Index:
Section 1 — What Is Positive Psychology Coaching?
Section 2 — Education and Training for Positive Psychology Coaches
Section 3 — Why Specialized Certification Is Essential
Section 4 — How To Become a Certified Positive Psychology Coach
Section 5 — Our Four Extraordinary Positive Psychology Coaching Master Classes
Positive psychology offers an evidence-based approach to human flourishing. After decades of fixating on healing what goes wrong, many psychologists in the new millennium have begun identifying what goes right and how to build on it. Leveraging the interventions and insights from this new science of well-being, positive psychology coaching has become increasingly recognized as an important route to the Good Life.
Whether you identify as an executive or academic coach, a life or wellness coach, a career coach or other, a positive psychology perspective boosts your effectiveness. Positive psychology coaches may partner with individuals, groups, or organizations to optimize well-being and performance. Following Seligman’s PERMA model, they may focus on positive emotions, engagement of strengths and abilities, personal and professional relationships, meaning and purpose in life/work, and goal achievement. As part of the process, coaches may help clients develop such personal strengths as creativity, leadership, kindness, etc., or cultivate positive habits for productivity, health and wellness, and so on. From developing leadership to finishing dissertations to sticking to a weight-loss program, positive psychology offers tools that allow clients to develop their potential, reach their goals, and enjoy the journey.
The integration of coaching with positive psychology was inevitable. While scientists study what promotes human flourishing, coaches partner with clients to inspire them “to maximize their personal and professional potential,” according to the International Coach Federation. In a nutshell, positive psychology serves as the evolving, empirical base for the art of coaching.
As the first positive psychology-infused coach training program in the world, MentorCoach recognizes that the exponential growth of positive psychology now offers the opportunity for a deeper dive. Our foundations program will introduce you to several positive psychology tools, while this specialized track will grow your toolbox and broaden your perspective with state-of-the-art knowledge across critical areas.
As an ICF-accredited training program, we value the International Coach Federation Coaching Competencies. By deftly leveraging positive psychology approaches, coaches can fully realize many of these competencies, e.g., exploring meaning and emotions, creating insight and awareness, designing actions and support systems, and more. Students learn positive evidence-based principles and insights that facilitate the coaching process and client goals.
Our comprehensive approach allows exceptional opportunities to look “under the hood” of positive psychology coaching. While remaining focused on the coaching applications that promote flourishing, we offer a broader context and deeper understanding of the science of flourishing. A grasp of current theories and models provides coaches with a solid base for using and adapting coaching tools far beyond more common superficial treatments. You will hone your ability to use existing tools in effective, nuanced ways–and may even become inspired to create your own positive psychology-informed signature programs.
A credential in this field signals your commitment as a professional to evidence-based coaching and an understanding of powerful tools for optimizing flourishing at work, in the community, at home, and at school.
You may follow any one of these three routes to become certified as a Positive Psychology Coach.
(1) If You Already Are a Certified Coach
If you have earned your Certified MentorCoach (CMC) status from MentorCoach® or your Associate Certified Coach, Professional Certified Coach, or Master Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation, you have already demonstrated that your coaching skills at or above the level of an ICF Certified Coach. In this case, you can become a Certified Positive Psychology Coach through MentorCoach® by doing all of the following:
(2) If You Are Not Yet Certified: The MentorCoach Certification Route
You can also become a Certified Positive Psychology Coach through MentorCoach® by becoming a CMC (a Certified MentorCoach). For this route, you need to:
(3) If You Are Not Yet Certified: The External Certification Route
If you have not yet earned the ACC or PCC credential from the ICF, you can still earn the MentorCoach Certified Positive Psychology Coach credential. Here’s how:
The MentorCoach Positive Psychology Coaching Master Classes were created to immerse participants in positive psychology concepts and applications far beyond the usual fundamentals in order to develop mastery and nuance in their coaching.
The Positive Psychology Coaching Master Classes includes four required core courses. They have no prerequisites, and you may take them in any order. If you are new to Positive Psychology, you may find some advantage in taking Positive Psychology Coaching and Flourishing first as it offers an overview of the field. You may take more than one of these classes simultaneously, and you may begin while still taking Foundations.
NOTE: Prior versions of these MentorCoach master courses may be substituted for the newer versions with written approval from MentorCoach. These are the former courses that will count if they were taken live and not via recording: Positive Psychology Coaching (in place of Positive Psychology Coaching and Flourishing), Positive Psychology Dissertation Coaching (in place of Positive Potentials), and Character Strengths Interventions. In cases of substitutions, the total required hours of positive psychology master classes will be reduced to reflect the shorter prior course’s hours.
The classes described below have no prerequisite and can be taken in any order, including simultaneously.
Positive Psychology Coaching and Flourishing Master Class (12 hours)
Discover how to harness the new science of well-being to foster flourishing in your clients and yourself. This course integrates a coaching perspective with the fundamentals of positive psychology to offer a hefty toolbox of evidence-based strategies and validated assessments, with vibrant examples and discussion. We will look at how to raise awareness of positive emotions, strengths, and meaning—as well as ways to cultivate them for the Good Life. We will also examine how to work with negative emotions and failure with resilience and mindfulness-based practices. How to promote healthy relationships and foster motivation and achievement will also be covered. As this is an expanding field, we will consider ways you may pursue it further on your own. [This course replaces Positive Psychology Coaching.]
Positive Potentials Master Class: Coaching for Performance, Habits, and Goals (12 hours)
Many clients come to coaching desiring to optimize their potential, including enhancing performance, cultivating new habits, and achieving valued goals. This course will teach you how to coach your clients to actualize their best selves through developing positivity, harnessing strengths and meaning, leveraging motivational strategies, and building focus. This course will offer evidence-based coaching strategies for such issues as developing mastery, overcoming procrastination, creating forward momentum, and overcoming self-doubt and inner critics. This approach honors the understanding that success is not just a destination–it’s a journey. Discover the keys to facilitating a sustainable vibrant life for your clients and yourself. [This course replaces Positive Psychology Dissertation Coaching.]
Coaching Toward Positive Relationships Master Class (12 hours)
We are hard-wired to be social. Participants in this course will examine the ways in which coaches can support the human connection.
In the first half of the course, we will examine the nature of friendships in depth, using research and insights from the field of Positive Psychology to review the roles friends play in our lives. We will further discuss how we foster the development of new friendships and the ways in which coaches can support those efforts.
The second half of the course will be devoted to the exploration of what sustains intimate, loving relationships in our lives. To that end, we will review a few theories from within and outside of positive psychology. Positive psychology-based interventions that aid in building loving relationships will be explored, as well as the role coaches may play in supporting clients wishing to focus on their intimate relationships.
Diving Deep into Coaching with Strengths Master Class (8 hours)
A powerful gift from two giants in the world of Positive Psychology is the VIA Character Strengths Survey. Students of this course will explore the VIA in depth; we will review a brief history of its origin, and the structure of the survey. Participants will explore how their own lives may be impacted by their VIA survey results, and will have opportunity to use survey results to inform their coaching with homework partners. The bulk of the course will review numerous applications of the VIA survey, and how one may coach from a position of character strengths. The course will conclude with a review of how strengths-based coaching strategies align with the ICF core competencies.
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Note: MentorCoach reserves the right to modify the requirements for certification or tuition at any time.
