Creativity Coaching Online Certification Program

The Creativity Coaching Association is now offering a professional online Creativity Coaching Certification Program, through which anyone interested in creativity coaching can become certified under the auspices of the Creativity Coaching Association. This certification is earned by fulfilling a range of requirements and classes that are conducted over the Internet and by phone. No in-person time is required. The program can be completed in 12-18 months at a cost of approximately $2900.

This certification program has been developed to answer the needs of a growing creativity coaching profession. As more and more people enter the profession, it is clear that developing coaching standards provides increased confidence and professionalism among coaches as well assures the public that coaches have mastered their skills.

If you are interested in this program, please review the course requirements below. You can enroll in any course listed below by clicking on the Enroll link next to the course. Note also that you must declare candidacy at some point during the program. You can declare your candidacy in advance and save on the fees for some of the courses, or you can wait until you have taken some courses. But you MUST declare candidacy before taking the Supervised Coaching class. If you want to declare candidacy now, click below. Declare Candidacy Now |

Exciting News! You Can Earn CEU Credits for MFTs, LCSWs, and RNs with the CCA Certification Program All courses in the CCA Creativity Coaching Certification program are eligible for Continuing Education credit (CEUs) for MFTs, LCSWs, and RNs in the state of California and in other states that grant reciprocity with California CEUs. (Please consult your state’s regulations.) There is an additional fee of only $50 for adding CEU credit to each course.

Five Certification Requirements

See frequently asked questions further down on this page.

I. FOUR TRAINING COURSES, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:
Note: All of these courses are available to anyone; you do not need to be in the certification program to take these courses. These four training courses do not need to be taken in the order listed below -- they can be taken in any order. You may declare your candidacy for certification before, during, or after taking these courses, though some courses have reduced fees for those who declare their candidacy for certification in advance of taking the class.

1. Basic Coaching Training Course
   Eric's Maisel’s 16-week online Introduction to Creativity Training (or an equivalent). Class Fee: Basic course fee = $475. Next session is on June 7, 2010 and September 6, 2010. (Pay Eric Maisel directly).
   Course Details and Enrollment information
   
   

   Earn CEU Credit for This Course — This course meets the qualifications for 16 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 16 contact hours, Provider #13577.

   
   
2. Advanced Creativity Coaching Training: Coaching Writers, Visual Artists, and Performers is a 16-week email-based training for coaches and other helping professionals who want to learn how to effectively coach writers, visual artists and performers. Participants learn the common challenges that writers, visual artists and performers face and how to effectively help them (and help themselves) meet those challenges. Class Fee: Advanced course fee = $475. Next session is on February 8, 2010 and September 6, 2010. (Pay Eric Maisel directly).
   Course Details and Enrollment information
   
   

   Earn CEU Credit for These Courses — Each of these three courses meets the qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 12 contact hours, Provider #13577.

   
   
3. Building the Coaching Relationship with Creative Clients - Begins Wednesday October 13, 2010 12:00-1:00 PM or 7:00-8:00 PM EST
   Enroll Now |
   This teleclass focuses on the coaching skills useful for working with artist clients and the particular accountability and relationship issues encountered. The elements and stages of creativity are paired with specific coaching skills whether your prior experience has been as an artist, coach, therapist, or none of the above. Exercises for practice between sessions can be adapted to your own coaching of individuals or groups, and in various formats (e-mail, telephone, video, live). Click here for detailed course description further down on this page

   Instructor: Note: This October 2010 class will be taught by Beverly Down, Certified Creativity Coach and CCA President and Susan Borkin, M.A., Licensed Psychotherapist, Creativity Coach. For more information, email Beverly at publisher@creativitycoachingassociation.com
   
   Schedule: The teleclass takes 9 weeks spread out over 10 weeks. The teleclass is on Wednesdays with class dates of October 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10, 17 (skip one week), December 1, 8 and 15, 2010.. This class is being offered at 7:00-8:00 PM EST. You are given a phoneline to call to participate in the telecourse.
   
   Class Fee: $500 (declared candidates) / $550 (others) plus your own telephone charges for the bridgeline calls.
   
   

   Earn CEU Credit for This Course — This course meets the qualifications for 9 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 9 contact hours, Provider #13577.

   
   
4. Business Planning and Success Strategies for Creativity Coaches - Begins Thursday January 13, 2011 1:00-2:00 PM or 7:00- 8:00 PM EST
   Enroll Now |
   This is a combined online/teleclass course devoted to teaching candidates how to develop a successful coaching practice.The class is highly interactive, with participants sharing information and each person developing a personalized marketing plan for his or her own coaching practice. There will be homework assigned by e-mail each week after each teleclass. Participants will be expected to actively set business goals and complete specific ongoing assignments in order to meet the requirements for completion. Click here for detailed course description further down on this page

   Instructor: The class is taught Gail McMeekin, LICSW, owner of Creative Success, LLC in Boston. Gail has been a successful coach and consultant for over 30 years with specialties in career and creativity coaching. She is the author of several acclaimed books.
   
   Schedule: This class will take place for 8 weeks spread over 9 weeks. The class is on Thursdays, January 13, 20, 27, February 3, 10, 17, (skip one week), March 3 and 10, 2011. This class is offered at 1:00-2:00 PM or 7:00- 8:00 PM EST. Each class consists of a one hour long teleclass via bridgeline.
   
   Class Fee: $500 (declared candidates) / $550 (others) plus your own telephone charges for the bridgeline calls.
   
   

   Earn CEU Credit for This Course — This course meets the qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 8 contact hours, Provider #13577.

II. FIVE HOURS OF SUPERVISED COACHING
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The candidate will select a preceptor coach from among a list of experienced creativity coaches approved by CCA. The preceptor will discuss the candidate's coaching of clients in detail over 5 hours of time via phone calls to enhance the candidate's skills and review coaching style and approaches with clients. Fee: $500

III. COMPLETION OF A READING LIST
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The candidate will select five books from the approved reading list established by CCA of the most important books in creativity. For each book, the candidate will write a brief review and commentary focusing on how the book affects their coaching and thinking about creativity. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure the candidate is familiar with important literature on creativity and to broaden the candidate’s perspectives and knowledge. Fee: $250

IV. 100 HOURS OF COACHING CONTACT

The candidate will keep a record on the CCA-approved form (to be sent when you enroll in candidacy) indicating that the candidate has accomplished a minimum of 100 hours of client contact, which may include student coaching during the training classes. Email certification@creativitycoachingassociation.com to obtain the official log form you must use to keep track of your coaching hours.

V. AGREEMENT TO A STATEMENT OF ETHICS

The candidate will sign a statement of ethics and business practices to which he or she will abide in practicing creativity coaching.

Credit for Prior Work
The Basic Training, advanced courses, and 100 hours of client contact may be granted retroactively based on prior trainings and coaching experience, upon approval of the instructors. .

Fees
The Total cost of the program is $2900 for declared candidates, based on fees in 2006. This cost includes the declaration of candidacy fee, plus the two courses offered by Eric Maisel and the courses taught by Diane Reardon and Gail McMeekin, plus all other elements of the program. Enrollment and fees for Eric Maisel's classes are handled via his web site. All other enrollments and fees may be paid on the CCA Enrollment page.

Note: You may declare candidacy at any time before, during, or after taking four courses, but candidacy must be declared before taking the Supervised Coaching course. Fees for the two advanced courses from Diane Reardon and Gail McMeekin are discounted for declared candidates.

Membership Dues
The Candidate must remain an active paid member of CCA during the time in which he or she seeks certification.

Time Frame
Once a candidate declares candidacy, he or she must complete the remaining requirements within a period of two years.

Additional Benefits
Certified coaches will receive the following additional benefits:

1. A special listing in the database of coaches available to the public on the CCA web site; these special listings will be reserved for Certified coaches.
   
   
2. A promotional announcement of the candidate's business in the CCA newsletter in the month following their certification.
   
   
3. The opportunity to offer Master Workshops to the public using the CCA web site for promoting your workshop and setting up the course via online and/or teleclass.
   
   

Detailed Course Descriptions

Building the Coaching Relationship with Creative Clients

Enroll Now

Taught by Beverly Down, CCA President and Susan Borkin, M.A., Licensed Psychotherapist

Earn CEU Credit for This Course This course meets the qualifications for 9 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 9 contact hours, Provider #13577. (Note: If you are located in another state, check with your state’s regulations if this course qualifies for you.)

This teleclass focuses on the coaching skills useful for working with artist clients and the particular accountability and relationship issues encountered. The elements and stages of creativity are paired with specific coaching skills whether your prior experience has been as an artist, coach, therapist, or none of the above. Exercises for practice between sessions can be adapted to your own coaching of individuals or groups, and in various formats (e-mail, telephone, video, live).

Session notes are e-mailed out following each session and include reading and website resources. Participants do the exercises around their creative work as an artist or around creating a coaching practice. Interactive work is done with other class members.

How does this work on the phone? Easier than you might think.

Once everyone on the call checks in, the coach guides the discussion. Each person simply says their name before they start talking. Generally groups run between 5 and 10 people. We quickly learn to tell who is who by voice and when several people talk at once, the coach plays traffic director for a moment. Before long, the normal pattern of people who are interested in the same things and excited about what they are doing takes over; laughter and sharing of setbacks and milestones weave through the material covered. E-mail is used to communicate with the coach and encouraged among group members.

Course Outline

The course consists of 5 modules with 9 sessions as follows:

I. Developing Clarity

Session 1. Developing the Vision. Help your clients discover where they want to go. Coaching tools are introduced for deciding where coaching is to begin, distinguishing it from mentoring and therapy, and structuring the format of coaching sessions. We review the use of open-ended questions and guided imagery as useful for creativity coaching.

Session 2. Goals. We will discuss when and how to help artists get specific about short-term goals. Several goal-setting models are presented and related to the coaching guideline of “don’t fix, don’t tell.” Best uses of closed questions and active listening in coaching are covered.

II. Identifying Client’s Unique Creative Patterns

Session 3. Creative styles. This session presents different sensory styles (visual, auditory, etc.) and basic personality types (Meyers Briggs) as they affect an artist’s work. As coaches, you will learn your own styles, to heighten awareness of potential biases, and ways to adjust your styles to work with varied clients.

Session 4. Identifying and Maximizing Your Client’s Strengths. We look at ways to help artists identify and build on their values and strengths, in both their general creativity and their specific medium. Resources from the field of positive psychology are considered as well as exceptions to this approach. Coaches’ styles of positive feedback are identified.

III. Developing Work Rhythms in Your Clients

Session 5. Energy Management. The basics of time management and creating a working environment are viewed in light of the particular sensitivities of artists. We examine how coaches can use record-keeping to support the accountability and momentum that coaching provides.

Session 6. Handling Distractions. This session reviews how to help artists discriminate between distractions that lead to new directions and those that are a form of procrastination or soft addictions. The skills used by people with attention deficit disorders are adapted to the creative process.

IV. Ways to Find Connections

Session 7. Classes, mentors, models, and peers. We will explore some of the difficulties in finding the right kind of support to reduce artists’ isolation: balancing positive and negative feedback, handling competition, refining the people skills needed to comfortably set limits with others.

Coaches’ handling of confidentiality and boundaries reviewed as a model for how clients set boundaries.

Session 8. Audiences and Critics, inner and outer. This session explores how artists can and transform criticism and negative self-talk into resiliency and renewed motivation. We look at how rituals for both acceptance and rejection can smooth out artists’ reactions. How coaches can use challenges and “interruptions” to refocus clients is detailed.

V. Deepening the Sources

Session 9. Renewing the Vision. This session focuses on supporting clients into the unknown. We explore helping artists access dreams, spiritual support, and other intuitive guidance. The timing and use of artists’ journals as a form of self-coaching is explored.

About the Teacher

This April 2010 class will be taught by Beverly Down, Certified Creativity Coach and CCA President & Susan Borkin, M.A., Licensed Psychotherapist, Creativity Coach and Author. For more information, email Beverly at publisher@creativitycoachingassociation.com

Course

Business Planning and Success Strategies for Creativity Coaches

Enroll Now

Taught by Gail McMeekin

Earn CEU Credit for This Course This course meets the qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for MFT's and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences through the Pine Mountain Institute, Provider #2309 and for RN’s: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses for 8 contact hours, Provider #13577. (Note: If you are located in another state, check with your state’s regulations if this course qualifies for you.)

Overview

Becoming a successful coaching professional with a specialty in creativity requires your own creative problem-solving and originality! Creativity coaching is still seen as a new profession and therefore you need to clearly communicate your talents in order to inspire clients to work with you. In this 2 month group teleclass coaching program, you will learn the building blocks for establishing a full or part-time practice in balance with your own creative projects and interests. You will learn to vision and attain your business goals and develop your own personal workstyle and marketing strategies that tap into your greatest strengths and facilitates new skill development.

SUCCESS STRATEGIES AND MARKETING PLANNING OVERVIEW FOR CREATIVITY COACHES  

Session One. Introductions

• Assessment of the Individual Needs of Students to Customize Classes
  
• Overview of Practice Building Process and Marketing Planning
  
• Your Business as Creative Self-Expression

Session Two.

• Sharing of Mission Statements
• Marketing Challenges Specific to Coaches
• Applying Your Strengths to Your Business

Session Three

• 30 Second Commercials for Networking
  
• Identifying Your Target Market and Their Needs
  
• Designing Programs to Resolve the Challenges of our Clients

  Session Four

• Website Essentials I
  
• Design and Goals
  
• Merchant Accounts
  
• Blogs, E-Zines, List Building, Traffic  

  Session Five

• Web Essentials II
  
• Product Development
  
• Social Media
  
• Affiliate and Referral Marketing
  
• Joint Ventures  

  Session Six

• Preparing for Speaking, Workshops, Teleclasses, Webinars, Coaching Groups, Special Programs
  Promotion Options  

  Session Seven

• Print and Media Options
  
• Media Webpages and Press Kits
  
• Relationships with Journalists  

  Session Eight

• Radio and Television Opportunities and Tips
  
• Review of Marketing Plan Action Steps for the Future

Facilitator

Gail McMeekin, LICSW, is the owner of Creative Success, LLC in Boston and has been a coach and a consultant for over 30 years with specialties in career and creativity coaching and is the author of the acclaimed books The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor and The Power of Positive Choices, both with Conari Press. Her work has been featured in major media ranging from Redbook to Investor’s Business Daily and she publishes a monthly newsletter called Creative Success at her website: www.creativesuccess.com. Gail has an M.S.W. from Boston University and is a licensed psychotherapist, earned a certificate in Human Resource Management from Bentley College, and completed the coursework at the Coaches Training Institute. She is a member of the International Coach Federation and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

The above description of requirements for the Creativity Coaching Certification Program is subject to change as needed to accommodate expanded course offerings and schedule flexibility.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Program

I am very interested in the Certification Program. Do I need to declare my candidacy right away?

No, you can take any of the formal classes and the Reading List element without declaring your candidacy. The classes are open to CCA member coaches at any time. You simply sign up for the classes and pay for each one as you go. For some classes, there is a discounted fee for people who have declared their candidacy though.

However, you must declare candidacy before doing the Supervised Coaching element, the Project element, and of course, the final interview component.

Can I take any class I want without being in the program?

Yes, the formal classes are open to CCA member coaches at any time.

Is there an order in which to take classes?

There is no sequence for taking the classes -- you may take the classes in any sequence that you want. To discuss the best plan for you, please email Bev Down at certification@creativitycoachingassociation.com to discuss further.

Do courses I’ve taken with Eric Maisel in the past count toward certification?

Yes, if you’ve taken other courses with Eric in the past, such as the Introduction to Creativity or the Advanced Creativity Coaching course, these will count towards your certification.

Can you overlap classes, i.e., take more than one class at a time?

Yes, you can overlap classes. Because of the number of classes that we need to offer, it may inevitable that you will be finishing one class when another one starts. Please contact us at certification@creativitycoachingassociation.com with any questions regarding timing of the classes.

What if I sign up for a class and it is cancelled?

If a class is cancelled for lack of minimum number of students, we will refund your fee or apply it to another class.

Can I use a cell phone to take the teleclasses?

Apparently, cell phones do not work well when taking teleclasses. They create static on the bridge call for others. It is recommended that you plan to take any teleclass using a land line.

Will I receive a confirmation of registration?

Yes, we will email you once we have received your payment.

Is there a contact to discuss the courses, timing, projects, etc.?

Please send an email to certification@creativitycoachingassociation.com about any questions you have on the CCA program.

Why is there a requirement that the program be completed within 2 years from the date of candidacy declaration?

The two year time frame is a guideline to help you stay motivated. We will be flexible if a candidate is earnestly trying to complete the certification but can't quite do it in two years because of personal, family, or other significant conflicts.

For the Reading element of the program, does the cost include the books or are they an additional purchase?

No, the cost of the reading portion does not include the books.

What is the goal of the Reading program and what are the study guides?

The reading program is intended to provide candidates with a solid background in the literature of creativity. Being familiar with a wide range of books on creativity will build your knowledge of creativity issues and vocabulary, as well as enhance your work as a coach. The study guides for each book you select are intended to draw your attention to various themes and vocabulary in the book and to provide questions for you to reflect on to develop your coaching skills.