Career Coaching Practitioner

This course is part of the Career Coaching Practitioner program. Please note that the contact hours and materials for this course are being upgraded and expanded for the 2027 cohort; from 8 to 12 weeks, from 20 to 40 ICF CCEUs, with additional coach-approach and practicum content.

The ability to have effective career coaching conversations with clients and the people you support can accelerate their personal and career development.

Develop practical skills for facilitating meaningful career conversations and supporting people as they navigate career decisions. Grounded in Hope-Action theory, this course explores approaches to self-reflection, values, strengths, storytelling, metaphors, career decision-making and career navigation.

You’ll apply these approaches through reflective assignments, live online sessions, peer conversations and practice with a client of your choosing. The course is designed for coaches, counsellors, educators and other professionals who support career development and personal growth. It is intended to strengthen career coaching practice rather than provide a general coaching certification.

Benefit from a community-based learning experience, with an emphasis on the “being” and “doing” of career coaching.

By the end of the course, you'll be able to:

• use and apply the Hope-Action Theory, a model that connects career development, organizational coaching, and approaches to purposeful career conversations
• strengthen your clients’ relationship with themselves to enhance their abilities to make career decisions in a positive, confident and hopeful manner
• observe and work with environmental factors and influences in a resilient and sustainable way
• access personal and systemic resilience and adaptability through a process of personal mastery and reflective practice
• extend these traits into your career coaching practice with your clients and the people you support.

The Hope-Action Theory consists of seven competencies that can be developed and incorporated into all aspects of your life. It has been researched and taught for more than a decade.

Before registering for the course, carefully read and understand the program handbook.

Course outline

Pre-course work: Getting Ready to Begin

• Orient to the Canvas learning platform and course requirements
• Complete the Hope-Action Inventory assessment
• Identify a client to work with throughout the course

Week 1 - Foundations of Hope-Centered Career Practice

• Complete an introductory assignment and connect with peers
• Begin work with the Career Wayfinder textbook
• Introduction to career development conversations and career decision-making
• Introduction to Hope-Action theory and the Inventory assessment

Week 2 - Navigating Uncertainty and Creating Possibilities

• Reflective assignments and cohort connections
• Introduction to the Career Wheel to support self-clarity and decision-making
• Uncertainty in career development
• Career beliefs and possibility thinking

Week 3 - Finding Flow: Paradox and Presence

• Practical approaches to identifying key themes and goals
• Paradoxical perspectives in career development
• Identifying patterns of flow
• Listening and authentic client support

Week 4 - Mattering, Joy, and Contextual Learning

• Exploring and focusing topics that emerge in career coaching
• Developing a sense of mattering
• Exploring joy to discover hidden strengths and increase self-clarity
• Understanding how context and environments shape career development

Week 5 - The Power of Story and Metaphors

• Storytelling to uncover strengths and inform career decision-making
• Lines of questioning in career conversations
• Introduction to guiding metaphors

Week 6 - Values, Courage, and Applying Metaphors

• Working with courage and resistance in career conversations
• Exploring personal and workplace values
• Deepening skills in metaphorical approaches

Week 7 - Personal Style and Significant Others in Career Development

• Reflecting on personal style through the Individual Style Survey 360 Assessment debrief
• Developing awareness of self and how you connect with the world around you
• Gaining clarity through the Career Wheel segments

Week 8 - Turning Hope into Action Through Exploration and Decision-Making

• Using the Career Wheel to explore career options
• Career decision-making strategies
• Exploring work and life experiences to gain new insights and support forward momentum
• Identifying and expanding metaphors

Week 9 - Working with Metaphors and Network-Building

• Reshaping, elaborating and applying metaphors
• Working with metaphors using the Metaphor Wheel to develop range
• Informational interviewing strategies

Week 10 - Mapping Strategies and Group Coaching

• Using mapping to support career navigation
• Physical movement to explore new vantage points and strengths
• Introduction to working with groups

Week 11 - Designing Programs that Build Momentum

• Working with groups expanded with best practices
• Hope-based group program design in career development contexts
• Strategies for goal-setting, planning, and accountability

Week 12 - Bringing It All Together

• Reflecting on and sharing lessons learned and next steps
• Consolidating learning and completing the final evaluation
• Strengths-based approaches to closing client session(s)

How am I assessed?

Your instructors assess your assignments throughout the program and your capstone project with a focus on:

• how and when you put learning from the program into action with clients
• a submitted case study highlighting specific strategies you used with clients
• completing the Hope-Action Inventory, both yours and your client’s
• a self-reflection demonstrating your transformation journey.

Upon completion of all course elements, you receive an Advanced Practitioner Certification in Hope-Action Theory & Practice from Doubleknot Works, as well as a Letter of Completion from UBC Extended Learning including confirmation of completing 40 ICF Continuing Coach Education Units (CCEUs) for submission to the International Coaching Federation.

Expected effort

To be successful in this course, we recommend planning for a minimum of eight hours of work per week for twelve weeks. This includes participating in live weekly 2-hour sessions, watching webinars, reading, completing assignments, connecting with your learning triad, joining collaboration groups and client work.

Before registering for the course, carefully read and understand the program handbook.

Textbook and technology requirements

This course requires the purchase of the following textbook:

• A. Fruhling & N. Amundson (2024). Career Wayfinder: Discovering your career through delightfully practical projects. Doubleknot Works.

To take this course, you’ll need access to:

• an email account
• a computer, laptop or tablet under five years old using Windows or macOS with access to a video camera and microphone
• the latest version of a web browser (or previous major version release) a reliable internet connection.

One day before the start of your course, we’ll email you step-by-step instructions for accessing the course.

Course format

This course is 100% online and instructor supported with real-time classes. Live weekly online sessions are held Thursdays 3:30 – 5:30pm Pacific Time, and are recorded.

Join these weekly live sessions with your instructors by video conferencing to actively engage in shared learning experiences, and connect with fellow cohort members for discussion, experiential learning, and practice. Please note attendance for these sessions is mandatory.

You also take part in learning triads to practise new skills and receive in-the moment feedback. Share reflections and engage in learning conversations with your cohort through posts and ongoing conversations in a private online forum.

Outside of the live classes, access pre-recorded webinars and skill demonstrations. Read articles and book excerpts provided, and complete assignments to deepen learning. Gain access to resources and practical tools to support the implementation of new interventions with clients.