Course 1:
Multi-Dimensional Parent Coaching

Course One, Multi-Dimensional Parent Coaching, the first in a series of four courses for Parent Coach Certification® welcomes you to the world of coaching. It introduces the PCI Coaching Model™, providing the foundational principles and the basic parent coaching tools participants will use later in the training, including important concepts of positive psychology, the five basic principles of Appreciative Inquiry, along with the four-phase Appreciative Inquiry process. You explore two main questions in depth: “What makes coaching, coaching?” and “What makes parent coaching, parent coaching?”

Using an example parent coaching scenario, students complete an exercise to examine typical questions a coach would ask in each of the four phases of Appreciative Inquiry. They also consider the entire coaching process and the number of sessions in each of the phases to ensure the most effective overall outcomes for the client.

The final month of the course introduces the PCI Coaching Process through the coaching scenario, Coaching Emily. Students study the types of questions and coaching techniques in each of the four phases of AI to understand the core tasks of each phase and the types of coaching techniques used in each phase. Through discussions with peers and instructor, students have the opportunity to ask questions and to share their understanding of the living system principles and AI principles, as well as the coaching techniques used throughout Coaching Emily.

Course One is divided into three modules—modules 1, 2, and 3. Each module takes one month to complete. Each module contains six lessons, two preparatory audio lectures, and one audio module summary, for a total of nine preparatory audio lectures during the course. Twice a month, students are expected to attend 90-minute discussions with colleagues, facilitated by a PCI Instructor. (These cohort discussions usually take place either at 9AM Pacific Time or 4PM Pacific Time on a Tuesday or Thursday. Specific dates are given ahead of time for students’ planning purposes.)

Course 1 Objectives

Course 2:
Coaching to Parent Well in Technological Times

Course Two, Coaching to Parent Well in Technological Times, is designed to help you more clearly understand the impact of media and screen technologies on families. It provides the most up-to-date, compelling information on how the media environment affects learning, literacy, motivation, self-image, and moral and spiritual development as well as research-proven strategies for coaching parents effectively in a media age. Participants use the PCI model of parent coaching as a basis for listening, communicating, and encouraging parents to take actions to design home environments conducive to optimal cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual development within the existing challenges inherent in the media/cyber environments impacting children and teens today.

This course also begins your parent coaching practice. You will practice applying the four D-phases of the Appreciative Inquiry process while learning to integrate principles and coaching techniques introduced during Course One. You will begin filling out a coaching log for each coaching client according to specific directions that will support your implementation of principles and techniques, along with honing your questioning abilities. As you move forward with your coaching practice you will gain not only an understanding of PCI’s coaching process, but also a deeper understanding of your own strengths and coaching skills as well.

Course Two is divided into three modules—modules 4, 5, and 6. Each module takes one month to complete. Each module contains six lessons, two preparatory audio lectures, and one audio module summary, for a total of nine preparatory audio lectures during the course. Twice a month, students are expected to attend 90-minute discussions with colleagues, facilitated by a PCI Instructor. (These cohort discussions usually take place either at 9AM Pacific Time or 4PM Pacific Time on a Tuesday or Thursday. Specific dates are given ahead of time for students’ planning purposes.)

Course 2 Objectives

Course 3:
Coaching Parents to Appreciate the Wonder Within

Course Three, Coaching Parents to Appreciate the Wonder Within, is the third course for Parent Coach Certification®. The course addresses concepts regarding the nature of deep change and parent coaches as catalysts for an effective change process. It helps you integrate key elements learned in previous courses, while providing new opportunities to increase your coaching skills and signature strengths.

Course 3 also provides a framework of affirming principles and a compilation of practical strategies to help parents effectively support and enhance their children’s school success. The basic premise of the course is that parents do that best by focusing on their own internal strengths, as well as those of their children. The course examines three important areas for assisting parents within the current educational paradigm: the roles of parenting styles and children’s learning styles for a better understanding of both parents’ and children’s behaviors; the usefulness of intrinsic motivation techniques to engage new levels of aliveness, capacity, and creativity within the family; and the key components for parents to become effective, appreciative advocates for their children’s learning process.

Course Three is divided into three modules—modules 7, 8, and 9. Each module takes one month to complete. Each module contains six lessons, two preparatory audio lectures, and one audio module summary, for a total of nine preparatory audio lectures during the course. Twice a month, students are expected to attend 90-minute discussions with colleagues, facilitated by a PCI Instructor. (These cohort discussions usually take place either at 9AM Pacific Time or 4PM Pacific Time on a Tuesday or Thursday. Specific dates are given ahead of time for students’ planning purposes.)

Course 3 Objectives

Course 4:
Transformational Parent Coaching

Course Four, “Transformational Parent Coaching,” helps you integrate key elements learned in previous courses, while providing new opportunities to increase your coaching strengths and skills, as well as your self-awareness as a conscious catalyst for deep, positive change. In this course participants examine and design productive approaches for helping parents understand the power they hold to effect positive change in their lives, with their children, and in the world. Since this is the final course in the Parent Coach Certification® training program, the basic goal is to assist and equip the student to accept and develop his/her/their role as a catalyst for transformational change in our world.

You will discover qualities of a conscious catalyst and learn three distinct ways to catalyze consciously as well as learn more techniques for asking powerful questions. During this course, you will read interesting articles to examine how Appreciative Inquiry helps—even in the direst of circumstances—and how we can help parents retain a generative focus during the coaching process with thoughtful, intentional questioning. In addition, you will examine five principles of individual and social transformation and their implications for effective parent coaching.

Course 4 also give you the opportunity to apply the PCI Coach Model™ to group coaching, providing you with a template for facilitating a series of 8–12 group coaching sessions. And toward the end of this course, you come full circle from the “paradox of self-care” in Course 1 to the Renewal Cycle, developed by Frederic Hudson. You examine the Renewal Cycle and its application in parent coaching, while reflecting on your own unique renewal cycle by considering the growth in your coaching strengths and skills, as well as your self-care practices, over the training year.

The final month helps you transition from PCI student to PCI Certified Parent Coach®. You begin by considering your new emerging identity as a practicing parent coach and what that will entail for you. Re-visiting the Living Systems principles and Appreciative Inquiry principles from Course 1 will help you to determine their applicability in launching your parent coaching practice. In addition, you explore ways to build your parent coaching practice, using your innate gifts and signature strengths. You will consider the commitments you will make in order to launch a successful practice, along with practicing the art of communicating your value to potential clients. The course concludes with a reflection and sharing about your progress on your Client Case History—your final project for Parent Coach Certification®.

Course Four is divided into three modules—modules 10, 11, and 12. Each module takes one month to complete. Each module contains six lessons, two preparatory audio lectures, and one audio module summary, for a total of nine preparatory audio lectures during the course. Twice a month, students are expected to attend 90-minute discussions with colleagues, facilitated by a PCI Instructor. (These cohort discussions usually take place either at 9AM Pacific Time or 4PM Pacific Time on a Tuesday or Thursday. Specific dates are given ahead of time for students’ planning purposes.)

Course 4 Objectives