Architect
Competence gets you started. Becoming an architect makes you a professional. An architect does not just react to what appears; they design and build. Over 60 hours of one-to-one work with a senior coach, you learn to work with the harder parts of real practice, emotion, resistance and complexity, and to build a coaching practice that lasts. You leave able to take on clients other coaches refer elsewhere.
Who this level is for
- Catalyst coaches ready to deepen their practice
- Working coaches who want their skill recognised at a higher level
- Experienced professionals moving seriously into coaching
Entry requirements
Hold the ICI Catalyst credential, or demonstrate equivalent training and coaching experience confirmed at interview.
Format and hours
Delivered entirely online and one-to-one with a senior coach. Your 60 hours are structured as:
- 20 hours of one-to-one online coaching and supervision with a senior coach
- 40 hours of guided self-work and research, including supervised practice and reflective assignments
- Total: 60 hours
What you will be able to do
- Work skilfully with emotion, defences and resistance, within scope
- Recognise patterns such as projection and self-sabotage and coach around them
- Stay grounded and trauma-aware, and know exactly when to refer
- Draw on a wider range of models and match your approach to the client
- Build, price and sustain a real coaching practice
Syllabus
The syllabus deepens your craft and adds the professional and psychological range that distinguishes an advanced coach.
Module 1: Advanced presence and use of self
Coaching from a settled, non-anxious presence. Using your own reactions as information rather than being driven by them. Holding steadier as the material gets heavier.
Module 2: Working with emotion, defence and resistance
How people protect themselves from change. Defence mechanisms, projection and the basics of transference, handled with compassion and within the boundaries of coaching.
Module 3: Trauma-aware coaching and the nervous system
Recognising nervous-system patterns and trauma responses, coaching safely around them, and the clear lines that tell you when a client needs clinical support instead.
Module 4: Frameworks and models in depth
A broader toolkit of coaching models, and the judgement to choose the right approach rather than forcing everyone through one method.
Module 5: Working with patterns and narratives
Beliefs, life stories and the self-sabotage that quietly runs the show. Helping clients see the pattern and write a different one.
Module 6: The business of coaching
Choosing a niche, pricing your work, attracting clients ethically, contracting clearly, and building a practice that supports your life rather than consuming it.
Module 7: Supervision and reflective practice
Being supervised, supervising your own work, and building the reflective habits that keep a professional coach safe and improving for a whole career.
Assessment
Assessment is based on coaching across a range of clients, supervised practice logs, and a short, practical plan for your professional practice. You demonstrate not just competence but consistency.
What you graduate with
- The ICI Architect Coach credential and the ICI-A post-nominal
- The standing to charge professional fees
- A wider, tested toolkit and clearer professional judgement
- Ongoing supervision and the ICI community
Details at a glance
- Level2 of 4 (Professional)
- Formatonline, one-to-one with a senior coach
- Hours60 total (20 coaching, 40 self-work)
- Suggested durationup to 4 months