Coach Training Alliance: A Complete Review (2024)

Over the last 5 years, the world of life coaching has grown more than anyone could have imagined.

As our society becomes more complex and the coaching industry becomes more mainstream, there has never been a better time to pursue a career as a coach. 

Having trained over 15,000 students over the last 25 years, Coach Training Alliance (CTA) has firmly established itself as a leader in the coaching space. After reading this review, you will understand why very few coaching programs can match CTA’s level of pedigree and history.

Before we get started, it’s important to note that Coach Training Alliance offers a free workshop for anyone interested in learning more about their program. Among other things, this workshop is an opportunity for prospective students to hear directly from the Director of Admissions, Lisa Pisano, as well as take part in a live coaching session.

The best part of these workshops is you can be as involved as you’d like. Feel free to participate in discussions or simply just observe and listen in – absolutely no pressure.

Click here to learn more about CTA’s free Becoming a Certified Coach Workshop.

Since it was founded, CTA has been driven by a clear mission to not only properly and ethically educate aspiring coaches, but to also help raise and enforce the professional standards of coaching as an industry. It was founded by a group of experienced coaches and educators, who recognized the need for a program that provided comprehensive and more importantly, experiential, training that was aligned with the real-world demands of the life coaching industry as a whole.

The CTA is accredited by the International Coaching Federation, the ICF, which is the global governing body responsible for setting the gold standard of education and ethics for coaching and coaching education. This affiliation may not seem like much on the surface, but it means that when aspiring coaches are certified, that certification is accredited, and means that the coach has met the highest industry standards and has met rigorous quality and ethical benchmarks.

The curriculum of the CCP is designed to be meticulously assembled and comprehensive in nature, ensuring that students gain a solid blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills that are critical for effective coaching. The content of the program is also structured in a way that helps build a solid foundation before moving on to more advanced concepts and strategies.

In general, the course is highly dynamic and constantly updated to meet changing business and industry trends and practices in the coaching world. This means no matter when you decide to jump in and get certified, you’ll always have access to the most recently updated, industry-current course materials.

The CCP starts off with establishing the foundation principles of coaching that include aspects like understanding the role and true nature of a coach, the basic set of coaching competencies, and the ethical standards that govern the profession at large. It explores the difference between coaching mentoring, consulting, and therapy, which helps set clear frameworks for real-world practice.

The core coaching skills are cornerstone techniques that are essential to the life coaching profession, and include things like effective communication techniques, active listening, powerful questioning, and the ability to provide constructive, actionable feedback. These skills are crucial in helping individual clients articulate their own goals, challenges, and personal aspirations, which contributes to a more transformative coach-client relationship.

As the course progresses, it introduces more advanced topics like the concept of emotional intelligence in coaching, handling challenging coaching scenarios, and applying specific coaching models to individual client needs. Here the learner will also be exposed to the dynamics of change and how to best facilitate client growth and development.

The course will also cover how to move from the general coaching market to more specialized or niche coaching spaces. This section will help students find the space that suits their skills best, with options including career coaching, health coaching, or other specialized areas. This will be essential for when the certified coach goes out to practice on their own and will need to understand their market sufficiently.

One of the biggest and most important lessons in the course will be on how to gain clients, and how to manage and keep those clients once they’ve been acquired. This section includes strategies beyond attraction, acquisition, and retention, covers coaching agreements, and even covers some aspects of business management.

We’ve mentioned that one of the big benefits of the CTA CCP program is the real-world experience it helps build, and the program includes exposure to real-life coaching sessions, peer coaching exercises, and mentor coaching. These are designed to help learners apply the skills and techniques they’ve learned in a real-world coaching environment.

Before the conclusion of the program, students will be exposed to significant business development information and marketing strategies for coaches, including an introduction to building a coaching website, how to leverage social media, networking, and other helpful marketing techniques. This is one of the most essential components of the entire course since life coaches who can’t run their business effectively will find it challenging to retain clients.

Another major benefit of the CCP is how it’s designed and optimized to cater to a diverse array of learning styles, needs, and even student schedules so that all learners can enjoy an enriching and accessible experience. Here is more information about how the CTA delivers its content to students.

The CCP takes advantage of a hybrid learning format, which means it combines the benefits of interactive and online educational elements. This hybrid approach allows students to access course materials and lectures online, at their convenience, giving unmatched flexibility to prospective coaches getting certified while juggling other responsibilities like school, home, or work.

Another key element of the CCP hybrid approach is the scheduled live sessions, which are live, instructor-led interactive sessions that involve engaging discussions, coaching demos, and even practice sessions. This live and interactive component is a critical element for honing coaching skills since it allows instant feedback and simultaneous peer learning.

The CCP program puts a heavy emphasis on collaborative learning through peer coaching and group work. This has students pair or group with other students to practice various coaching skills in a human-on-human environment, with the goal being exchanging feedback and learning from each others’ experiences. This is more important than your typical group activity in a course and can be a great resource for early-stage professional networking.

A massive benefit of the CCP program is that students benefit from mentor coaching from existing ICF-certified coaches. During these sessions, the mentors will provide students with personalized guidance and can help them discuss their personal progress, and any challenges they may be facing, and get their own insights from the course so far. This is invaluable for helping to deepen a practical understanding of coaching principles while honing coaching techniques through expert observation.

Students have access to a massive store of resources to help them on their journey through the program, including an array of comprehensive course materials, real-world case studies, tools, and templates that are essential for learning as well as for the practical application. These resources are available during the entire coaching program as well as afterward, proving an ongoing value for coaches certified through the program.

To keep that heavy emphasis on real-world coaching application and effectiveness, there is a substantial amount of actual coaching sessions that students will engage in, both as coaches and as clients. This gives them unique viewpoints from both sides, experience from both perspectives, and helps them develop empathy while also providing a chance to learn how to better understand the client-coach dynamic while building professional confidence.

Once the CCP course is completed, coaches are equipped with more than just an extensive knowledge of coaching skills and strategies, but also the ICF-accredited certification that can open countless professional doors.

Upon graduation, the student is certified to confirm their readiness to practice as a life coach, and for those seeking further credentials, the CCP also offers a pathway to more advanced ICF credentialing that can significantly boost a coach’s credibility and overall marketability.

Even without pursuing additional credentialing or certification, qualified life coaches can find themselves in ideal positions for a wide range of career opportunities. These can range from operating independent life coaching practices to accepting a role with a coaching firm, corporate coaching positions, and even branching out to related fields like HR, counseling, or some sort of training and development.

The journey to becoming a life coach doesn’t have to end with a successful CCP certification, and graduates are highly encouraged to continue their education and professional development. This can involve advanced coaching courses, specialized coaching training for spaces like executive coaching or wellness coaching, or even participating in seminars or workshops for coaching.

Finally, one thing you never want to stop doing is building your professional network, and going through the CCP and graduating offers a great chance to create and develop solid industry connections that can be priceless sources of referrals and collaborations.

This is one of the biggest concerns for many prospective coaches, but always remember that it’s not an expense, it’s an investment. The current cost for the CCP certificate from CTA is $4,339, but that covers all aspects of the course, the materials, and all things considered, is a great value for the income potential that it represents.

For increased flexibility and program accessibility, the course fee can be broken up into installments or paid in full. The options for installments include three, seven, or nine-payment installment plans, with the first payment being processed upon enrollment, and the subsequent payments processed every 30 days. This structure makes the program far easier for many people to budget for, making it more manageable than a single payment.

The Coach Training Alliance CCP is a program that’s been helping to shape the landscape of life coaching for years and is responsible for helping forge some of the leading coaches and techniques.

The CTA is one of the standout organizations in life coaching education because of the holistic approach they take, and the unwavering commitment to creating high-quality life coaches that they maintain. Founded on the principles of real-world experience and continuous, lifelong learning, the CTA has created a space for itself and become one of the most well-respected names for individuals who want to start a truly meaningful career in life coaching.

To get started, step 1 is signing up for their free Becoming a Certified Coach Workshop.

If you decide to move forward and enroll, you’ll quickly realize that CTA offers a comprehensive and well-structured life coach certification program that stands out as also being well-balanced between the theoretical and the practical. The ICF alignment and accreditation mean you’ll be getting an industry-recognized coaching education, and the industry-leading course format and content mean you’ll be graduating ready to open your own successful coaching practice.

This article was written in cooperation with Tom White