¶ … woman I interviewed seemed the consummate professional who valued a good education. She in her second reply discussed the PCI (Parent Coaching Institute) in Bellevue, WA. She stated PCI was the only institute to her knowledge that offered proper certification for a parent coach. This is an important bit of information because most who want to be certified parent coaches assume any training will allow them to achieve certification. She also described the process and the availability of distance learning which makes it seem like a flexible way to learn.
Being passionate, something she appears to be, is important in pursuing anything in life, especially anything that is uncertain like a new career. It is not easy, what she does. She has to put in many hours of coaching, 500 to be exact, in order to qualify. She even did pro-bono coaching, which was coaching for free. Another great gem from her interview were the different qualities she felt made the best parent coach. Some of which could be applied to any career avenue: good listener, creative thinker, straight forward, and confident.
Like with any job, come the likes and dislike and her enjoyment from her career comes...
The worst would have to be not finding work outside of self-employment when deciding to be a parent coach. This goes into finding work in the public sector, parent coaching is more for educating parents, and not really as a versatile career path that can take someone to different fields and avenues. The best advice she gave for someone wishing to pursue the same kind of job is to get proper accreditation.
Taking away from the interview was her confidence and passion. In anything that requires patience and compassion, like parent coaching, one has to truly love what they are doing to pursue such a "private" job. It's the responsibility of the parent coach to not only educate, but also mediate and observe. Her responses gave me deep insight into how hard it is to not only be a parent coach, but also becoming one.
Paraphrased answer #1
My child was…
