Life coaching helps people achieve their goals. As a life coach, you have the ability to solve problems people face on a regular basis, such as bad relationships, dead-end jobs, and stress in family relationships, and help set them on a new course to a better life.
There is no specific regulation that requires a life coach to acquire certification before practicing. However, some states in the US are making recommendations to regulate the profession.
There are many ways to procure a certification before practicing as a certified life coach. The International Coach Federation does not train coaches, but does provide them with a certificate. If you go through ICF, you will need to have worked at least 250 paid coaching hours, plus 60 training hours before you can sit for the exam.
Another option, for those already trained in this program, is the Coachville certification. They do not consider your formal or informal training qualifications- they simply examine you on the basis of your skills. You choose which training you want to do with them, and when you decide you are ready, sit for the exam.
The benefits of choosing Coachville are that you will have a CV accreditation, and an IAC accreditation. As with other application prerequisites, you have eighteen months to complete the certification requirements once you are acknowledged into the program and become a CFLC candidate.
Certification requirements can be taken any time before certification, so long as they fall within your eighteen-month time slot. Hence, workshops you have already attended will probably count towards your certification requirements, which include the Pathway of Change workshop, Wheels workshop, Change Your Life in 30 days recorded class, the Art of being a CFLC recorded class, and Marketing and Business Building recorded class. So go ahead and join a training program that suits your requirements the best.