The coach guides clients by discovering and clarifying goals, encouraging self-discovery, eliciting client-centered solutions, holding accountability, and maintaining ongoing training to uphold integrity and empower clients.

Explore life skills such as problem solving, feedback, asking for help, listening, planning, and expressing feelings, and learn how coaches facilitate group problem solving, a safe climate, and conflict management.

Discover presence as inhabiting the here and now, quieting past and future worries, and observing thoughts with clarity through coaching listening, breathing, body scan, mindfulness, meditation, and movement.

Seek clarity using clarifying questions, summaries, paraphrasing, and backtracking to ensure precise listening, maintain trust, and keep the coach-client relationship on track.

Explore how to practice empathy and deliver empathetic responses in coaching by recognizing clients' emotions, validating and normalizing feelings, and using tone, body language, and reflections to build trust.

Learn how boundaries protect and care for yourself, set limits without blame, and apply the four steps to setting boundaries—say no, repeat, consequences, and follow through.

Learn three levels of listening for coaching: level one internal listening focuses on self; level two focused listening centers on the client; level three global listening uses environment and intuition.

Practice active listening that attends to content and the story behind the words, mirroring with nuance and observing body language to reveal clients' vision, values, and agenda.

Explore how metaphorical language guides coaching conversations, builds connection, and reveals clients' values by listening to their imagery and weaving it into questions and reflections.

Understand emotions and feelings and how emotional intelligence guides coaching. Learn to validate emotions, regulate reflexes, and expand emotional vocabulary to help clients process and shift perspectives.

Explore types of questions and use open-ended prompts starting with what and how, while avoiding why to uncover the client's needs, wants, and opinions.

Master smarter goals by defining specific, measurable, and realistic action plans, guided by clarifying questions that help clients articulate health-focused aims and track progress.

Prepare for a heavy, open-book exam as part of the ICF guided life coaching certificate by reviewing your notes. Rely on thorough notes and review to tackle the many questions.