Becoming a dual-qualified coach

This chapter provides a detailed examination of the essential competences required for professional coaching, with a focus on their relevance and application for qualified therapists. It outlines the expectations set by major coaching professional bodies and explores how these competences support ethical, effective, and credible practice. Each competence area – from reflective practice and relational skill to contracting, facilitating insight, enabling change, and ethical integration – is explored in depth, alongside guidance on how therapists can translate existing skills into a coaching context. The chapter also reviews professional pathways into coaching, including accredited training and portfolio routes, and demystifies the role of coaching standards bodies. Through practical insights, case vignettes, and critical reflections, this chapter equips readers to assess their readiness, choose appropriate development routes, and commit to high standards of competence and professionalism as they establish themselves in the coaching field.