Life Coach Certifications – Which is Best?
There are countless certifications for different professions all around the world. Here at Persona, we are primarily focused on individuals in the health and wellness industry. The industry is huge and there are a lot of roles other than personal trainers. In this article, we will be focusing on the role of life coaches, and the different types of organizations offering life coaching certification. We’ll also dive a little bit into ways to grow a life coaching business. It is so satisfying to see your clients do so well in life and most importantly attain greater fulfillment out of it. Credentials to your career will definitely help you out a lot and potentially expand your client list. Here is our list of 5 certifications you should be familiar with before starting a life coaching business that can set you on your path to achieving that dream. You can read our full article about marketing for health coaches.
5 Best Life Coach Certification
Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching
is a comprehensive coach training and ICF-Certified Program. This means that their program has been approved by the International Coaching Federation. The ICF and iPEC have both been around for a long time, making them credible organizations. The iPEC has a lot of other credentials and has over 20 training locations, which include big cities such as Los Angeles and New York City. IPEC offers a wide variety of coaching certifications and programs to choose from such as Core Energy Coaching, Energy Leadership, Core Dynamic, and many more. To take part in that certification you will have to first complete the Coach Training Program. In this article, we will be focusing specifically on the Coach Training Program and giving you the details. This program entails over 320 hours of training, and according to the website, “Each training lasts for 3 days, morning to evening.
So, if you were to begin Mod 1 in November, for example, your Mod 2 would be 3 months later, in February, and your Mod 3 would be 3 months after that, in May. You can choose to attend your Modules either at a physical location, in the city closest to you, or virtually from anywhere in the world!” The program is really flexible and offers lessons on the weekend so that people can focus on their full-time jobs or duties. Now you are probably wondering how much this program costs, which is a big decision factor. IPEC believes that your success is important and wants to ensure that the program is the right fit for you. You would have to talk to an Admissions Coach to gain more insights into the program. This is a really good approach because the iPEC wants to make sure you are the right fit before you invest a lot of money into the program. They are looking at both sides of the business and are very transparent in the process.
The Institute For Life Coach Training
also known as The Institute For Life Coach Training and is also an ICF-Certified Program. The LCT has a very flexible approach in terms of their program, you can choose in-person classes or a more self-guided approach if you prefer to learn on your own. They also offer two paths to the program which are known as the credential and specialties path. The credential path is more geared towards obtaining certifications and helping individuals validate their professional level of training, thus making them more marketable. In this path you will be dealing with, “The two most widely recognized credentialing bodies are the International Coach Federation [ICF], and the Center for Credentialing and Education. ILCT is one of a handful of schools approved to offer training by both organizations, which means you can use the same classes for each.”
You will have to invest roughly 30-130 hours in order to complete the ICF and ILCT certifications. They are both filled with lots of knowledge to be the leaders of tomorrow. Now moving on the other path is the specialties path which focuses more on connecting and learning along with professionals who share a common interest in an applied area of coaching such as Business, Christianity, Career Development, Life, Relationship, and Wellness Coaching. This is great for individuals who are already certified and want to network and increase their knowledge. Now having explained the structure of the program now comes the prices. The price really depends on how many total hours your classes are and which of the two certifications you are going after. For example, a 30-hour class will cost approximately $2,000 vs a 60 hours class at close to $3,600. There are lots of options to choose from and picking the one that best fits with your budget and career would be the best choice!
Health Coach Institute
I want to start off by saying the Health Coach Institute’s website is very vibrant and has a great layout. According to their website, you can become a life coach within 6 months, and the salaries of a life coach can range from $50 thousand to $75 thousand. The Institute teaches life coaching in 3 domains which consist of- Physical well-being, Emotional well-being, and Cognitive well-being.
Their program is known as becoming a Health Coach (BHC), is 100% remote and there are over 20,000 graduates from over 30 countries. The teachers at BHC have a combined experience of over 25 years and are professional life and health coaches. The program describes itself as a tool to “help others thrive on a holistic level across 5 key areas of life. The curriculum is based on neuroscience, intuitive listening, behavioral psychology, habit change, and a healthy lifestyle.
With all this information, you are probably wondering how much you have to pay for the program. The Health Coach Institute offers two plans- best deal and flexible option. The best deal costs $4,700 and you would have to pay in full, no monthly payments are allowed. On the other hand, there is the flexible personal trainer payment options which costs $7,560, with a monthly payment of $314 for 24 months. Both options are great and the institute tries to make the program available for everyone.
Integrative Wellness Academy
or the IWA for short claims that they are the only holistic integrative life coaching academy. They follow the Holistic Life Coaching Model which is separated into 4 different parts- mental, emotional, physical, and lastly spiritual. They even have a life coaching toolbox that uses, “Over 20 different healing modalities, IWA has developed an integrative approach to life coaching that has many powerful tools and techniques to help you, coach clients, to move their lives from where they are to where they want to be.” The IWA has been training and certifying coaches since 2010 and has both a physical location and a digital location.
IWA seems to focus solely on Life Coaching and try to be flexible with its approach. The IWA instructors have extensive training and are certified in different areas such as life coaching, health, wellness, nutrition, business, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Mental Emotional Release (MER) therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and other healing modalities. At the time of writing this article, the IWA does not have a price on their website. I believe you can book a 15-minute session to talk with an instructor regarding the program. Just like some programs, they want to see if you are the right fit before investing your time and money. I love that approach because this is a huge commitment for anyone. Making sure the student is interested and knows what they are going through would be great!
C.L.C.I.
C.L.C.I. or the Certified Life Coaches Institute has been in operation for over 11 years and is an ICF (International Coach Federation) approved 5 stars award-winning worldwide accredited institute. Those are very recognizable achievements, and very recently was chosen for “Best Choice for Life Coaching,” by Life Coaching Today. With those credentials, you can’t go wrong, and know you will be in great hands! Now to go more in-depth with the program, there are two levels- level 1 and level 2. Level 1 is more of the basics of life coaching, it includes 32.8 hours of accredited coach-specific training hours and also The Professional Life Coach Certification.
Level 2 is more of in-depth exploration and offers a more advanced course. In the second level, you can expect 33 accredit coach-specific training hours and a Professional Coach Masters Class Certificate. In order to take part in the second level, you have to complete level 1. Now let’s talk about the best part, how much will this program cost you. Level 1 costs $995, Level 2 costs $1295, and there is also another option of purchasing both levels together for $1995. This option will definitely save you money because both levels purchased separately will cost you $2290. By buying both courses at the same time you will save $295, which is a good amount of money. All three pricing plans are great and cater to all types of financial situations and scenarios.
Which Life Coach Program Is the Best for You
This is definitely not an easy question. in fact, all 5 of these organizations have their own unique benefits and would be great as your certification of choice. All of them specialize and focus on the fundamentals of life coaching. They are all credible and have various certifications and awards. I would say for people who want to go in-depth with life coaching, you can read our full article about best life coach certification the C.L.C.I. would be a great organization. They offer a master’s program that will help with your professional network and expand your knowledge.
Want to learn more about the different areas of life coaching? Then the IWA would be a great fit for you, they talk about the 4 different parts of life- mental, emotional, physical, and lastly spiritual. Finally, the iPEC, LCT, and Health Coach Institute are similar but at the same time different in their own ways. They are very flexible, with the option of studying from home or at a physical location. The prices are very reasonable and no matter which option you pick, you will learn a lot.
Persona
You don’t have to search much further than our very own platform to find what you’re looking for. Persona is a fantastic tool for making your life easier and developing your business as a life coach. First and foremost, our app and website are completely free to use at any time. In our humble opinion, it’s the best app for life coaches. It is available on the App Store and Google Play.