The Deep Coaching Certification Program® (DCC) is a ten-month learning journey designed to cultivate your capacity to coach from presence, integrating the wisdom of the Enneagram, the intelligence of the three centers—head, heart, and body—and the unique methodologies of the Deep Coaching Institute.
This curriculum unfolds step by step, moving from self-awareness to embodied practice. Each course builds on the last, guiding you through a progression of:
Know Thyself → Building Coaching Presence → Enneagram & Coaching Presence → Integrating Coaching Presence → Supervised Fieldwork & Case Studies.
Along the way, you’ll be supported by faculty, mentors, and peers in an intimate learning community rooted in dialogic principles and experiential practice.
The result is more than knowledge. You emerge as a practitioner who can create safe, generative spaces, help clients move from constriction to expansion, and coach from a place of authenticity, compassion, and reverence.
1. Know Thyself (Prerequisite)
Before entering the certification journey, all students begin with Know Thyself. This prerequisite lays the groundwork for the deeper transformation that unfolds in the DCC. It includes two key elements:
- Intro to Deep Coaching — an introductory course that orients you to presence-centered coaching, the Enneagram, and the foundations of inner work.
- Enneagram Soul Circle — at least one round of this guided group experience, where you deepen self-awareness, share insights, and practice presence in community
This stage is about turning inward—beginning the process of self-observation, cultivating presence, and sensing your own patterns of constriction and expansion. By entering the certification program with this foundation, you are better prepared to meet yourself and your clients from a place of wholeness and authenticity.
Learning Objectives:
- Begin cultivating a practice of presence in your own life.
- Develop self-awareness of your Enneagram type and personality patterns.
- Experience the power of circle-based learning and mutual reflection.
- Build a foundation of inner work that supports your capacity to coach others.
- Enter the DCC program grounded in personal inquiry, humility, and openness
Note: Tuition for prerequisites is not included in the DCC program cost. However, when you continue on to certification, a percentage of your prerequisite tuition is applied toward your certification tuition.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
~ Carl Jung
2. Building Coaching Presence
(RETREAT – Marconi Center, Tomales Bay, CA)
Your certification journey begins in community. At this opening retreat, you’ll step into the circle with your cohort and faculty at the beautiful Marconi Center overlooking Tomales Bay.
At its heart, this retreat is about learning what coaching presence truly means: attending to clients with your whole being, and using yourself as a vessel to bring forth their wisdom and deeper intelligence.
Concepts are introduced dialogically—through conversation, inquiry, and shared reflection—so that learning arises within you rather than being handed down. From the start, you’ll engage in highly experiential practices that invite both personal discovery and coaching skill development.
Marconi Center, Tomales Bay, CA
At this retreat you’ll explore three of DCI’s core frameworks:
- The Three Centers of Intelligence (head, heart, and body) as gateways to presence.
- The Presence-Centered 5-Step Coaching Model — Notice, Name, Allow, Accept, Integrate — a clear yet spacious process for transformational conversations.
- The ARC of Coaching, which illuminates the natural rhythm of a coaching session—Awareness, Reflection, and Choice—as it unfolds in presence.
You will also begin to experience the journey from constriction to expansion—recognizing how personality habits limit freedom and discovering how presence opens the doorway to aliveness, creativity, and authentic expression.
And you’ll begin to learn a different way of asking questions—not from a memorized list of “powerful questions,” but as a practice of inquiry that emerges directly from presence, attunement, and the relational field.
Learning Objectives:
- Build a foundational grounding in presence as the center of transformational coaching.
- Understand coaching presence as a way of attending to clients with our whole being—using ourselves as a vessel to bring forth their wisdom and deeper intelligence.
- Learn to create and hold a safe, generative space where transformative conversations can unfold.
- Explore the Three Centers of Intelligence and their role in cultivating awareness and alignment.
- Practice applying the Presence-Centered 5-Step Coaching Model (Notice, Name, Allow, Accept, Integrate) to support deep, sustainable change.
- Work with the ARC of Coaching to recognize and partner with the natural rhythm of coaching conversations.
- Begin to understand the movement from constriction to expansion, both in yourself and in your clients.
- Learn a presence-centered approach to questioning that invites deeper awareness, rather than relying on pre-scripted techniques.
- Experience DCI’s dialogic approach to learning, which fosters absorption and embodiment.
- Begin the inner work of distinguishing between personality habits and authentic presence
“This being human is a guesthouse. Every morning a new arrival.”
~ Rumi
3. Enneagram & Coaching Presence
(VIRTUAL COURSE)
Exploring the Nine Spheres of Consciousness
This course invites you into the heart of the Enneagram as a map for transformation and presence. Through coaching demonstrations, type panels, and experiential practices, you’ll explore the nine spheres of consciousness not just as “types,” but as living gateways to essence and patterns of constriction.
A central focus of this course is learning about your own Enneagram type—how it shapes your strengths as a coach, where it creates challenges, and how presence allows you to loosen personality habits and open to greater authenticity. At the same time, you’ll learn to tune into your clients’ types—to sense what may be operating below the surface, to attune to their defenses and longings, and to support them in excavating and exploring pathways back to essence.
You’ll also study the neuroscience and neurobiology of type—how patterns of personality are encoded in the brain, expressed in the nervous system, and experienced somatically. Working with the Three Centers of Intelligence—head, heart, and body—you will learn to integrate somatic, emotional, and cognitive awareness, expanding your ability to meet both yourself and your clients in their full humanity.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain a direct, embodied understanding of all nine Enneagram types as spheres of consciousness.
- Deepen awareness of your own type and its impact on your coaching style, strengths, and challenges.
- Learn to recognize type dynamics in clients with greater clarity, compassion, and objectivity.
- Explore the neuroscience and neurobiology of type, and how it shows up in the nervous system and somatic experience.
- Develop skills in working with somatic intelligence—both your own and your clients’—to attune more precisely to patterns of constriction and pathways of expansion.
- Use the Enneagram to sense what lies beneath the surface of a client’s patterns, and invite deeper exploration.
- Expand your presence-centered inquiry skills to meet clients where they are and guide them from constriction to expansion.
- Develop confidence in using the Enneagram as a relational, transformational tool rather than a static system.
This isn’t about adding more to your plate—it’s about transforming the way you lead.
“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”
~ Thích Nhất
4. Integrating Coaching Presence
(RETREAT – Rainbow Lodge, North Bend, WA)
Bringing It All Together: Embodying Presence As Catalyst For Change
This second retreat is a threshold moment in your journey—a time to integrate everything you’ve learned and step more fully into your role as a transformational coach. Set in the serene and spiritually-rich mountains of Washington State, this retreat emphasizes embodiment, discernment, and integration.
Through immersive practice, you’ll deepen your use of the Presence-Centered 5-Step Coaching Model: Notice, Name, Allow, Accept, Integrate and explore advanced applications of the Enneagram, including the levels of health, the passions and instincts, and the dynamic of personality and presence.
You’ll also engage in practices for working with the Inner Critic and the FOA (Focus of Attention)—the habitual lens through which each type perceives reality—sharpening your ability to attune to what drives constriction and to create openings for expansion.
Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center,
North Bend, WA
Professional discernment is woven throughout: you’ll clarify what makes a client coachable and how to distinguish between coaching, therapy, and consulting. The retreat concludes with a powerful expressive arts process—creating a soul collage that integrates right-brain intuitive intelligence and visually captures your unique style as a Deep Coaching practitioner.
To honor this stage of the journey, we draw inspiration from John O’Donohue’s blessing For a New Beginning, which reminds us of the courage and grace it takes to step onto new ground.
Learning Objectives:
- Integrate presence, the Enneagram, and DCI’s frameworks into a cohesive coaching practice.
- Apply the Presence-Centered 5-Step Coaching Model (STAR Model) with confidence and ease.
- Work with advanced Enneagram applications: levels of health, passions, instincts, and the dynamic of personality and presence.
- Cultivate deeper awareness of how your own type structure influences your coaching style and presence.
- Develop the capacity to work skillfully with the Inner Critic and Focus of Attention in both yourself and your clients.
- Clarify what makes a client coachable and how to differentiate between coaching, therapy, and consulting.
- Gain extensive live coaching practice with guided feedback from faculty and peers.
- Seal your learning through a soul collage that reflects your authentic coaching style.
- Learn what it means to embody presence as a catalyst for transformation.
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
~ Mary Oliver
5. Supervised Fieldwork & Case Studies
(VIRTUAL COURSE, 5 MONTHS)
Deepening Mastery Through Practice, Reflection, and Community
This final stage of the certification program is where everything comes together in real-world application. Over five months, you’ll move from learning in a training environment to embodying presence and methodology with your own clients.
You’ll coach two clients for a minimum of 12 hours each, while receiving ongoing faculty supervision and peer support. In small fieldwork supervision groups, you’ll share experiences, explore challenges, and give and receive feedback—learning not only from your own practice, but also from your cohort’s diverse perspectives. Faculty guidance helps you refine your approach, strengthen your presence, and continue integrating the Enneagram and coaching methodology into your work.
A central focus of this course is learning to demonstrate the DCI coaching competencies in live practice. Through supervision and feedback, you’ll grow in your ability to embody these competencies consistently and authentically in sessions with clients.
The culmination of your work is two case studies that you submit to faculty for feedback and final approval—including recordings and written transcriptions of your coaching sessions. These invite you to reflect deeply on your coaching, demonstrate your integration of the methodology, and articulate your unique voice as a Deep Coaching practitioner.
This course also fulfills the ICF’s mentor coaching requirement: you will receive 10 hours of mentor coaching (a combination of group and individual sessions) with accredited DCI faculty, ensuring you meet the standards for ICF credentialing.
Learning Objectives:
- Apply the Presence-Centered 5-Step Coaching Model (STAR Model) with real clients in a supervised context.
- Develop confidence and skill in coaching across diverse personalities and challenges.
- Receive constructive feedback and guidance from faculty and peers in small fieldwork supervision groups.
- Demonstrate your ability to coach using the DCI competencies in real practice.
- Build discernment in navigating client dynamics and staying rooted in presence.
- Strengthen your ability to integrate Enneagram insights into live coaching practice.
- Cultivate professional habits of reflection, accountability, and ethical practice.
- Complete two case studies—including recordings and transcriptions—that demonstrate your growth, integration of the methodology, and unique coaching style.
- Fulfill the ICF mentor coaching requirement through 10 hours of group and individual mentor coaching with accredited DCI faculty.