MentorCoach is proud to announce the following exciting master class:
Diving Deep into Coaching with Strengths Master Class
Starts February 2025
8 one-hour classes
8 hours of CEs and ICF CCEs
8 hours toward Certified MentorCoach Certification
Required for Positive Psychology CMC Coach Certification
Tuition:
$695
Or 3 Payments of $249
(plus optional $75 for CA BBS CEs)
(plus optional $20 for ICF CCEs)
Listen as Ben Dean interviews Irene about the Diving Deep into Coaching with Strengths Master Class. Hear Irene describe what first drew her to explore Positive Psychology and how it continues to impact her life. She also talks about what she likes most about working with Character Strengths as a coach, and some of the benefits students will gain by joining this course, whether or not they are coaches. Through this interview, you’ll get a sense of Irene as a teacher and someone who intentionally uses positive psychology on a daily basis.
Click here to stream the audio or download an mp3 here. (19:43 mins)
1. Who Should Attend
This course is designed for coaches, though it is open to anyone who is in the role of supporting others, including coaches, therapists, teachers, advisors and counselors. If you are interested in understanding more about how the VIA Survey may support your own personal growth and adaptation to any situation, this course would also be helpful.
2. About This Course
This class will provide a deep and thoughtful look at how coaches can expound on their own strengths to enhance their coaching practices. Students of this course will explore the VIA Strengths Survey in depth, including its origin, structure and applications. Participants will explore how their own lives may be impacted by an understanding of their character strengths, on both a personal and professional level.
We will review ways to integrate strengths interventions into one’s coaching practice. We will discuss the intersection of the ICF Core Competencies and strengths use in coaching as a foundation for each participant’s professional development plan. Skills acquired throughout the course will be reinforced through opportunities for practice with homework partners.
3. Highlights of this Course:
What You Will Get Out of this Class (Learning Outcomes)
On completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe the concept of character strengths and discuss the usefulness of classifying strengths.
- Describe the VIA (Values in Action) Character Strengths Survey; the context within which it was created and its general use.
- Interpret their own strengths profile and explore how this information may be used to maximum advantage in a variety of areas, with a primary focus on how it may impact their continued growth as coaches.
- List a variety of applications of the survey, in a range of contexts and settings, within and outside of coaching.
- Identify the coaching competencies (per the International Coach Federation) that are associated with the use of strengths in coaching.
- Create and execute a personalized plan for incorporating strengths applications into one’s practice or for personal growth.
4. The Eight Weeks
Class 1: Introductions
- Course expectations; our learning community; participants’ intentions for the course
- The VIA Character Strengths Classification and Survey
- Genesis of the VIA Strengths Survey; its contribution to the science of human flourishing; broad applications
- a brief word about other strengths surveys
Class 2: YOUR VIA strengths profile
- What your profile means; what it *doesn’t* say; your Signature Strengths
- Coaching from strengths; when, why, how
Class 3: Strengths spotting vs recognition
- Use in coaching
- Impacts to other relationships – those that are thriving and those in need of help
Class 4: The ICF Core Competencies and strengths use
- Review of the competencies
- The coaching relationship: use of strengths to enhance performance
Class 5: Using our strengths when and how we desire
- Overuse/underuse/optimal use
- Strengths blindness
- Phasal strengths, pairing of strengths
- Use in personal development; mindfulness practices with strengths
Class 6: The Happiness Strengths
- What they are; why they matter
- Implications for your coaching practice
Class 7: The VIA at work
- With clients just starting their careers; helping choose the right path
- With clients at mid-career; applications to job crafting, the Strengths 360
- With clients approaching career end; helping establish the intentional retirement
Class 8: Building a Strengths Integration Plan
- Strengths awareness reflection: course highlights
- Main strengths-related focus for the future and accomplishment plan
- Time-permitting: Coaching case study incorporating strengths.
5. Readings (recommended, but not required)
Anderson, J. S. (2018). 30 Days of Character Strengths A Guided Practice to Ignite your Best. Strengths Based Living http://StrengthBasedLiving.com
6. Open To All
There are no prerequisites for this class. It is open to all, both from within the MentorCoach Community and without. We love welcoming students from other coach training programs as well. Note: A fundamental grasp of coaching may be helpful.
7. Class Time and Schedule for this Webinar
Starts February 2025
8. Tuition
Single Payment: $695 in full
Monthly Payments: Three monthly payments of $249.
(plus optional $75 for CA BBS CEs)
(plus optional $20 for ICF CCEs)
9. Coach Certification
This class provides 8 hours toward MentorCoach Certification as an elective for students meeting the class attendance requirement (See #12 below.) The 8 hours can also count toward ICF Certification via the ICF Portfolio Approach. And, most important, it provides 8 hours toward Positive Psychology Coaching Certification.
NOTE: This class is a required course for MentorCoach’s Positive Psychology Coaching certification program. It is also relevant to MentorCoach’s other specific certification programs.
10. ICF Coach Continuing Education
Live Class Attendance. This class is approved for 8 CCEs (ICF Core Competencies) from the International Coaching Federation for students meeting the class attendance requirement (see #13 below). There is a $20 fee for ICF CCEs.
Listening by Recording. For students who will be listening to this class by recording, this class is approved for 8 CCEs (ICF Resource Development) from the International Coaching Federation for students meeting the class attendance requirement for listening by recording (see #13 below).
11. Board Continuing Education (CEs)
This class is approved for 8 hours of CEs for Marriage and Family Therapists in California (CA BBS). The CE administration fee is $75. CEs for psychologists (APA) are not provided for this class.
To receive credit for CEs, students must pay the CE fee and be present for 6.5 of the 8 class hours.
Note: The CE fee applies only if you are a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and need CEs from this organization. Otherwise, when you register, indicate that you do not need to pay the CE fee by choosing the “Base Unit Price with NO CE’s” registration option.
12. Attendance Requirements
To receive credit for ICF CCEUs in Core Competencies, credit toward MentorCoach Certification, Positive Psychology Coaching Certification, or to receive a Certificate of Completion, you must be present for 80% of the course, attending 6.5 of the 8 class hours. (How can you be present for half a class? Be present for the attendance code at the beginning or end of a class only.)
Every class is recorded, so you can listen again or hear a class you have to miss. As long as you attend 10 of the 12 class hours, you will meet the attendance requirement. If you cannot meet the attendance requirement, you can still earn ICF CCEUs in Resource Development by listening to all 8 classes (see #13 below).
13. Listening by Recording
Every class is recorded. Some students may listen to some or all of the classes by recording at their leisure, sometimes emailing in questions between classes. We applaud and support this practice. We know one well-known Australian professor who used to end his week listening to the recordings of Chris Peterson’s lectures on Friday evenings, drinking white wine and reclining in his hot tub.
Note: Listening to all 8 sessions of the class by recording DOES qualify the student to receive 8 hours of ICF CCEUs in Resource Development. For students who will be listening to this class by recording, this class is approved for 8 hours of ICF CCEs in Resource Development from the International Coaching Federation. To qualify for these ICF CCEs, students must notify Irene early in the course of their intent to take the class by recording. For attendance-by-recording, students must listen to all recordings and submit all class attendance codes within a week after the final class. They may also be asked to pass an open-book exam over the course content.
14. Refund Policy
You may withdraw your registration at any time before the beginning of the second one hour class and receive a full refund. You are responsible for the full tuition amount if you do not withdraw before the beginning of the second class.
ABOUT IRENE NIZZERO, MA, CMC, PCC
After two decades teaching on the faculty of Cambrian College, Irene now coaches full-time and is a Certified MentorCoach, a senior international Coach Trainer for MentorCoach, and an ICF Professional Certified Coach.
Irene’s coaching practice is rooted in helping her clients see themselves in new, productive ways. Her focus on truly being present to her clients and asking the difficult questions enables clients to see potentials and alternatives they may not have considered prior to coaching. Irene is delighted by how often she is inspired by her clients.
Irene coaches people from wide ranging backgrounds; these have included high school students through to corporate executives. She appreciates the variety in her practice, yet she seeks to discover common ground on which she and her clients can establish a working relationship; from there, they engage in deep reflection, meaningful exploration and workable action plans.
While on faculty at Cambrian College, Irene taught psychology, and most notably Positive Psychology, which she helped bring to campus as a regularly offered elective. While developing the curriculum for this course, she discovered the field of coaching and became immediately curious. She ultimately chose MentorCoach as her pathway to certification when she realized that Positive Psychology was a thread wound through all of the MentorCoach courses.
Irene also served for several years as the college faculty developer, predominantly responsible for helping new faculty learn to deliver curriculum in clear and engaging ways. She didn’t realize it at the time, but during her tenure in this role, she was applying many principles of both coaching and positive psychology while supporting her peers in delivering quality education.
Irene has teaching in her bones. She finds teaching on the faculty of MentorCoach as the perfect culmination of three areas of deep passion: coaching, positive psychology and quality education. There is nothing more delightful than being among a group of learners as they experience light-bulb moments and from these, adopt new ways of engaging with others.
For the last 20 years, Irene has lived and worked in Northern Ontario, Canada. She and her husband of almost 30 years have two adult children. She’s a big fan of the gym, with a regular workout schedule, and in her spare time, she crochets blankets for the local Cancer Centre or is out walking her beloved golden doodle.
