Healing Centered Life Coaching Certification Program

Black Women Cohort

You are the one everyone leans on. You lead the team, build the business, show up for your students, and hold it down at home and in community, often as the only Black woman in the room. This cohort is designed for and centered on Black femmes who lead: a place where you can set the weight down and be fully yourself.

Saturdays · October 2, 2027 to April 8, 2028
11:00 AM to 2:15 PM Eastern / 8:00 to 11:15 AM Pacific
Online
20 live classes
75 hours, including 10 mentor coaching hours
10 to 20 participants
$4,999 founding-year tuition ($1,000 off)
ICF Level 1 accreditation pending

Apply to the Black Women Cohort See dates and classes

Why a cohort for Black femmes

Black women lead and build while carrying more. That can change.

Burnout

80%

of Black women in leadership say they often feel burned out.

Being the only

54%

of Black women say they are often the only, or one of the only, Black people in the room at work.

Entrepreneurship

13%

growth in Black women-owned businesses from 2024 to 2025, faster than women-owned businesses overall.

Sources: McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, Women in the Workplace 2025, via Essence; LeanIn.org, The State of Black Women in Corporate America (2019 data); Wells Fargo, 2026, via Buy Black.

Why become a coach

You are already the one people turn to. Coaching makes it a profession.

Becoming a coach lets you turn the care and wisdom you already offer into a credential, a business, and a lasting way to serve Black women and your community.

$10K

A credential that pays

Credentialed coaches earn about $10,000 more a year than coaches without a credential.

73%

Clients expect training

of coaches say clients and organizations increasingly expect credentials and ongoing development.

10.8%

Room for more of us

of ICF members identify as Black or African American. Black women coaches are needed in the profession.

31%

Clients want to be understood

of Black adults would prefer a Black health care provider, and younger Black women are the most likely to feel this way.

Sources: International Coaching Federation, 2025 Global Coaching Study and credentials findings; ICF, member demographics, 2024; Pew Research Center, 2021 survey.

The cohort

African American, Caribbean, African, Afro-Latine, and multiracial Black femme leaders, together

Over five months of Saturdays, a community of 10 to 20 Black femme leaders learn the Healing Centered Coaching® model by living it first, then learn to guide others through it with skill, ethics, and care. Our stories, families, and paths differ. The expectation to be the strong one, and the wisdom our mothers and grandmothers left us, are shared.

Saturdays open the weekend with something that restores you instead of draining you. Every holiday weekend stays free, and there is no homework.

This cohort is for you if you are

An entrepreneur or founder who wants to add coaching to your work and build a business that honors your worth and your rest.
A supervisor or executive ready to coach, not only manage, and to sustain yourself at the top.
A professor or educator bringing a healing centered approach to advising, mentoring, and your own well-being.
A nonprofit or community leader caring for your people without pouring from an empty cup.
A practicing coach who wants to sharpen your skills and level up your practice.

Connection to Healing Centered Coaching®

Healing that honors the whole of who you are

Healing Centered Coaching® welcomes culture, history, and community as sources of wisdom. In this cohort, each step draws on the strength, spirit, and kinship of Black women.

PauseRest from being the strong one, and permission to simply arrive
GroundAncestral and spiritual practices, and the body, kinship, and spirit as guides
AlignValues rooted in your own voice and story, not someone else's definition of success
ActNext steps that serve you, your family, and your community, with rest counted as action
IntegrateHealing that ripples outward into the communities you serve

Program at a glance

Five months, one Saturday a week

Live classes

One 3-hour class a week on the cohort's class day, with a 15-minute grounding break

Total hours

60 live hours, 5 self-guided hours (a 15-minute video lesson before each class), and 10 mentor coaching hours

Mentor coaching hours

7 Mentor Circles in groups of up to 10, and 3 one-on-one sessions with Leslie

Observed sessions

4 feedback pods and 3 one-on-one reviews, all with written feedback

Modules

Pause, Ground, Align, Act, and Integrate, practiced on yourself first

Final evaluation

A recorded coaching session graded at the ACC level, with written feedback on each competency

Dates and classes

Saturdays, October 2, 2027 to April 8, 2028

All classes meet 11:00 AM to 2:15 PM Eastern (8:00 to 11:15 AM Pacific), three hours of class plus a 15-minute grounding break. Self-guided lessons are completed anytime before each class.

Date	Class
Module 1 · Pause: Coming Home to Yourself
Sat, Oct 2, 2027	Class 1. Sacred Beginnings
Sat, Oct 16, 2027	Class 2. Making Space Together
Sat, Oct 23, 2027	Class 3. The Coach's Pause
Sat, Oct 30, 2027	Class 4. Arriving Fully
Module 2 · Ground: Rooted in Safety and Spirit
Sat, Nov 6, 2027	Class 5. Safe Harbor
Sat, Nov 20, 2027	Class 6. Holding What Arises
Sat, Dec 4, 2027	Class 7. Rooted in the Body
Sat, Dec 11, 2027	Class 8. Steady Ground
Module 3 · Align: Listening for Inner Wisdom
Sat, Dec 18, 2027	Class 9. Deep Listening
Sat, Jan 8, 2028	Class 10. Questions That Open Doors
Sat, Jan 22, 2028	Class 11. Whole and Seen
Sat, Jan 29, 2028	Class 12. Illuminating Inner Wisdom
Module 4 · Act: Moving With Intention
Sat, Feb 5, 2028	Class 13. From Insight to Intention
Sat, Feb 12, 2028	Class 14. Gentle Accountability
Sat, Mar 4, 2028	Class 15. Healing at Work
Sat, Mar 11, 2028	Class 16. The Full Circle Session
Module 5 · Integrate: Wholeness in Practice
Sat, Mar 18, 2028	Class 17. Weaving It Together
Sat, Mar 25, 2028	Class 18. Practicing in Wholeness
Sat, Apr 1, 2028	Class 19. Sustaining the Healer
Sat, Apr 8, 2028	Class 20. Community Celebration & Teach Back

No class within two days of a U.S. federal holiday, Easter, Eid al-Fitr, or Eid al-Adha. This cohort skips the weekends of Indigenous Peoples' Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, and Eid al-Fitr. Eid dates are approximate and depend on the moon sighting.

Teaching staff · Founder and lead faculty

Leslie Avant-Brown, MPA, MCC

Leslie is a Master Certified Coach, the International Coaching Federation's highest credential, and the creator of the Healing Centered Coaching® model. Before becoming a coach, she built a career in leadership development, evaluation, and capacity building, and she teaches every live class in the Institute's certification programs.

Her CCRW Coaching Model, created for foster and probation youth transitioning out of state care, earned an ICF Prism Award Honorable Mention. She has developed coaching models that help young survivors of sexual exploitation lead advocacy movements, created a city-wide coaching framework for the City of Oakland's Department of Violence Prevention to support gun violence prevention staff, and founded an ICF-accredited coach certification program. Today she coaches high-achieving changemakers, who often work in isolation, toward clarity, alignment, and purpose, drawing on deep experience in executive leadership, education, nonprofits, and youth work.

Leslie holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan. She is a Silver Star member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and she loves laughing and spending time with her wife, family, and friends.

Joining Leslie: Practice Studio co-facilitators and Mentor Circle coaches, all credentialed Healing Centered Coaches who hold ICF's Mentor Coach Specialization. Names are announced before each cohort begins.

Investment