Become a certified coach
A clear path to your Certified Professional Life Coach (CPLC) credential — through live, hands-on training with Abigail Doust, ACC (ICF) and founder of Equipping for Impact.
A coaching credential makes you better at being with people — at work, at home, in each unique area of life. Picture the conversation you've been avoiding, the person who always shuts down, the moment where you never quite know what to say. These skills change those moments. They grow with you, and the people in your life feel the difference long after you've finished the coursework.
What Most People Get Wrong About Coaching
People come to coaching certification from a lot of different places — some have experienced it firsthand and want to know how to do what just happened, some are already in roles where they support or lead others and want to do it with more skill, and some want to build a practice around it entirely. What most of them have in common is a quiet question: Is coaching actually what I think it is?
Coaching isn't therapy, mentoring, or advice-giving. It doesn't work through the past or hand you someone else's answers — it works in the present, asking the questions that help people find their own. That's why what someone decides in a coaching conversation actually sticks.
When you complete the four-course pathway here, you gain a CPLC — Certified Professional Life Coach. It's an industry-recognized credential that signals you've been trained, practiced, and assessed to a professional standard. It's not a certificate someone emailed you for watching a few videos. It means you've put in real hours, practiced real skills, and been assessed by a real instructor.
Abigail holds the ACC credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Her program is ICF-aligned, meaning the skills, frameworks, and hours you earn here map to ICF standards. If you want to pursue ICF credentialing after completing your CPLC, this program sets you up to do exactly that, and Abigail can guide you through that next step.
There's a reason coaches describe this as a before-and-after. It's not that the credential changes everything overnight — it's your way of thinking that becomes a permanent part of how you show up. You can't unlearn it. And you wouldn't want to.
"I wanted coach training because I wanted to understand how to really listen to people and how to be more effective in helping them realize that they have the answers to move forward in their lives. EFI Coach Training is in-depth and teaches you how to ask the right questions. Going through the training in a group helped me get the most out of the curriculum, and I'm a better listener and communicator for having taken it. What I learned in EFI Coach Training improved all my relationships! This class broke down in detail just the skills I needed to become a great coach, and gave me the confidence to help start a nonprofit and dive into deeper issues with each of my clients."
A clear road to your coaching credential — one course at a time.
Four courses. Each one builds your coaching skills and counts toward your CPLC. The first three can be taken in any order, and completed with Integrated Coaching. When you're ready, Abigail will help you figure out where you stand and what's next.
Conversation Edge
AVAILABLE NOWCoaching-based communication skills for leaders, professionals, and anyone whose relationships depend on what happens in the conversation. Once you see the transformation, you will use these new skills for life!
Abigail recommends starting here if you're new to coaching skills. It lays the foundation for what's next.
Messy Conversations
AVAILABLE NOWIf you want to make a real difference, you'll want to shore up your ability to navigate conversations when emotions, history, or resistance show up. This course will give you confidence for the hard moments — the ones most people avoid or handle badly — and allow you to facilitate conversations to break through to the other side.
Traction
COMING SOONWorking with someone for a conversation or two can be helpful, but Traction digs deep to equip you to walk alongside people to uncover the barriers and pave the way for lasting, intrinsic motivation and real change. Not pushing. Not fixing. Actually helping someone move forward and stay there to get the transformation you both are looking for.
Integrated CoachingComplete this course last
COMING SOONThe final step, which includes coach certification. More real coaching sessions and practical feedback, with the culmination of everything you've learned. This course also helps you figure out what's next — whether that's integrating coaching into your existing work, pursuing ICF credentialing, or simply knowing how to carry these skills into everyday life.
Complete this course last.
The last two courses are being built with the same care and depth as everything else in this work. If you want to get started on a coaching certification, but want to know more, contact Abigail.
"We wanted to certify as coaches to help us get better at what we already do, and we chose EFI Coach Training because it adheres to ICF guidelines and offers certification hours. This training offers a real sense of community and camaraderie with fellow students, provides structure and examples around coaching that are immediately implementable, gives regular coaching practice that helps students move past rookie mistakes and transition to a coaching mindset, and includes professional coaching sessions to talk through the business of being a coach and focus in on specialization. Each class is high value but not over-complicated. EFI Coach Training has helped us challenge and grow our leaders without being offensive, given us confidence around difficult conversations, and helped us create a healthy collaborative culture within our leadership teams."
This path is for you if...
You've seen coaching work — in your own life or someone else's — and want to know how to do that for others.
You're already in a role where you support, lead, or walk alongside people, and you want to do it with more skill and less guesswork.
You want to be the kind of person others feel safe opening up to — not just someone they talk at.
You keep finding yourself in conversations that matter and wishing you knew exactly how to hold them better.
You want a credential that's recognized, professional, and built on a real standard — not just a certificate someone emailed you.
Common questions about becoming a certified coach.
What is a CPLC, and why does it matter?
CPLC stands for Certified Professional Life Coach. It's an industry-recognized credential that signals you've been trained, practiced, and assessed to a professional standard. It matters because it tells the people you work with that you didn't just read a book about coaching. You did the work.
What does it actually take to earn a CPLC?
Equipping for Impact's four-course pathway is designed to take you all the way there. Each course earns you 24 CE hours and builds toward the skills, practice, and confidence you need. Integrated Coaching — the final course — is where it all comes together in real sessions with real feedback from Abigail.
Do these courses count toward my professional continuing education (CE) requirements?
Each course earns 24 CE hours, and for some professions, those hours count toward your continuing education requirements. Financial advisors, for example, have used EFI courses for exactly this. If you're not sure whether your profession qualifies, reach out to Abigail — she can help you figure out whether this counts for you.
How much does it cost?
Each course is $1,500. You take them one at a time, which means you're not paying for the full pathway upfront — just the next step. Note: Abigail offers discounts for those in ministry. Reach out to ask.
How long does it take to receive my CPLC?
You can complete all four courses within 12 months. Each course runs six weeks with two hours of class time and about two hours of homework per week. Conversation Edge and Messy Conversations are available now.
Do I have to take the courses in a specific order?
The first three courses — Conversation Edge, Messy Conversations, and Traction — can be taken in any order. Integrated Coaching must be taken last — it's your final preparation before receiving your certification. That said, if you're newer to coaching, Abigail recommends starting with Conversation Edge. Not sure where to begin? Book a short call and she'll give you an honest recommendation.
"EFI Coach Training made me a more empathetic listener and has moved my conversations from transactional to transformational. As a financial planner, I've found that using the coaching model in conversations with clients makes it easy to create awareness and ultimately build a vision of where a client wants to go. Working to map out a client's own plan to achieve their financial goals and help them identify and plan for potential obstacles unleashes their potential. Utilizing my coaching skills to help people and clients move through a journey of self-discovery has been immensely rewarding."
Will I actually use these skills, or will they collect dust after I finish?
Coaching skills don't stay in one lane. They show up in the hard conversation with your teenager, in the team meeting where someone is clearly struggling, in the moment a friend calls and doesn't know how to say what's really wrong. The reason people keep using them isn't discipline — it's that once you learn to listen and ask differently, it's hard to go back to the way things were.
What if I want to become a professional coach?
You're in the right place to start. The four courses here build the same foundational skills professional coaches use every day — active listening, powerful questioning, and helping people move toward their own goals. When you complete the full pathway, you'll earn your CPLC and have the foundation to coach professionally. If you decide you want to take it even further, Abigail can guide you through the process of pursuing ICF credentialing as well.
What if I'm not sure whether coaching is the right direction for me?
Then this is actually a great place to figure that out. The courses give you real exposure to what coaching looks and feels like — both as the person asking the questions and as the person being coached. Many graduates leave with much more clarity about whether professional coaching is something they want to pursue. And if it's not the direction you want to go, you'll still walk away with skills that serve you everywhere.
If I decide to pursue ICF credentialing later, will this set me up?
Yes. The program is ICF-aligned, which means the skills, frameworks, and CE hours you earn here map to ICF standards. Completing the full pathway earns you your CPLC and positions you to pursue ICF credentialing if you choose. You don't have to decide any of that today, but the path is there whenever you're ready — and Abigail can guide you through it.
Not ready to commit to the full pathway? Start with one course.
Conversation Edge is the natural first step — a six-week live cohort that introduces coaching skills and counts toward your CPLC. Most people who complete the full certification started there. If you want to get a feel for what this training actually looks and feels like before committing further, that's the right place to begin.
Learn About Conversation EdgeNot sure where to start? That's exactly what this conversation is for.
You don't have to have it all figured out before you reach out. If you're somewhere between "I think I'm interested" and "I'm ready to start," a short conversation with Abigail is the right move. She'll tell you honestly whether this is a good fit, where to begin, and what the path actually looks like for you.
"After a six year season in Health Coaching in the Direct Sales world, I decided I wanted to dig deeper into my God-given purpose, and I knew I wanted to coach more people to find their purpose, too. As soon as I talked with Abigail, I knew EFI Coach Training was the best fit to equip me for this next season of coaching, and I felt hope for the first time in a long time that I would be able to take a step into my transition with confidence. Abigail gave me the tools I needed to be effective and confident in my coaching business. I learned to really listen to my clients, to be present, and to build trust with them. I'm thankful for these tools, and really believe it's a must if you're considering coaching in any capacity."