Resources
Our resources at the Youth Coaching Institute deliver essential support and information for professionals and organizations dedicated to youth development and coaching. Access payment details, service FAQs, and insightful blog articles to enhance your practice and empower your journey.
Essential Tools for Your Coaching Journey
Evidence-based strategies, tools, and frameworks that you can seamlessly integrate into your coaching practice.
FAQs
Have a question regarding our services or process? Search through commonly asked questions for more info.
Staying informed is key to being an effective coach. Discover free educational resources on our blog.
YCI Resources for Coaches
Cost: $50 USD
This 174-page packet of coaching resources offers evidence-based strategies, tools, and frameworks that you can seamlessly integrate into your coaching practice. You will find
Business of Coaching Forms
Essential documents for running a coaching business, including welcome packet documents, surveys, consultation forms, intake forms, and a wrap-up guide. It also includes various assessments and surveys to use with your clients.
Coaching Process & Topic Guides
Practical guides for core coaching processes, such as mindful listening, open-ended questions, reflections, coaching core concepts, and closing strategies. These guides translate theory into actionable steps that can enhance your coaching effectiveness. You also have guides for common coaching topics and strategies to coach around those topics.
Coaching Activities for Clients
A selection of activities designed to engage clients in their personal growth. These include exercises on habit loops, approach vs. avoidance cycles, managing thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and more.
Note: Trainees who complete one of our certification paths or Coaching Adolescents program get this packet as a free bonus.
Payment & Refund Policies
Our payment plan options can be accessed via the “Explore Payment Options” buttons on the Courses Overview page, or directly on each specific class in the checkout.
Self-Study Courses: All tuition paid for self-study courses is non-refundable upon release of course access to the buyer.
Live Meeting Courses: Registrants can cancel or withdraw participation at any time within 14 days prior to the first scheduled live meeting date for their enrolled group for a full refund of paid tuition. Registrants can cancel within 7 days following the first live meeting date for the enrolled group for a 50% refund of paid tuition. If registrants cancel or withdraw from training more than 7 days following the first live meeting date for the enrolled group they are not entitled to any refund or any reductions in tuition owed, as they must cover the cost of the lost seat.
Frequently Asked Questions
All training, supervision, and practicum are completed 100% virtually and available internationally via live Zoom webinar and/or telephone conference calling.
Candidates must be 18 years old or older. Our training programs are ideal for professionals working directly with tweens, teens, and/or emerging adults, professionals leading organizations serving these populations, or those who aim to serve this audience in some capacity.
Coaching is a helping profession focused on learning and growth. Thus, it is a wonderful skillset addition for those in or interested in a career path within helping professions or education (e.g., human resources, counseling, social work, human services, leadership, nursing, teaching, public health, etc.)
Trainees who complete our programs most often apply their skills in the following ways:
- Coaching as a side gig for access to deep, meaningful work and extra income around a full-time job
- Coaching as a professional career path
- Adding coaching skills to enhance their work with tweens, teens, or young adults
- Coaching in a volunteer or mentoring capacity
Trainees may opt to complete individual courses for continuing education hours or the series of courses required to earn a certification through YCI. We offer three certifications with each one building to the next.
Trainees who complete courses 1-3 earn our Certified Youth Well-being Coach designation. This option is generally a good fit for youth-serving professionals, such as teachers or caseworkers, who want to add coaching skills to enhance their current work.
Trainees who complete courses 1-8 earn our Certified Youth Resilience Coach designation. This is our ICF Level 1 accredited and CCE-approved coach training program. This option is generally a good fit for aspiring professional coaches, those in leadership roles over coaching staff, or those who would like to pursue a private coaching practice as a side gig or career pivot.
Trainees who complete courses 1-9 earn our Certified Youth Health Coach designation. This option is generally a good fit for professional coaches who support youth through mental or health and wellness organizations offering full continuum of care services.
Yes! You can earn your first certification and come back to complete additional courses for next level certifications when you’re ready. Just purchase each next course or set of courses as you’re ready.
Our Certified Youth Well-being Coach and Certified Youth Resilience Coach training programs have an 80% live attendance requirement.
All live classes are recorded so that those who have an allowed absence are able to watch the recording to submit a missed class makeup summary to earn credit.
If you were scheduled to coach the day of your absence, you would also need to complete a makeup practice coaching session outside of class.
Life happens! Your well-being is our priority. If you need to pause your training, you can transfer to a later cohort to complete your training up to one year from the date of your withdrawal from your current cohort.
Absolutely not. Your basic coaching skills are generally applicable to any coaching-appropriate audience – tweens, teens, and adults of all ages. The behavioral science knowledge you’ll gain is also generally applicable.
You are practicing coaching peer trainees who are adults of all ages with various backgrounds, experiences, and cultures during your in-class training. That means you’re learning to coach adults of all ages through this program.
Because your training with us is International Coaching Federation-approved, you also qualify to obtain a higher credential through the ICF upon successful completion with us. The ICF’s designations are general professional coaching designations accepted in most coaching-related roles.
Yes! Take a look at our certification paths to see which of the courses are knowledge-based self-study content. You can also review our elective courses list for our self-study options including, individual lectures, Coaching Adolescents, and Lifestyle Medicine for Adolescents programs.
Basic Coaching Skills Live (6 weeks)
We offer private training options via Zoom for organizations with a group of 6 or more. The Basic Coaching Skills live program includes 18 hours of training between a one-hour self-study lecture online followed by a once weekly two-hour live class.
Certified Youth Well-being Coach (14 weeks)
We offer private training options via Zoom for organizations with a group of 6 or more. If you have less than 6 to train at any given time, feel free to enroll them in any of our ongoing live training cohorts with space available.
Stage 4 Group Mentor Coaching Only (3 months)
We offer a private ICF group mentor coaching option for organizations with groups of 5-10 mentees.
Contact us to schedule training for your organization.
Because we care to make evidence-based coaching financially accessible for all youth, trainees who certify through our program commit to coaching one to two pro-bono and/or severe sliding scale clients during or after training for low-income clients on a need basis. They coach their first pro-bono youth client as part of the Stage 3 training experience to secure their final exam recording submission.
Coaching is currently considered an avocational skillset in the United States, as most coaches do not secure full-time gainful employment solely through coaching skills or certifications. Most professional coaches are employed in other professions full-time and either 1) use coaching skills to enhance their full-time work, 2) coach on the side as an outlet for passion work while preparing a career pivot, or 3) add coaching to other relevant business offerings for their audience.
According to the International Coaching Federation’s most recent Global Coaching Study (2020), coach practitioners include external and internal coach practitioners, human resources/talent development manager/or director who uses coaching skills, and manager/leader who uses coaching skills.
This same study found 94% of coach practitioners offer services in addition to coaching, including consulting (60%), training (60%), and/or facilitation services (54%).
Most of our coach trainees are employed in youth serving roles (e.g., teacher, non-profit worker, juvenile justice worker, caseworker, therapist, etc.), are parents of adolescents, or caring community members who pursue our training for additional skills to better engage and support the adolescents in their networks.
Most full-time, salaried, youth-serving coaching roles can be found within schools, colleges, universities, and non-profits. Examples are:
Academic Coach
Learning Coach
Student Success Coach
Career Coach
Leadership Coach
These roles typically require at least a Bachelor’s degree and 2-4 years of experience serving youth. Those who are in other full-time roles and lack the years of experience needed to qualify may complete our programs to begin building that experience on the side while preparing to pivot.
Yes, our internal payment plans can be accessed via the “Explore Payment Options” buttons on the Courses Overview page, or directly on each specific class in the checkout.
You can also add the full certification package to the cart to review external payment plan options offered by our payment processors at check out before making a decision.
That’s the question we hear most often! Here’s the overview.
CYWC
Generally a good fit for internal staff serving tweens, teens, or emerging adults who have no interest in professional coaching as a career path. They just want to add coaching skills to their current work. This is the path most often selected by leaders within youth-serving organizations and agencies (e.g., schools, non-profits, colleges, universities, juvenile justice, healthcare, etc.) who are seeking professional development for their internal staff.
CYRC (ICF-Accredited and CCE BCC Approved Training Path)
Generally a good fit for aspiring professional coaches, those in leadership roles over coaching staff, small business owners serving adolescents, or those who would like to pursue a private coaching practice as a side gig or career pivot.
CYHC
Generally a good fit for those who serve or hope to serve tweens, teens, or emerging adults within a behavioral health, mental health, public health, health and wellness, or health system role. Those roles may be behavior intervention specialist, community health worker, health education specialist, mental health professional, case manager, juvenile probation officer, juvenile detention officer, peer recovery coach, etc.
Absolutely! Here are two free lectures that provide insight into what our knowledge-based content is like in the self-study modules.
Click this link to watch a 42-minute lesson – Introduction to Coaching.
Learn what coaching is and what it’s not, the differences between coaching, therapy, and other support services, and how we get to make a difference through coaching.
Click this link to watch a 30-minute lesson on Academic Coaching & Learning Science.
Learn about the research that supports why academic coaching is a vital resource to promote school engagement and protect against school burnout.
If you’re interested in our programs, but want to be sure our content is a fit for you before signing up for a full certification, you can complete a single course, Course 1: Basic Coaching Skills and Adolescent Well-being Science. Just go back to the home page, scroll down to that course highlight, and click Enroll.
EXCELLENT Based on 56 reviews Kody Hersh2025-09-08 I appreciated YCI's model of independent self-study combined with live classes for coaching practice and discussion. The content of the self-study materials has been really helpful for me as a youth professional in refreshing my knowledge of adolescent development, and learning how to use that knowledge to provide effective support as a coach. Program leaders are gifted and knowledgeable, and admin staff provided prompt and skilled support. Huaru Kang2025-08-25 Participating in the YCI courses and becoming a certified Youth Well-being Coach through the YCI training has been truly an inspiring and rewarding journey. The program has not only deepened my understanding of youth development through self-study courses but also equipped me with practical coaching skills through online live sessions. I particularly appreciate its research-based and evidence-driven approach, which makes the course content both convincing and impactful. This clearly reflects Dr. Leah’s hard work and dedication. I am also very grateful for the support of our online meeting facilitator, Bonnie. She is a wonderful person, very kind and supportive, and demonstrating outstanding professionalism in coaching. Heidi Huelster2025-08-20 This incredible program is the real stuff that you need as a Youth Coach. Not only are the Coaches who are facilitating actually IN the world coaching and professional, but are beyond gifted. I am grateful for what I have gained as a Coach and beyond happy that I dove in for the whole experience. You won't regret doing the same. Mary Bloser2025-07-12 I can't say enough about YCI. If you really want to learn how to coach, this is your program! It really breaks down the fundamentals and teaches you how to coach in a pure fashion. I'm not even done with the program and my confidence in my coaching has grown enormously. Also, I love how the program is so current and research-based around coaching techniques and adolescent science. The YCI staff are kind and very professional. Lynn Faitrouni2025-06-30 Highly recommended! This experience was genuinely life-changing, it helped me grow in ways I didn’t expect, both personally and professionally. I felt seen, supported, and deeply encouraged every step of the way. Jeannie Sorensen2025-05-29 I just finished the Coaching Adolescents course and absolutely loved it. The scope, depth and utility of the information is outstanding and I feel far more prepared to coach youth than I did before taking the course. Thank you for putting this together in such a thoughtful, fluid way and grounding each segment in research. I will be recommending this course every chance I get! Marija Durakovich2025-05-29 The Certified Youth Resilience Coaching program has exceeded my expectations and has definitely been worth the investment. Recalling Dr. Leah's words at the start of the program that ''this program will also change you in your personal life'' I can definitely attest to that. This was my first exposure to coaching and it has solidified my plans to start a private practice coaching youth (in Europe where I reside). The YCI is in terms of professionalism, organization, feedback, and practical experience top-notch (this is coming from a person who graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and is a fanatic when it comes to loyalty, organization, and experiential learning). Tyshonna Delaney2025-05-13 My experience with The Youth Coaching Institute has been nothing short of life-changing. The training was thoughtfully designed, truly aligned with the development of coaches, and provides resources and community for coaches. The instructors were not only experts in the field, but also incredibly supportive and engaging throughout the process. I successfully and confidently completed YCI feeling fully equipped to support youth in meaningful, strengths-based ways. The community of fellow trainees was also inspiring—diverse, passionate, and deeply committed to making a difference. Whether you're new to coaching or looking to specialize in youth development, YCI is a great organization to support your goals. I highly recommend it to anyone serious about empowering the next generation. Shyla Mathews2025-04-08 I have just completed CYWC with Dr Leah and Team! Highly recommend this training if you are looking at starting your coaching journey. The pacing of the programme is well planned with all the materials prepared well and very informative. Learnt so much and Dr Leah is very responsive to all my questions. Анна Крбашян2025-03-09 I recently completed the coaching certification course, and I couldn’t be happier with my experience! Dr. Leah is an amazing instructor—professional, supportive, and incredibly knowledgeable. From the very first session, I could tell I was in good hands. The course was engaging, and I loved every minute of it, even though I wasn’t sure what to expect at first. The material was well-structured, and Dr. Leah’s teaching style made it easy to understand even complex concepts. I also appreciated the supportive learning environment, where all my questions were answered thoughtfully and thoroughly. I’m so glad I found this course and feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn from Dr. Leah. I’m excited to start my coaching journey and would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to become a certified coach!
Youth Coaching Expert Insights
Discover a library of free expert resources exploring the youth coaching landscape, the experiences of adolescents today, and opportunities to strengthen your approach.

Harnessing Academic Coaching to Foster Self-Regulated Learning

What Evidence-Based Coaching Is and Why It Works

Elevate Your Impact and Start Coaching Today
Make a positive and measurable impact with the Youth Coaching Institute. Develop your coaching skillset and begin the journey to becoming a certified youth life coach today.