Level Up Your Coaching Skills

If you want to level up your skills as a certified Coach, or as a ACC or PCC certified Coach, this course may be for you.

Ready to take your coaching to the next level? This program is tailor-made for any certified coaches looking to enhance their skills and ensure their accreditation is up-to-date. 

At the Center for Equus Coaching, we’re dedicated to fueling your professional growth by offering dynamic training and skill-building opportunities.

Led by qualified PCC coaches, this program will help enhance your coaching proficiency and confidence. Through reading, reflection, discussion, and demonstration during classes, participants will engage in multiple learning styles to integrate and deepen best practices in coaching. 

Each session is filled with potent learning, providing you with the chance to absorb, observe, practice, and receive invaluable feedback that fast-tracks your skill development. Explore ICF core competencies and PCC markers while delving into key topics to expand your knowledge base and immediately apply new techniques with your clients.

Note: This course is designed as a continuing education course for certified coaches, whether you trained as an Equus Coach® or are certified through a different program, who are also either ICF certified (ACC or PCC) or in the process of becoming so. Participants who attend live teleclasses will receive 9 Continuing Coach Education (CCE) hours.

Start Date: May 9th, 2024

What to Expect

Are you a certified Equus Coach®?

What if you're a certified coach through a different program?

New learnings on topics not taught in the Equus Coaching Course.

An introduction to the highly effective, experiential modality of Equus Coaching®.

A brand new topic: Coaching Grieving Clients.

An indepth exploration of 5 central topics necessary for a successful coach.

A renewed exploration of some of our favorite topics from previous continuing education classes.

Activation of your sales and marketing skills that can maximize your business.

Continued practice of ICF Core Competencies.

Continued practice of ICF Core Competencies.

9 hours of CCE toward your ICF certification. (6 Core Competency and 3 Resource Development)

9 hours of CCE toward your ICF certification. (6 Core Competency and 3 Resource Development)

After attending this program, participants will be able to:

  • Partner with clients to construct clear coaching goals and outcomes 
  • Apply effective strategies for finding and maintaining focus during a coaching session.
  • Identify attachment and relational patterns that impact a client’s life
  • Discover how maintaining presence through mindfulness can enhance their ability to embody a coaching mindset.
  • Utilize the analogy laid out in Whole Brain Living to support their client’s ability to recognize and listen to the distinct, and sometimes competing, inner voices on any given topic.
  • Move through marketing roadblocks and develop aligned strategies to promote a coaching practice and reach clients who would benefit from coaching services.

    Come as you are, where you are.

    Course Schedule & Class Descriptions

    This course will be taught over 6- 90 minute teleclass gatherings (Taking place on Thursdays at 12pm PT beginning May 9, 2024. As an add on option: The course will wrap-up with an optional 2-day in-person onsite located in Golden, CO.

    Ways To Join Level-Up Your Coaching Skills

    There are two ways you can join!

    1. Attend the teleclasses and the onsite. $1,800
    2. Attend the teleclasses only. $500
    Level Up was a great course but honestly the very best part of it was attending the on-site. In truth, I’ve never been to an on-site I haven’t loved, but the Level Up on-site was by far the best of those I’ve attended. Our group included coaches with very different backgrounds, very different specialities and different levels of experience. Not only did those differences not hamper our bond, they wound up making the weekend incredibly enriching.”  – Gari Lister

     

    Class 1: Ethics, Establishing Agreements, and the Rhythm of Coaching

    Taught by Renee Sievert, RN, LMFT, PCC

    Ethical guidelines, processes and procedures help to establish practices that keep coaches and clients safe in the context of a coaching relationship. There are several important areas to review with the client up front, such as the difference between coaching and therapy (scope of practice for a coach), what the coach’s responsibility would be if there is a mental health issue (refer for assessment by a therapist), the coach’s commitment to confidentiality (and the exceptions to confidentiality), to name a few. And then, during each session, it is important to partner with the client for clarity about what the issue or focus, the desired outcome for the session, and what success might look like. In this way, the coach and client establish an agreement as to what the client wishes to address in the coaching session. This class is designed to review options that the coach has for creating an ethical, confidential, safe, and trusting coaching environment.

    Attendees will:

    • Review and discuss ICF Core Competencies
    • Discuss elements of a coaching agreement and informed consent
    • Identify discernable phases in each coaching session while partnering with the client
    • Discover options for evoking awareness
    • Review ways to close the session

    Class 2: Attachment Styles – A Coaching Approach

    Instructor: Travis Stock, MSW, PCC

    Attachment theory, originally developed by John Bowlby (a pioneer in the field of attachment) suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive. The theory seeks to explain the instinctive and complex relational and bonding patterns of individuals. The qualities of and experiences in our earliest bonds, often with our parents, create emotional and behavioral patterns – called attachment styles – that we carry with us into adulthood. Understanding attachment styles can help coaches better assist clients in creating more sustainable and fulfilling relationships.

    Attendees will:

    • Review the four most common attachment styles.
    • Explore the emotional and behavioral impacts of each style.
    • Develop methods to incorporate into coaching that will evoke awareness in clients.
    • Examine effective strategies for clients to improve connection in relationships.

    Class 3: A Coaching Mindset: Presence, Mindfulness and Dropping Agenda

    Instructor: Erin Cutshall, MA, MCC

    As coaches, we recognize the pivotal role coaching presence and mindfulness plays in masterful coaching. Coaching presence cultivates trust in the client relationship, supports deep and active listening that leads to powerful questioning, and models the awareness we wish for our clients to bring into their lives. Effective coaching includes partnering with clients to determine the issue they want to address, the desired outcome of the session, and what success would look or feel like. Having a preconceived notion as to what the client needs to work on, or what the client “should” be doing will get in the way. This class will provide an opportunity for coaches to self-assess and increase awareness around how having an agenda creates barriers to effective coaching.

    Attendees will:

    • Examine signs that may signal that a coach has an agenda
    • Explore ways for a coach to self-assess if that is happening during a session
    • Identify ways coaches can guard against bringing an agenda into a session
    • Discover methods for shifting gears and partnering with the client to choose the
      direction of the session.

      Class 4: Whole Brain Living: Blending Neuroscience with Coaching to Facilitate Client Growth

      Instructor: Erin Cutshall, MA, MCC

      Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD.is a neuroanatomist who began to study severe mental illnesses because of her brother’s psychosis. In the early 1990s, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, where she was involved in mapping the brain to determine how cells communicate with each other. In December 1996, at the age of 37, she had a massive stroke. She outlines this experience in her Ted Talk: My Stroke of Insight. In 2008, she was named to Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world, and her book, Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life, received the top honors.

      This class explores the concepts outlined in Whole Brain Living, including how the two hemispheres in our brain function, and the four “characters: that make up those two hemispheres. Attendees will examine the four characters and increase awareness about the internal voices that may guide a client’s decision-making. Bringing these concepts into coaching will allow coaches to partner with clients to make empowered choices in their lives.

      Attendees will:

      • Examine the four characters and increase awareness about the internal voices that may guide a client’s decision-making. Bringing these concepts into coaching will allow coaches to partner with clients to make empowered choices in their lives.
      • Develop awareness of each character and its strengths and weaknesses
      • Develop skills to help clients be more intentional and own their life choices

          Class 5: Coaching Grieving Clients

          Instructor: Kasia Roether, PCC, Certified Grief Educator

          Especially today, almost everyone experiences some form of grief. A coaching session may be the first opportunity for clients to be heard and seen in a safe environment where they can share their emotions. Grief can be traumatic and transformative at the same time; it is very personal, doesn’t have a timeline, and there is no quick cure for it. However, the grieving person is not broken and doesn’t need to be fixed.

          David Kessler is the world’s foremost expert on grief. His experience with thousands of people on the edge of life and death has taught him the secrets to living a fulfilled life, even after life’s tragedies. He coauthored On Grief and Grieving, and Life Lessons with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and he is the author of The Needs of the Dying, praised by Mother Teresa.

          Attendees will explore Kessler’s methods designed to increase skill in compassionately and effectively coaching people in grief. With skill and practice, a coach can create a safe and trusting space around grief for connection, empathy, genuineness, honesty, respect, and honor for the loved ones. Coaching can provide support for grieving clients, but the journey is ultimately theirs.

          Attendees will:

          • Identify different types of grief
          • Discuss the emotions that surface in grief
          • Examine the different needs of grieving clients
          • Explore the role of the coach in witnessing grief
          • Discover the benefits of a horse’s presence during a coaching session with a grieving person.

            Class 6: Soulful Selling for Coaches

            Instructor: Christine Volden, Founder of Soulful Selling and Author of The Quiet Selling Method: How to Sell from the Heart and Make Customers for Life.

            Quiet Selling is simply a new way to think about selling. We all sell our ideas, our beliefs, and our desires every day. If you are a human on planet earth, I guarantee that you are selling something to someone. If you are a parent, you are selling, if you are a teacher you are really great at selling and if you are a nurse, you are a top tier salesperson! The act of selling is really about asking for what you want.

            The problem is that many people have a misguided perception about selling. They think it’s horrible, pushy, negative, so it is no wonder that people have mixed feelings about sales. But what if we could think about selling in a new way? A way that is empowering, inspiring and ultimately for good? That is what the Quiet Selling Method is all about.

            Attendees will:

            • Examine the three components of the Quiet Selling Method
            • Explore the role of mindset in marketing your coaching services
            • Identify five phobias that can interfere with attracting clients
            • Discover the art and science of soulful connection – creating trust, confidence and rapport
            • Identify quiet sales methods that can immediately be put into practice to connect with your ideal clients

            2-Day Onsite

            An in-person gathering on June 22-23, 2024

            Location: Golden, CO

            The onsite will focus on integrating the lessons taught in this course through the unique and highly effective approach to interpersonal development- Equus Coaching®. During these two days, you will have the opportunity to experience your own coaching sessions, from the “client” perspective, led by the instructors and horse partners. All horse work is on the ground; there is no riding involved. And, no previous horse experience is required.
            Refund Policy:

            For cancellations made 60 days prior to the published start date of Level-Up, the Center for Equus Coaching will offer a full refund.

            For cancellations made between 59 to 31 days from the start of the program, we offer a 50% refund.

            For cancellations made 30 days prior to the program start date, no refunds will be offered.

            Please note that any payments made that are non-refundable can be applied to a future Equus Coach® Training, program, workshop, or event, to be used within one year.

            “Although I received my certification a few years ago, I have not been actively coaching and was feeling like my skills could use a tune-up.  Welcome Level-Up! What a wonderful way to learn some new concepts and skills, continue to practice in a safe environment, and get to meet more members of our herd!  I benefited as much from the course content as I did from the discussion with the participants who incorporated their real-world experiences into our weekly discussions.  And I’m so glad I decided to attend the Level-Up onsite because we were able to practice the concepts we learned in the course with each other and the horses in an environment where we were challenged to try new things and learn experientially which, for me, really reinforced what we had been learning – learning by doing is how I learn best. I encourage anyone wanting to expand their coaching experience to attend a Level-Up – it is so worth it!”  – Kathy Richardson

            Join Us Today!

            Investment Options:

            1. Attend the telelcasses and the onsite | $1,800
            2. Attend the teleclasses only | $500

            **Please don’t book your travel for the June onsite until you’ve received confirmation.**