Life Skills Coaching - Advanced (Level 4) Course

Course Structure

The Advanced Life Skills Coachingcourse is divided into twenty five comprehensive modules.

Module 1: What is Life Coaching

• What to expect from the course
• What is coaching
• What are lifeskills
• What elements of therapy are contained within life coaching

Module 2: What do clients usually want from Life Coaching?

• Typical presenting clients
• Typical presented problems
• Typical presented goals
• Dealing with personal prejudices and opinions

Module 3: Surface life coaching versus holistic life coaching?

• Behavioural therapy approach and rapid intervention
• Holistic theory and cycles of change
• Clients with deeper issues wanting only surface change
• Ethics of eliciting deeper change

Module 4: Common misconceptions and errors

• Errors made by practitioners
• Mistaken beliefs about coaching
• Examining the role of the life coach

Module 5: Areas and levels of change

• The different levels of life (looking at different models)
• Expectations from areas of life
• Imbalances in levels of life
• Dissonance between surface needs and driving needs

Module 6: Counselling Skills

• What is counselling
• National Occupational Standards for Counselling

Module 7: Counselling Skills continued

• Open questioning
• Basic methods (reflection, reframing, summary, challenge)
• Common errors
• Balancing listening and assessment
• Common models of counselling (Egan, Nelson etc.)

Module 8: Basic Coaching Skills

• Determining validity of goals
• Determining ecology of goals
• Three stages of goal setting
• Working through the process
• Case study

Module 9: Advanced Coaching Skills

• Specialised Coaching techniques

Module 10: Coaching the client in relaxation techniques

• Teaching basic relaxation methods, introduction
• Is it meditation or self hypnosis?
• Models of visualisation
• Models of personal affirmations
• Safety Precautions with teaching aids e.g. tapes

Module 11: Coaching the client in altered states

• Is it self hypnosis or NLP?
• Eliciting different states of relaxation, concentration, elation
• Choosing emotional states and ensuring ecology
• Anchoring emotional and physical states at will
• Performing exercises with the client
• Ensuring the client can continue to adapt and expand
• Training aids: Log book, handouts, tapes etc.
• Recommended books and topics to read

Module 12: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Part 1

• Safety, fears, ecology and good practice
• Image manipulation
• Advanced use of anchoring
• Affirmations in relaxed state
• Affirmations in waking state

Module 13: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Part 2

• Using principles of CBT
• CBT principles with the client
• CBT as homework
• Self analysis using CBT

Module 14: Basic Psychoanalysis theory and useful techniques

• Analysis in coaching
• Topic association method

Module 15: Referral and working with other practitioners

• Knowing when the case is too complex
• Referral to other practitioners
• Protecting yourself
• Professional clients “the heart sick”
• Cooperating with other practitioners
• Cooperating with Medical Doctors

Module 16: Emotional issues and case studies

• Confidence
• Self Esteem
• Self Image
• Behavioural versus holistic
• Case study

Module 17: Deeper emotional issues and case studies

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Phobias and Fears
• Ensuring appropriate advertising, referral and practice
• Case study

Module 18: Weight Loss and Control

• Lifestyle issues
• Assisting the client in choosing a diet plan
• Assisting the client in choosing an exercise plan
• Boundaries of the life coach in weight loss advice
• Ensuring appropriate advertising and practice
• Case study

Module 19: Stop Smoking Coaching

• Lifestyle issues
• Positive versus negative methods
• Visualisation methods
• Motivational counselling methods
• Self help techniques
• Learning aids e.g. tapes and handouts
• Case study

Module 20: Performance Coaching

• Common types of performance coaching
• Sports performance coaching
• Business performance coaching
• Public speaking coaching
• Boundaries of the life coach in performance coaching
• Case study

Module 21: Faith and Spiritual issues

• Common types
• What is spiritual and what is faith?
• Grief and bereavement
• Abuse
• Religious imposition
• Fear of the future
• Supporting without converting
• Working within existing faith models
• Case study

Module 22: Anger and Stress Management Coaching

• Safety concerns, confidentiality and referral
• Addressing lifestyle issues
• Relaxation therapy
• Nutrition issues
• Relationship issues
• Underlying causes
• Behavioural change
• Working with other professionals
• Case study

Module 23: Working with couples or groups

• Typical presented issues
• Initial meeting and planning response
• Facilitating discussions
• Homework and agreements
• When to refer and working alongside other professionals

Module 24: Non-Specific Issues

• Common presentations
• Feeling lost
• Not happy despite having everything
• The survivor with no time to live
• The person in imbalance
• Tracking the feelings and memories
• Using advanced anchoring for changing remembered emotions
• Combining anchoring with inner child methods
• Working with service users (clients) of state agencies
• Case study

Module 25: Professional Practice and Responsibilities

• Preparing for practice, what you need
• Principles of informed consent and contracts / agreement
• Providing information in appropriate formats for the learner
• Dissemination of information from sources of authority
• Creating your own learning materials
• Advertising
• Registration and Insurance
• NOS National Occupational Standards
• Confidentiality and ethics
• What you may or may not call yourself
• Importance of Ongoing Professional Development and supervision
• Other topics of training to support your career
• Looking after yourself and your loved ones

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