Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a list of questions clients and prospective clients have asked us about Integral Coaching.

1. How is Integral Coaching different from other methods of coaching?
2. How is Integral Coaching different from counseling or therapy?
3. Can Integral Coaching work in conjunction with counseling or therapy?
4. What if I'm not sure about what my coaching topic is?
5. Is Integral Coaching the same as life coaching?
6. Is Integral Coaching like high-end training and development programs?
7. Is Integral Coaching confidential?
8. Do I need to know anything about Integral Theory before I can be coached?
9. How does Integral Coaching work?

10. What kind of training do Integral Coaches have?

11. Do coaches work with clients internationally?
12. Does Integral Coaching cost more than other types of coaching?

13. As a client, what can I expect from my Integral Coach?

14. As a client, what will I be responsible for?
15. How long does a coaching relationship usually last?

1. How is Integral Coaching different from other methods of coaching?
This method of coaching was developed by Integral Coaching Canada to offer the most comprehensive method of coaching available today. Integral Coaching enables you to become more aware of your current approach to situations, to see new possibilities, and to build sustainable new competencies to achieve outcomes that deeply matter to you.

In Integral Coaching, coaches offer insights on what they see and assist you in being able to look at your own way of being in your topic from an outside perspective. From this outside perspective, you are more able to work with your coaching topic, always focusing on building a new way of being in your topic, rather than simply embracing new distinctions. In this way, you are always seen as existing in the creative tension between who you have been (past) and who you are becoming (future).

Integral Coaching takes an Integral approach in its view of human development, synthesizing the research of a pool of experts in various areas such as ego development, values development, self-identity development, moral development, cognitive development, and levels of consciousness. Integral Coaching utilizes many different theorists across all disciplines of human experience in order to employ a model that is grounded in Integral Theory. Integral Coaching offers a rigorously structured methodology for how the model is used in coaching, and comprehensive objective structures that determine how the coaching model is adhered to by coaches.

Integral Coaching is equally applicable to topics like health/wellness, spirituality, and intimacy in relationships as it is to topics in business leadership because they are all topics in human potential. Integral Coaching takes your entire life into consideration, leaving nothing out.

You can learn more about the Integral Coaching model and methodology in the Spring 2009 Edition of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, available for purchase at our store. You can also see Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine talk about the difference between Integral Coaching and other types of coaching.

2. How is Integral Coaching different from counseling or therapy?
Integral Coaching differs from therapy in that it is primarily concerned with helping you to build the competencies you need to experience your topic differently than you currently do. This is done through designing a custom program that allows you to try new ways of seeing things, new behaviors, and new ways of checking for results. In effect, you build new muscles that help you to approach your topic in a new way. Counseling or therapy generally does not employ practices to enable new competency building.

Because your Integral Coach designs practices and a complete Coaching Program for you, the coach spends a minimum of 1-2 hours on behalf of you outside each coaching session. In therapy, the time spent on behalf of the client is generally limited to in-session time.

An average Integral Coaching Program runs about 5 – 8 months. Therapy tends to run for much longer, sometimes years. An important part of Integral Coaching is that by the end of the coaching relationship, you are able to be self-generating (generate your own practices and have a clear understanding of where your growth and development needs to go) as well as self-sustaining (able to sustain your growth and development along the objectives identified in coaching, without a coach). This is not something you generally receive after working for 5-8 months with a therapist.

There is a great deal of preparation that goes into each session with an Integral Coach. Because of the intense focus of the practices, therapists who have gone through ICC training have been blown away by what happens through this Integral Coaching model in way less time (for their more highly functional clients). You can learn more about the Integral Coaching model and methodology in the Spring 2009 Edition of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, available for purchase at our store.

3. Can Integral Coaching work in conjunction with counseling or therapy?

Yes, Integral Coaching works well in conjunction with therapy, for clients who wish to participate in both. Our coaches are also held to the strict ethical standard of recommending therapy when a client’s topic is better addressed by that modality, or when combining therapy with coaching would be a better fit for you.

4. What if I'm not sure about what my coaching topic is?
That is no problem. If you simply come to the first session with a general idea of what you would like to work on and a willingness to look at that idea in some different ways, your coach will work with you to gain a greater degree of clarity about what you wish to receive coaching for.

When choosing your topic, it is helpful to ask yourself the following: What is it that I most want right now? What seems to be missing or unachievable? Where do I feel stuck? What is causing me pain? Virtually anything can be a topic for coaching

5. Is Integral Coaching the same as life coaching?
No. From an Integral Coaching perspective, development occurs across the many facets of a client's life. Integral Coaching actually crosses the boundaries between “life coaching” and “executive coaching.”; Integral Coaching takes the whole of you into account and the shifts that you receive are not limited to what happens in your private life, or in your work life. The topic you bring to the coaching session determines where the work will focus, but the changes experienced will happen across all terrains of your life.

6. Is Integral Coaching like high end training and development programs?
Integral Coaching should be compared to high end training and development programs, rather than therapy or traditional life coaching. Integral Coaching is a powerful alternative to taking Interpersonal Skills 101 or other such development programs (especially in corporate life). The difference is that Integral Coaching allows for individually designed professional or personal development versus a course designed for a group of people with different ranges of skills, awareness, etc.

7. Is Integral Coaching confidential?
As part of the ethical guidelines that Integral Coaches follow, your coach agrees to treat all information shared during sessions as private and confidential to the extent allowed by law. However, your coach may, from time to time, anonymously share information from sessions with other coaches or mentors for feedback.

Even if your company is paying for your coaching, the conversations between you and your coach are private. By law, coaching records can be subpoenaed.

8. Do I need to know anything about Integral Theory before I can be coached?
It is not necessary to know anything about Integral Theory in order to benefit from Integral Coaching; in fact, most of our clients do not.

9. How does Integral Coaching work?
Once you are matched with a coach, your coach will contact you to set up your first introductory session. This session is know as the ‘intake’ conversation and will consist of your coach getting to know both you and your topic better. During this conversation you will also get to know your coach better. You may feel free to ask questions you have as well.

In the second session your coach will offer you insights about your current way of being in your topic. Your coach will also offer you insights into a new way of being in your topic and what competencies would need to be built for that to occur. Your coaching conversations are a very dynamic and co-creative process between you and your coach. Together you will agree on the appropriate course of action and program that will allow you to obtain the results you wish for.

With on-going coaching, usually every 2 weeks, your coach assists you by helping to develop a unique, step-by-step program that grows with you. Your coaching is complete when you reach the objectives that you and your coach set forth at the beginning of the relationship.

You can learn more about the Integral Coaching model and methodology in the Spring 2009 Edition of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, available for purchase at our store.

10. What kind of training do Integral Coaches have?
All of the coaches who work for us have been accredited through Integral Coaching Canada’s rigorous Integral Coaching Certification Program (ICCP). This two year training program is one of the few that surpasses the International Coach Federation (ICF) required training hours for a Master Certified Coach (200+ hours of training) level of certification. ICC’s training program is accredited by the ICF at this level. ICF is the primary international governing and accreditation body in the field of coaching.

You can learn more about the Integral Coaching model and methodology in the Spring 2009 Edition of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, available for purchase at our store.

11. Do coaches work with clients internationally?
Yes. Many of our coaches have experience working with International clients. Some also have secondary languages. Please see our Coach Profiles for details.

12. Does Integral Coaching cost more than other some other types of coaching?
Integral Coaching is priced somewhere between the traditional "life coaching" and "executive coaching" scales. Integral Coaching does not hold that there is a split between the public and private life of a client and therefore bridges the gap between what is known as life coaching and what is termed leadership or executive coaching. Additionally, not all coaching methods are equal. Integral Coaches have more training than do many who offer coaching services, and practice a methodology that is rigorously rooted in Integral Theory. Integral Coaching should be compared to high end training and development programs, with the difference that instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, Integral Coaches design a Coaching Program with intensive and individually developed practices for each unique client.

13. As a client, what can I expect from my Integral Coach?
Your coach will work with you on a topic that deeply matters to you, and one that you have likely had difficulty making and/or sustaining any progress in to date. Your coach offers an approach to change that focuses on the development of competencies in you that enable you to be in your topic in a new way and achieve new results. Your coach will work with you to develop a customized Coaching Program that is tailored to meet you right where you are and takes you through cycles of development that progressively enables you to make meaningful progress on your topic.

14. As a client, what will I be responsible for?
You will be responsible for engaging in a Coaching Program that is designed to support you in making meaningful progress in your coaching topic. You will be responsible for meeting with your coach on a regular basis, usually 1 hour every 2 weeks, and actively engaging in daily exercises / practices between the meetings that are custom designed for you, and are the focus of your development in your Coaching Program. You are also responsible for being willing to ‘take a look’ and to do things that are outside your norm… for this is where new seeing and new development takes place. Finally, you are responsible for speaking honestly about what is working and what is not and working with the coach to sort things out.

15. How long does a coaching relationship usually last?
All coaching relationships are unique and therefore depend entirely upon your goals and the competencies that are necessary for you to build. Most clients find that it takes at least six months to truly embody the changes that will sustain change in their topic. Many choose to work with their Integral Coach for longer than six months.

An important part of Integral Coaching is that by the end of the coaching relationship, you are able to be self-generating (generate your own practices and have a clear understanding of where your growth and development needs to go) as well as self-sustaining (able to sustain your growth and development along the objectives identified in coaching, without a coach). So when the coaching relationship comes to an end, you will feel ready to continue on without a coach. Coaching is about reaching the level of embodiment you desire, so there is no long term contract and the length of time you work with a coach is entirely up to you.