Healing Centered Life Coaching Certification Program
A Life Coaching Program Like No Other…
Learn to coach the whole person, beginning with yourself. Over five months, you learn the Healing Centered Coaching® model from the inside, then learn to guide others through it with skill, ethics, and care. Choose the cohort that feels like home.
- 5 months
- 20 live classes
- 75 hours, including 10 mentor coaching hours
- 10 to 20 participants per cohort
- Online
- $4,999 founding-year tuition ($1,000 off)
- ICF Level 1 accreditation pending
Two cohorts, one program
Choose your cohort
Both cohorts follow the same curriculum, built to ICF Level 1 standards, with the same 20 classes, mentor coaching, and teaching staff. Each cohort meets for three hours a class, for 75 hours in all, including 10 hours of mentor coaching. Each is its own community, designed for and centered on the leaders in it.
People of Color Cohort
For Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and multiracial leaders who are the ones people turn to. A place where you never have to translate yourself.
- Fridays · February 12, 2027 to July 23, 2027
- 11:00 AM to 2:15 PM Eastern / 8:00 to 11:15 AM Pacific
- Three-hour classes · 75 hours, including 10 mentor coaching hours
- Applications close January 29, 2027
Black Women Cohort
For Black femme leaders who are the ones everyone leans on. 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
- Three-hour classes · 75 hours, including 10 mentor coaching hours
- Applications close September 10, 2027
What you will learn
Five modules, twenty classes
Each module follows a step of the Healing Centered Coaching® model. You practice every step on yourself first, then learn to guide clients through it.
Pause: Coming Home to Yourself
- Sacred Beginnings
- Making Space Together
- The Coach's Pause
- Arriving Fully
Ground: Rooted in Safety and Spirit
- Safe Harbor
- Holding What Arises
- Rooted in the Body
- Steady Ground
Align: Listening for Inner Wisdom
- Deep Listening
- Questions That Open Doors
- Whole and Seen
- Illuminating Inner Wisdom
Act: Moving With Intention
- From Insight to Intention
- Gentle Accountability
- Healing at Work
- The Full Circle Session
Integrate: Wholeness in Practice
- Weaving It Together
- Practicing in Wholeness
- Sustaining the Healer
- Community Celebration & Teach Back
Program at a glance
Everything included
20
Live classes
One 3-hour class a week on the cohort's class day, with a 15-minute grounding break
75
Total hours
60 live hours, 5 self-guided hours (a 15-minute video lesson before each class), and 10 mentor coaching hours
10
Mentor coaching hours
7 Mentor Circles in groups of up to 10, and 3 one-on-one sessions with Leslie
7
Observed sessions
4 feedback pods and 3 one-on-one reviews, all with written feedback
5
Modules
Pause, Ground, Align, Act, and Integrate, practiced on yourself first
1
Final evaluation
A recorded coaching session graded at the ACC level, with written feedback on each competency
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
Healing Centered Life Coaching Certification Program
$4,999founding-year tuition
Regular tuition $5,999. Founding students save $1,000 during the Institute’s first year.
- Five-payment plan: Spread $4,999 tuition over five payments of $1,000. Employer sponsorship is also available.
- Refunds: cancel 30 or more days before the first class for a refund less a $500 processing fee, or 14 to 29 days before for 50% less the fee. No refunds within 13 days of the start or after classes begin; substitutions are welcome before launch.
- Attendance: up to 15 class hours can be made up, and extensions of up to 60 days are available case by case.
- Before you enroll, please read the Certification Program Policies, including the Participation Agreement. An electronic copy of the agreement is provided at enrollment.
- Small on purpose: 10 to 20 participants per cohort, so every student is seen.
- No homework: practice happens together in each week's Practice Studio, and every holiday weekend stays free.
- I am applying for ICF Level 1 accreditation. Students in the founding cohorts will be retroactively eligible for ICF credit once the program is approved.
Start with a conversation.
Tell me what you are looking for: coaching, a circle or training, certification, mentoring, or a partnership for your team. You will hear back within two business days.
Considering a certification program? Read the Certification Program Policies.
