge, observe, intuit and play with language to increase your client’s choice.
- Cultivating Trust and Safety: Become an adaptable person who can respect each client’s identity and uniqueness: environment, experiences, values and beliefs, perceptions, style and language.
- Celebrating Progress and Success: At the halfway mark, celebrate how far you’ve come and set learning objectives for the remaining class time. Learn to do the same with your clients.
- Using Silence in Coaching: Notice your client’s thinking patterns, eye movements and reflection periods for a deeper and richer coaching experience.
- From Insight to Action: Know when and how to move toward designing actions and behavior change
- What Is Reality?: Learn a communications model that increases your ability to respect your client’s map of the world
- How Beliefs are Structured: Change limiting beliefs and reinforce resourceful beliefs
- Coaching with Values: Know how to recognize fear-based and love-based values and work with your client’s values hierarchy.
- Coaching Big Emotions: Learn to recognize a variety of emotions, accept them, become curious about them and bring kindness to them.
- Coaching With Idealized and Unwanted Identity Beliefs: Recognize idealized and unwanted identities and their associated shame triggers. Learn to bring empathy, kindness and non-judgment, and to help your clients integrate their identities.
- Taking Care of Yourself: Best practices for self-regulation, self-compassion and self-care.
- Coaching for Teams and Groups: Lead teams and groups effectively. Learn logistics and coaching models to work with groups.
- Closures and Endings in Coaching: Partner with clients to close a coaching session and a coaching engagement.
- Getting Your First Client: Learn the foundation to start building your business and marketing!
Course led by Christi Byerly, MCC and the Senior Awaken Faculty Team
You can reserve your spot today with a deposit of $2,200*.
Secure Your Spain 2025 Spot Now
This course is delivered in English.
*Alternative payment plans are available – email communitycare@awakencoaching.com to arrange.
Professional coaching training with a luxurious, all-inclusive retreat package
You'll recieve access to our Scholar's Self-Study version of the full All-In-One Coach Certification Program right away, so you can immerse yourself in the content before you arrive. This includes videos, reading, quizzes, and introductions to your colleagues.
Your retreat includes
- Our flagship Coach Certification Training Program facilitated by an international faculty team in a highly interactive format (one faculty member for every 4 participants)
- All meals and accommodation
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Gorgeous workbook to record your learning
- Luxury photography session so you'll go home feeling inspired, with website-ready headshots of yourself in a gorgeous location
- Surprise BONUS activities in the evenings and weekends that will provide a depth of spiritual experience you won't find in any other coaching course
- Our acclaimed Group Mentor Coaching Program that last six months beyond the course intensive, so you'll be supported as you build a thriving coaching practice from your home location
You will receive all the training and mentoring you need to apply for the coveted ACC credential with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
You may also use the Awaken Coach Institute training and mentoring hours toward your PCC credential, if you already hold an ACC or have completed prior coach training.
Not included
- Airfare to Madrid
- Transportation to the Flores de Camino retreat center
Want more from your retreat?
In 2025, we also have this incredible optional add-on:
GUIDED CAMINO PILGRIMAGE
Take your spiritual transformation even deeper by joining us on the Camino pilgrimage from 7-11 June.
An expertly curated and guided mini pilgrimage including three days walking + one day in the Valley of Silence
Leaving from the doorstep of the retreat centre, you will encounter one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, seeped in history, symbol and legend. The walking will be gentle and spacious, at your own pace, yet framed within a story and a structure. Expertly curated, this guided walk will provide you with the experience of pilgrimage as a rite of passage.
We'll be guided by Basia Goodwin, an experienced retreat facilitator and a passionate pilgrimage guide. With over 20 years of experience of the Camino, Basia teaches on pilgrimage as rite of passage and guides transformational journeys. Basia is the co-founder of Flores del Camino.
You can add this incredible experience to your coaching journey for $1,795.
Day 1
June 7
Flores del Camino ~ Rabanal (14km)
From the very start, as you leave Flores and pass through the lovely villages of Santa Catalina and El Ganso, you’ll be accompanied by Camino symbols, the labyrinth and the goose. You will cross a threshold, from a flat landscape to a gentle climb. Your destination for the day is the charming village of Rabanal, with more than a thousand years of history linked to the Visigoths and Templars. In the evening, you will experience the pilgrims’ blessings & vespers, still chanted by the monks in the atmospheric 12th century Romanesque church.
Average walking time 3h - 250m / 800ft up
Day 2
June 8
Rabanal ~ El Acebo (17km)
At this meaningful point on your journey, you will reach the highest point on the Camino: Cruz del Ferro, a gentle place of letting go for pilgrims. Here, you are invited to participate in the tradition of symbolically leaving a stone from home. As you pass the mountains of León, you will discover breath-taking views over the Bierzo region. Your destination of the day is the charming mountain hamlet of El Acebo with its distinctive architectural style.The day will end at dusk as you watch the sunset over the the extensive Bierzo plain from a purposeful viewing point in the village.
Average walking time 3h30 - 400m / 1,300ft up then 400m / 1,300ft down
Day 3
June 9
El Acebo ~ Molinaseca (8km)
You will descend the mountain to reach the charming village of Molinaseca situated by a tranquil river. After having lunch there, we will make our way by car to the nearby Peñalba de Santiago. Nested within the breathtaking Valley of Silence, Peñalba is our highly symbolic pilgrimage destination. It is known for its exquisite 10th century Mozarabic church with solstitial alignments.
Average walking time 1h45 - 550m / 1,800ft down
Day 4
June 10
Peñalba de Santiago ~ The Valley of Silence
The valley gained its name because a hermit lived there in silent contemplation. At sunrise you will make the circular journey around the Valley to and from the hermit’s cave. For the rest of the day we will end our time in purposeful retreat, in preparation for your return home.
Day 5
June 11
Morning departure by taxi from Peñalba to Madrid
Drop off at Madrid Airport at 1pm (under normal traffic circumstances)
(Also the possibility to be dropped off in Astorga)
Got questions that this page hasn't answered?
Join our next Q&A call and ask us anything.
Our regular Q&As are held every two weeks and hosted by a member of the Awaken Coach Institute Team.
Awaken Coach Institute exists to make the world a braver, more loving place.
We train coaches to listen deeply, to awaken to the power of their own presence, and to be more loving and accepting than they've ever been before.
Awaken Coach Institute is recognized as an ICF-Accredited Level 1 & Level 2 coaching education provider.
Completion of our All-In-One Coach Certification Program* provides you with a certificate for 114 hours of training, mentor coaching and a Level 2 (PCC) performance evaluation which you can use towards your ICF credential.
*This course is delivered in English, we welcome applicants from all over the world.
Meet Your Course Leaders
Christi Byerly, MCC – Founder and CEO
Christi's coaching process motivates you to build a community of empathy and grace around you — and to live your mission as part of something bigger than you are.
Christi has trained hundreds of new coaches in French and English since 2014 and has mentored dozens of coaches-in-training. She maintains a thriving coaching practice and has been coaching professionally since 2009, after graduating from the International Coach Academy.
Christi holds a Master NLP certificate, as well as certifications in spiritual direction, group coaching, depth coaching, Enneagram work and mentor coaching. She is a Certified Daring WayTM Facilitator.
Married to Ben, she is the mom of three teenagers and lives in Alsace on the French, Swiss, German borders.
Certifications:
- ICF - Master Certified Coach
®️ - NLP Master Practitioner
- Spiritual Accompaniment Certified
- Certified Daring Greatly™ and Certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator (based on the research of Brené Brown)
- Degrees in Communications and French
Valeyne Grotrian, PCC – Awaken Faculty
Valeyne is an “Inner Leader” Coach for legacy-minded and soul-centered leaders with over 20 years of experience in business operations and human resources leadership roles across 6 industries. She founded Agora Coaching & Training Solutions in 2017, a collective for leaders who want to trust themselves more fully and confidently stand in their inner power. As an Awaken Faculty member, Valeyne aims to create a learning environment where coaches can bravely bring their whole self to their practice with curiosity and play.
Valeyne holds a Psychology of Leadership certification through eCornell University, the PCC credential through the ICF and is a Triple-Certified Professional Coach; Awaken Coach Institute (2021), Gallup CliftonStrengths® Coach (2017), International Coach Academy (2012).
Based in the greater Chicagoland area of the United States, Valeyne is a pilot’s wife and dog mom. They all enjoy adventurous time outdoors together whether it be at the beach or mountains.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
- Awaken Coach Institute Graduate, International Coach Academy Graduate & Certified CliftonStrengths® Coach through Gallup
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Certified Practitioner
- Psychology of Leadership Certification through eCornell University
This is the right course for you if...
You want to help build a more compassionate world
You want people to feel and know that being listened to deeply and with love can help us all become braver and more compassionate.
You believe listening with love can open the door to possibility
You've experienced the magic that happens when a truly grounded person listens with love to another. You want to become that person.
You’ve had dormant dreams but not a lot of clarity
Through this experience, you’ll know what makes you so valuable and why your contribution is important. The soul doesn’t care about the scale – whether you are reaching five people or five thousand. It only cares that you are showing up as yourself. The outcome will take care of itself.
You have a calling to help people reach their higher potential
You're the person people want to tell their stories to. You love to listen, and it's frustrating to know that you could really help people transform – you're just not sure how yet.
You want to unleash your own brave inner warrior
You're ready for a shift in your own life. You want more self compassion, more community, and to live more alive and brave and loving than ever before.
You want people to live from their soul and passion
You know what it feels like to be scared, and to feel trapped by the expectations of others. You broke free (or you will in this course) and are ready to walk people into the light.
Ready to join us in Spain for our 2025 retreat?
You can book your place now – pay in full or secure your place with a deposit of $2,200*
Book Your Place For Spain 2025
*alternatively, payment plans are available on request
This is NOT the right course for you if...
You're just doing it to get a certification
Don't sign up just for the credential. Sign up because yes, you would love to acquire coaching skills and you want to experience in your bones what it's like to live courageously and make the world a more loving place.
You're hesitant about whether you're willing to love others the way they are right now.
In this course, we go to a deep level, where you come out transformed, and your relationships are transformed, and your ability to lead is transformed. Those kinds of changes only happen in a space of complete love and acceptance. You have to be willing to do your own work around this! If you think you might judge others in the group, please don't sign up.
2022 SPAIN COHORT
2022 SPAIN COHORT
Our previous brave and beautiful adventures in Spain
Our previous brave and beautiful adventures in Spain
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some of the questions people ask most often about the program.
Got a question that isn't answered here?
Does the price of the program include my transportation to Spain?
No! Airfare to Madrid and transportation to the Flores de Camino retreat center is not included in the program price.
Does the All-In-One Coach Certification Program also include some guidance on how to start our own coaching business?
Yes! First of all, you will start coaching real clients outside of class starting within the first couple of weeks, and you will learn how to send them a coaching contract, takes notes on the sessions, coach professionally with your systems in place, etc. Toward the end of the course, we have a business-building module and walk you through the simple apps and systems that you need to accept payments, create packages, etc. And, you will be part of a coaching community where you can communicate with other coaches to learn how they are starting their businesses.
Is this program accredited?
Yes! Awaken Coach Institute has been approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as a Level 1 & Level 2 Accreditation provider. This Coach Certification Course provides you with a certificate for 114 training hours which you can use towards your ACC or PCC with the ICF.
Is this All-In-One Coach Certification Program applicable for us if we want to become coaches for corporate executives and business leaders?
Yes! This coaching course covers all of the coaching competencies. Some of our graduates use the skills for corporate and executive coaching. Others start coaching businesses for other niches. You graduate with a high level of confidence and competence to use the coaching in whatever niche market you choose, including coaching business leaders.
Do I have to become a coach after I complete this program?
No! This program is also ideal for leaders who want to be more clear and kind. You don't have to become a coach to benefit from the skills you will learn. This course transforms you as a person in all your relationships.
What’s the difference between accreditation, credentialing and certification?
The International Coaching Federation has two major roles: (1) they accredit training programs (2) they credential individual coaches.
When you receive a certification from a Level 1 & Level 2 accredited training program, such as this one, you can use your certificate to apply for the ICF's credential.
Our course is accredited for more than the training hours you need for your ACC credential, and you can use our course hours toward your PCC. With mentor coaching, which is included in the program, you'll be well on your way to completion. Once you complete 100 hours of coaching, which we will support you in doing, you can apply for the ICF credential and take their exam, which our program prepares you for.
What language is this course delivered in?
English.
Awaken Coach Institute Faculty Accreditations
Refund Policy
No refunds will be offered. However, Awaken Coaching, LLC will apply the payment toward a future training or any Awaken Coaching, LLC course, to be used within one year. Awaken Coach Institute will work with students dealing with unforeseen personal circumstances who would like to continue their training at a later date, allowing the student to transfer the registration to a later session of the course.
In the event that Awaken Coaching, LLC must cancel a course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic or any other unforeseen circumstances, every effort will be made to place the student in a later offering of the course.