Ever since I named our ICF-accredited coach training course “Holistic Life, Career & Executive Coach Training” back in 2005, prospective students have been asking me the same question:
“What do you mean by holistic?” While many people are attracted to the term, they are cautious not to sign up for something too “woo-woo” — like looking into a crystal ball instead of actually studying the discipline of coaching.

In this article, I’m going to address this question with a comprehensive look at the meaning of “holistic,” how it connects to coaching in general, and to our coach training specifically.

What is “holistic”? Taking a peek at Merriam-Webster dictionary online, we see:

ho·lis·tic hō-ˈli-stik

1. of or relating to holism
2. relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts

holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body
holistic ecology views humans and the environment as a single system

While we are at it, let’s look at “holism” as well:

ho·lism ˈhō-ˌli-zəm

1) a theory that the universe and especially living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes (as of living organisms) that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles

2) a study or method of treatment that is concerned with wholes or with complete systems : a holistic study or method of treatment

So, how do I define coaching including our course as “holistic”?

1. Coaching the whole person versus the issue

Of course, it’s important to address the issue the client wants to be coached on. However, according to numerous research, we know that if you present the same issue to 10 different people, you’ll have 10 different responses and reactions to it. Our appreciation of any given challenge is informed by who we are: our upbringing and environment, our beliefs, our personality, our strengths and abilities, our knowledge and experience. By holding a mirror to the whole person, we help our clients to see their blind spots and create a deeper level of awareness that goes beyond the issue at hand.

2. ICF core competencies are holistic by their very nature

The holistic nature of ICF Core Competencies becomes even more obvious from the perspective of mastery. In fact, that’s exactly how we teach coaching at Goal Imagery® Coaching Academy: from an MCC (Masterful Certified Coach) perspective.

All 8 competencies are intrinsically connected to each other. The detailed descriptions of each competency reverberate in many others. It’s literally impossible to utilize one without utilizing the others.

For instance, some of the competencies are Creating Trust and Safety, Maintaining Presence, Active Listening, Evolving Awareness. Unless you learn how to create trust and safety, your clients are not going to be able to open up and share. The coaching session will not be productive, and you won’t be able to utilize any other competencies unless this one is addressed. If you are not in a present moment, you won’t be able to demonstrate active listening, and if you don’t listen deeply, how can you ask meaningful questions and offer feedback that may evolve your clients’ awareness?

We believe that it’s not only possible to teach all of the competencies simultaneously, it’s actually necessary for learning the true meaning of each one. Even when explaining each competency separately, we explain each one from the perspective of its ongoing connection to all the others.

3. Holistic approach to coaching class practice

It’s important to practice full coaching sessions in class (which we do extensively) as early as possible in your training. It’s much easier to understand the cohesive connection between the competencies when implementing them within the structure of the full coaching session versus practicing each competency separately in a vacuum. Thus, with an easier understanding, comes an easier and more progressive learning.

4. Holistic inclusivity of all popular coaching niches

ICF Coaching Competencies and the coaching process are applicable to any niche and any coaching topic. ICF certifications are based on the level of coaching skills versus any particular niche. They are as follows: ACC (Associate Certified Coach), PCC (Professional Certified Coach), and MCC (Masterful Certified Coach).

Considering that, we invite students to not only coach but be coached in our classes on any topic of their choice. As a student in one of our classes, you become flexible as a coach, being comfortable to coach anyone on any coaching topic. Also, you don’t have to worry about having to choose a niche before you enroll in the course. And, at the end of the training, if any specific niche calls to you, you can always get more training any time you wish—but this way you’ll know exactly what it is that you like and why you like it.

5. Holistic school certification

Since ICF exclusively provides a skill-based certification, the only way to get your “niched” certification is from your coach training program. Our course is named “Holistic Life, Career, and Executive Coach Training” to holistically (and strategically) include all main niche categories. All other niches belong under one of those three categories: Life, Career, and Executive Coaching.

For instance, health-wellness and spirituality are sub-niches of the Life Coaching niche; interviewing and job search coaching belong to the Career Coaching niche; and leadership coaching is usually under the Executive coaching niche.

There are also sub-niches that can belong to more than one main category. For instance, a relationship niche can be an Executive coaching niche if the relationship being coached on happens at work or it can be in a Life Coaching niche if the coaching is about a relationship with a friend, romantic connection or a family member.

However, if you want a certification in a specific niche—in addition to our “Holistic Life, Career & Executive Coach” certification—we are happy to oblige. Since we train you along all popular niches, additional certifications can be obtained upon request (with an additional exam and a small fee).

6. Comprehensive, “whole” approach to learning

Since we include an organic, natural progression of learning in our class practice, we also include supporting techniques for different niches and coaching philosophies. The course encompasses an enormous amount of knowledge, including brain-based coaching, strength-based coaching, systemic coaching, and behavioral coaching. We include life, executive, leadership, relationship, business, career, health-wellness, academic, spiritual, and other coaching niches.

We also include various scientific approaches that include neuroscience, positive psychology, emotional intelligence, system theories, change theories, adult learning theories, and multiple intelligence’s theories. All of the above doesn’t interfere with our class practice since most of it is offered in a form of a video, audio, and documents you study before your live lesson with a teacher.

7. Holistic approach to each lesson

Our lessons are built on the principles of holism: each lesson includes a few areas of development that are important for your overall growth as a coach. Specifically:

1. demonstration of coaching
2. getting deeper into ICF Competencies
3. a coaching tool you can utilize
4. a scientific approach or an assessment
5. business building & marketing

8. We address the colloquial understanding of the word “holistic”

Yes, our training — even though it offers much more than that — does include the use of meditation in coaching, mind-body wellness approaches, developing and trusting your intuition, visualization, and imagery techniques. As you would expect from the name Goal Imagery®, we utilize future thinking, NLP, visualization, imagination, and our own goal-oriented imagery techniques to enable our clients and students in experiencing their desired future. It empowers them to tweak it until it’s exactly what they would like it to be, create effective strategies, and foresee what they need to address to obtain it.

9. We embrace the whole world

From the moment this school was established, we offered our trainings online — so that everyone could join no matter where they were.  We have an incredibly talented worldwide community of coaches who are joined by their passion for coaching and the desire to support one another. We are also very mindful of not only making our education the best there is but also to have affordable options.

As per our mission statement, “Our Mission is to enlighten and inspire individuals and organizations world-wide by making masterful coaching and coaching education affordable and accessible to all.”