Most association members have completed the “Systemic Coach” training basis. The systemic coaching approach means that people are part of a system and must therefore be seen in an interdisciplinary way, in connection with other influencing factors such as the environment and other people.

Training duration: 24 days of 8 hours each

As an expert coach, a CEE member has specialized professionally. In addition to the basic training as a systemic coach, there is further specialist training – for example as a job coach or career coach. This results in a change of status from systemic coach to expert coach

Training duration: 8 days of 8 hours each

A systemic coach who has completed two additional specialized trainings (for example job and career coach plus energetic coach) is categorized as a master coach in the CEE. The specialist training courses may also have been completed at other training institutes. The recognition of such trainings takes place in a personal interview with CEE teaching coaches and, if necessary, through live coaching with subsequent appreciative feedback.

A master coach can attain the status of CEE specialist coach after several years of professional practice. The specialist coach is entitled to offer training courses in his/her specialist area.

A Master Coach in the CEE can be certified as a CEE teaching coach after several years of teaching and fulfilling the certification requirements.

Members of the CEE (both regular and supporting members) benefit from a wide range of further training opportunities. Depending on the interests of the members (which are asked about at the general meetings, for example), lectures, one-day or multi-day workshops and free information evenings are organized to focus on new approaches and developments. It is about new coaching tools, getting to know exciting coaches and therapists and presenting successful coaching processes. All of this with a view to ensuring consistently high coaching quality.

Once a year, the CEE’s 3-day annual conference takes place outside Münster in a quiet, attractive setting with overnight accommodation. It is easy to reach for all members, even those living further away. By registering in advance for the annual conference, members have the opportunity to take part in thematically appropriate and pre-determined further training courses.

To ensure the quality of CEE coaches, they must undergo a recertification process twice every three years and then every five years. This consists of live coaching or a specialist seminar and is organized by the CEE. Through live coaching with a “real client”, the coach should demonstrate that they are able to implement the criteria of the CEE quality guidelines in practice. The examination team evaluates the quality of the structure, processes and results.

Live coaching sessions or the coaching activity in the specialist seminar are approved by two CEE teaching coaches (examination team) as part of recertification up to and including the Master Coach level. Recertifications of teaching coaches/teaching trainers and auditors are approved by an external auditor and a CEE auditor.

A live coaching session lasts approx. 30 minutes. There is also time for appreciative, detailed feedback. Absolute confidentiality applies to all live coaching sessions with regard to the content of the coaching in order to ensure the protection of the “real client”.

The requirements for live coaching sessions mentioned here also apply to final testing within training courses.
The CEE certification guidelines explicitly regulate the criteria for conducting live coaching sessions under IV.

A member certified as a coach has the option of having their own training courses certified by the CEE. The prerequisite for this is that a written training concept (content, number of modules, target group, proposal for the amount of training costs) is submitted and proof of qualification as a teaching coach/teaching trainer or specialist coach is provided. If these conditions are met, the training can be certified by the CEE Board by paying a one-off fee of EUR 50. Participants trained by a certified teaching coach/teaching trainer or specialist coach receive a certificate with the CEE seal at the end of the training.

In 2009, I was at a turning point in my professional life. I had let my freelance tax consultancy work dry up as I was feeling increasingly exhausted. I sought professional support in this difficult life situation. I still remember the inspiring conversation when, together with my coach, I mentally pictured all my possible new career aspirations. And suddenly it was clear that I wanted to develop in the direction of coaching. The word was like a spark. With my degree in business administration and years of consulting experience, I still lacked the psychological knowledge to professionally help people in situations of personal or professional upheaval. I could have enrolled at a university and started studying psychology. I quickly abandoned this plan because I wanted to learn the subject matter in a more practical and direct way by experiencing real human crisis situations. A systemic coaching course seemed more suitable to me.

I looked around on the internet to see where and who offers coaching courses. I was based in NRW and rather by chance discovered the JobCoach team in Münster, which offered CEE-certified systemic coaching training. I was particularly attracted by the fact that the trainers offered close support in small training groups. In addition, it became clear during the personal intake interview that each training module included mindful live coaching sessions with “real clients”. This practical approach particularly appealed to me, as my desire to become self-employed in systemic coaching grew ever stronger.

After completing my 24-day training, which was spread over more than a year, I held my certificate as a systemic coach (CEE certified) in my hands. From the very beginning, the exchange of ideas and the opportunity to join forces with colleagues for intervision or supervision was very important to me. The formation of peer groups was also helpful. After all, everyone undergoes essential personal development during such training. A term paper and topic presentation to the training group rounded off the basic training.

During the CEE-certified training, we came into contact with many methods and psychological specialist areas (e.g. non-violent communication, bodywork according to Peter Levine, organizational constellations, family biographical work …). I felt, especially during the training module on family biographical work, that this was an area I wanted to know and experience more about. The specialist lecturer for this subject offered further specialist modules, so that after completing my systemic coaching training I immediately took these further family biography modules, took part in shadowing sessions and was thus able to expand my knowledge in a practical way.

Finally, after this family biography “expert” training, I also took an exam here in front of the CEE examination board in the form of a live coaching session, among other things. This was also an important reason why I decided to join the CEE.

By paying the admission fee of EUR 75 (CEE-certified training as a systemic coach), accepting the values guidelines, reviewing the certification guidelines, statutes and providing my personal contact details, I was admitted to the association as a so-called ordinary member with the basic status of “systemic coach”. As my training was conducted by CEE teaching coaches, the admission process was very simple. The successful completion of a CEE-certified training course was, so to speak, the entry ticket to the association.

I changed my status from systemic coach to expert coach after successfully completing the eight-day additional training course in family biographical coaching. This change of status resulted in an increase in the annual membership fee from EUR 120 to EUR 150.

The further change of status to specialist coach entitles me to offer an 8-day specialist training course in family biographical coaching. The training concept has been approved and checked by the board so that the training participants can be certified after successful completion. The membership fee as a specialist coach is EUR 180.00.

Even though I am one of a minority of expert coaches in the CEE with my additional family biography qualification, I enjoy the fact that we have so many other expert coaches with other specialist areas (e.g. JobCoach or Energetic Coach). Everyone has different special skills that help us to complement each other well in our areas of expertise.

Fortunately, my wish to start my own business with systemic coaching has long since been fulfilled. For me, being a member of our association is like a “nice back-up”. Whenever it makes sense to me, I can exchange ideas with colleagues by email, phone or in person. There is a lot of scope to intensify the relationship with certain specialist colleagues through the association’s internal meetings. This makes me feel valued in a good way in my independent work as a specialist colleague. And the diversity – i.e. the different specialist areas of my CEE colleagues (from advertising agency, teaching coach, resilience expert, job coach …) – helps in many a tricky situation when quick advice is needed.

In the first few years of self-employment, recommendations from colleagues also helped me, so that clients became aware of me.

To ensure that we CEE coaches can provide consistently high quality coaching, I have had myself recertified every three years. I completed a live coaching session with a coachee (real client) followed by appreciative feedback from the team of examiners in front of a panel of two to three examiners.