Diploma in
Holistic Life Coaching

(Dip. H. L. C.)

    Distance Learning Course Details

   College accreditation: International Association for Distance Learning.
   Course accredited by Institute for Meridian Psychotherapy.
   Possibility of registration with international coaching body based in the USA.

Total recommended period of study: approx. 3 to 6 months. Continuous enrolment. No time limit.

Cost: £295.00  (295 Pounds Sterling - for currency conversion see www.xe.com )

Textbooks required:

The fee does not include textbooks - 6 books are required (approx. cost £100 ) Students will normally buy books from on-line bookstores. Details of textbooks are given below under "Syllabus". However please await instructions after enrolment before buying books in case of any changes or updates.

Course overview

This distance learning course is intended primarily for therapists who wish to make the transition to life coaching as an additional or new profession.  The course is also available to others with suitable backgrounds or for personal interest. 

The key differences between life coaching and therapy and counselling are an important part of the course. Study of these principles will help life coaches with liaison and cross-referral with therapists and will help you avoid overstepping professional boundaries. 

The programme is taught in 6 modules covering one key skills model and drawing from four life coaching models (Attraction, Co-active, NLP and Coaching with Spirit), introducing a wide variety of life coaching techniques. As well as these five modules, there is a module on holistic philosophy and an  integrative essay of 2,000 words is required. The focus of this essay will be how coaching relates to, or can be integrated with, your current work or practice.

No face-to-face or distant coaching is provided as part of the course. Some students will already have experience of life coaching and just wish to study in order to be certificated. Others may wish to arrange coaching for themselves - there are many on-line directories of life coaches and students are responsible for making their own arrangements for personal coaching.

Assessment and study method 

Written assignments will be based on textbooks and selected exercises. Lesson plans for each unit will be provided, setting study tasks and questions. Written work may be returned to the college by email or by post to our London address. This is purely a correspondence-based course but students are expected to apply their knowledge of coaching to themselves and in interaction with other people, and how the student has done this should be reflected in the assignment answers. The tutor will give written feedback on assignments.

Many students will already have the capability to study and apply helping techniques, but the core techniques of coaching are easy to learn.  We are confident that the overwhelming majority of students will easily progress through the course.

Syllabus

1.        Practical Holistic Spirituality

Key text:  Bloom, William. SOULution. Hay House, 2005.

This unit shows how society can improve dramatically by adapting holistic principles and how tolerant spirituality is the key to health, success and personal fulfillment as well as a vibrant community. The book provides "365 Prompts for a Holistic Lifestyle" that can be used as a superb holistic life coaching tool, and reading lists are given to enable further study of various topics that together contribute to the holistic approach.

2.         The Coaching Transformation 

Key text:  Skibbins, David. Becoming a Life Coach: A Complete Workbook for Therapists. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications Ltd., 2007.

Working through this unit’s textbook will provide practical skills and knowhow for the therapist or other helping professional who wishes to become a life coach. A crucial part of this unit will be learning the distinctions between working as a therapist and working as a coach, and interacting with clients on the basis of their ability rather than their need for help. 

3.         The Attraction Model of Coaching 

Key text: Leonard, Thomas J., The 28 Laws of Attraction: Stop Chasing Success and Let It Chase You. New York: Scribner, 2008. 

Thomas Leonard (1955-2003), the founder of life coaching as a distinct profession, developed the model of “attraction” coaching. His book was originally called "The Portable Coach".   Learn how to discover your vision and purpose, organise yourself, deal with procrastination, make life fulfilling, be constructive and be yourself. The highly condensed strategies presented in the key text may be adapted as a toolkit to help a wide range of coaching clients, or may be cherry-picked as required.  

4.         The Invisible Coach 

Key text:  Whitworth, Laura, et al., Co-Active Coaching. Palo Alto, California: Davies-Black Publishing, 2nd edition, 2007. (includes CD of coaching materials and audios of sample coaching sessions) 

[Note: A new edition is coming out in October 2011. The CD resources are expected to be available on-line instead. We await the new edition so we can revise our course.] 

This unit offers a superb collection of practical deep coaching skills within a holistic framework, and as well as providing a stand-alone coaching model, it is ideal for students bridging the gap between their other helping practice and the skills of coaching.  After discussion of the coaching relationship and context, the student proceeds to learn the life coaching skills of listening, intuition, curiosity, the action-learning feedback loop, and self-management. A comprehensive set of technique tools is provided which can inspire you to create your own coaching tools in conjunction with your existing expertise. Practical exercises are given which may be carried out on friends, colleagues or clients.

5.         The NLP Coach   

Key text: McDermott, Ian and Jago, Wendy. The NLP Coach: A Comprehensive Guide to Personal Well-Being and Professional Success. London: Piatkus, 2002.  

In this unit, the two modern helping approaches of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Life and Personal Coaching are brought together. The student will learn the basic principles, strategies and tools of up-to-date NLP and how they fit into the framework of personal coaching. This integrated framework of NLP and life coaching is then applied towards self-coaching success in different areas of life, from a balanced perspective valuing personal harmony, self-esteem, relationships, enhanced brainpower, health, wealth, happiness, rewarding work and spirituality.  

6.         The Spirit of Coaching  

Key text: Belf, Teri-E. Coaching with Spirit. Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2002.

This unit is about the relationship between life coaching and spirituality. Spirituality does not necessarily mean religion, and people use the term in different ways. However, essential to all views of spirituality is the sense of connection to a greater reality than oneself.  Coaching with spirit rests on three  “grounded principles” :  connection with self, connection with the client and connection with the Whole. These principles inform the art of coaching in various ways, producing a holistic view of coaching whether one is doing personal coaching, business coaching, marketing one’s coaching services, or training.  

7.         Integrated essay of 2,000 words on “The Integration of Coaching into my Current Work or Practice”. 

Bonus materials supplied

Students will receive a set of bonus self-coaching e-books and also a CD-ROM of various free coaching and self-help materials, which is updated from time to time. These are separate from the core textbooks that the student will need to purchase. 

Entry criteria and suitability 

There is no particular qualification required to take this course, but students should have  good written English. People with previous experience as therapists or helping professionals are preferred but the course can also be taken by other suitable applicants.

Qualification

Successful graduates will receive the Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching awarded by UK College of Holistic Training which is a private UK qualification. The college is accredited by the International Association for Distance Learning. Course graduates may use the postnominal initials Dip. H.L.C.

The course is accredited by The Institute for Meridian Psychotherapy (which is linked to UKCHT) and graduates may apply for membership.

If you have other relevant qualifications in counselling you may also be recommended to apply for the appropriate grade of membership of the National Counselling Society (UK).  The National Counselling Society http://www.nationalcounsellingsociety.org/  will consider a wide variety of qualifications towards entry levels of membership and will advise on further study towards becoming an Accredited Counsellor.

This diploma is accepted by Calamus International University (a non-UK, private distance university with private accreditation) for credit towards a degree.

Further information

Please see our FAQs page for general information.

We reserve the right to change the syllabus and other details of any course at any time. If any key textbook becomes unobtainable we will provide a substitute module based on another book.

More information on coaching

Various other inexpensive, self-contained, self-study diplomas and certificates in life coaching have come on the market.  The typical such course uses an in-house manual of about 150 pages or a single textbook of up to 250 pages.  Our course, because it makes use of a number of textbooks, contains at least six times as much content as the typical self-study course.  Some “live” courses that lead to a certificate in a couple of days do not even give you as much as 150 pages of content - no wonder some such courses are now free!  Thus, even when you take the cost of buying the books into account, our course still represents incredible value for money in terms of the knowledge imparted.

Life Coaching began as a helping activity that was unregulated and unaccredited.  Then one organisation, the International Coaching Federation, sought to be the pre-eminent coaching organisation and to be the sole or main accreditor. Since then its position has been challenged by many other national and international life coaching bodies in various countries.  There are many training courses accredited in different ways – some by bodies set up by the training school – or not at all.  Life Coaching is still unregulated, and it has become more diverse than ever.

In common with various other distance learning courses in life coaching, this one does not include one-to-one coaching. Students will be encouraged to self-coach during the course.   The phrase “all hypnosis is self-hypnosis” has long been known to those involved in hypnotherapy.  We would like to offer the view that “all life coaching is self-coaching” – because true coaching fosters the inner ability to make sound and creative decisions for successful change.  Many top coaches writing books on how to coach yourself, emphasising the value of self-coaching.  Readers of such books will seek a coach when they wish to go further!

NB - This course is similar to the one offered by Calamus Extension College/ Calamus Int'l University - see http://www.unicalamus.org/courses_accelcoach.htm  and has the same tutor.  Dual certification by UKCHT and Calamus can be arranged at a nominal extra fee.