Parent Coaching Certification: 4 Steps to Creating Joy for Families

Start your journey toward accredited parent coaching certification today. The world needs you.

There’s a (supposed to be) funny meme that says, “Giving birth is extremely difficult and excruciatingly painful. It’s also the easiest part of parenting.” Truth be told, that’s what many people believe — because they don’t have the resources or support they need to thrive.

However, with the help of trained professionals — certified parenting coaches — who’ve done the work to learn the latest information about child development, parental support, and healthy, connection-based approaches to parenting, raising families can be joyful.

And for you — becoming a certified parent coach can open doors to a fulfilling career dedicated to helping families thrive.

In this article, we’ll explore what parent coaching is, the steps to becoming a certified parent coach, and how this certification can benefit both coaches and the families they serve.

Shortcuts:

What is a parenting coach?

Parenting coaches are highly trained professionals who are well versed in childhood development and family communication. They can be an immensely valuable resource to help improve family dynamics when families are struggling, and/or help strengthen already strong bonds.

Different from therapy, parenting coaching is a specific type of support that helps parents and other caregivers enhance families’ well-being. Parent coaches help address communication issues and tricky behaviors, and support parents with discipline strategies that do no harm.

You can watch a brief and free virtual info session here about the Peaceful Discipline parenting coach certification program and some of what makes it unique.

What is the Peaceful Discipline certification program?

Sarah R. Moore, the founder of this program, has taught thousands of parents and and has offered parent coach certification through other organizations since 2021. She has taken parenting certificate courses through various reputable sources for many years, including learning directly from Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, and studying with The Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring.

Through all this exposure to what’s available, she’s seen not only some of the best practical strategies for supporting parents and caregivers, but also what tends to fall short in family life education.

With the extensive experience she’s gained, and having certified thousands of parent coaches around the world, she’s thrilled to have created the Peaceful Discipline Parent Coaching Certification Program.

As a successful parenting coach, Sarah knows that everything she teaches must be not only 100% evidence-based, but also completely heart-centered. Parent education only “works” if it makes sense to both the head and the heart.

Her program offers exactly this combination–tools that are 100% rooted in research, but that also feel supportive emotionally. She’s never going to offer a “one size fits all” approach or make parents feel wrong for the choices they’ve made in the past.

Her parenting coach certification program takes a shame-free approach to supporting parents. Rather, she’ll empower you to work with parents’ and caregivers’ nervous systems and sense of emotional safety, to help build their trust in you–and their confidence in themselves.

She can help you be an ally, as a certified parenting coach, to support parents, educators, and other professionals to take their work with children to the next level.

Choosing the right certification program is crucial to success

While choosing to become a certified parenting coach can be a rewarding and flexible career, you need to consider many issues before selecting the right one for you, including:

• Cost
• Format
• Accreditation
• Fit with your personal values
• Reputation

The right training and certification can help you make a positive impact on families and build a successful parent coaching business. The wrong one, however, can leave you wondering why you spent all that time and money working on something that doesn’t ultimately support your goals.

The Peaceful Discipline certification program will equip you with exactly what you need to thrive — and feel great about your decision.

What makes a good parent coach?

Good parenting coaches are certified to support parents and caregivers to help them augment their parenting skills with evidence-based tools and connection-based strategies, and to address any challenges their families may be facing.

Additionally, good parenting coaches avoid offering “one size fits all” suggestions and are trained to really listen to each family’s unique needs and circumstances. They understand no two family systems are alike.

Anyone who works as a parent coach must deeply understand child development and healthy interpersonal communication skills. Parenting coaches must also know enough about various parenting theories to be able to speak to the pros and cons of each, in order to guide parents to evidence-based solutions.

Finally, they have to be able to separate their personal parenting challenges from others’ so that they can be objective and supportive during coaching sessions. They’ll support the parent-child relationship, knowing every relationship is a unique dynamic, rather than just focusing on “fixing” the child.

How to become a certified parenting coach

To receive parent coach certification, you will complete a comprehensive training program. Becoming a certified parent coach requires a balance of formal training and practical experience. Here are the four steps you’ll need:

1. Choose the Right Parent Coaching Program for YOU (and make sure it’s reputable)

What makes the Peaceful Discipline Parent Coach certification program more qualified and reputable than some others?

This program offers in-depth training, including sessions on child development, non-violent communication strategies, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and coaching techniques.

Sarah is working directly with the International Coach Federation (ICF) to help ensure her program meets global requirements for high quality support. While not specific to parent coaching, ICF-accredited programs offer a strong foundation in coaching skills that can be applied to various niches, including parenting.

This program is currently in the process of being approved for full accreditation from this “gold standard” organization.

In coaching that’s parenting-specific, the American Society for the Positive Care of Children has already fully accredited this program.

Additionally, you should know what others are saying about the program. Here are just a few examples:

“I had the privilege of being coached by Sarah, and I cannot express how much my personal and professional life was impacted by her wisdom, guidance, and expert coaching...” – Shelly Robinson, founder of Raising Yourself

“Working with Sarah R. Moore has been transformative for me as a parent coach. Her unparalleled expertise and coaching skills have not only deepened my understanding of effective coaching strategies but have also empowered me to create meaningful and lasting change in the lives of the families I work with.” – Candice Cochrane, Parents of Presence

“Sarah has left a lasting and wonderful impression on me both in my parenting and as a parent coach. She is kind, empathetic and extremely knowledgable, and knows exactly how to explain something to make it fully relatable. It was such a pleasure to be trained by her and I hope our paths cross many more times!” – Sarah D.

You can find more testimonials here about what it’s like working with Sarah, and the success her students have experienced supporting families.

2. Complete Training Hours and Coursework

When you choose the Peaceful Discipline coaching certification program, you’ll first attend the core 12-week program for parents, so you can experience parenting support from the “client” side. Each week, you’ll watch and/or listen to video and audio lectures, engage in discussion over Zoom to further internalize what you’re learning, and engage in reading and writing activities. The workload is usually between 45-90 minutes per week outside of class, plus one hour in class together.

If you haven’t already completed the core 12-week program, you can apply to join it here.

3. Gain Practical Coaching Experience

From there, you’ll attend coaching-specific training. It meets live over Zoom for one hour per week for an additional eight to ten weeks (depending on individual class needs), also with additional work outside of class (usually about two hours per week). You’ll also complete a certain number of supervised coaching hours.

This practical experience allows you to apply what you’ve learned in real-world scenarios, coaching parents and families and receiving feedback. You’ll also be able to reflect on your parent coaching experience and receive guidance in the specific areas you want to strengthen.

This step also involves online courses in addition to self-assessment tools, reading, and practicing your skills in a variety of ways. You will be exposed to current research about child development and may have supplemental reading to support your area of expertise.

The resources from which you’ll learn will include the Gottman institute, Mindsight Institute, and research from other world renowned sources.

Additionally, you’ll have access to parent assessment tools to help you determine the best ways to guide the different families you’ll serve.

Finally, you will also receive business training throughout this step.

3. Pass the Certification Exam

Step three is to pass a comprehensive exam to prove your competency not only in basic coaching skills, but also in the Peaceful Discipline model of parenting.

At this point, you will be a certified to become a parenting coach, and it’ll be time to celebrate!

4. Consider Ongoing Professional Development

From here, if you choose to pursue accreditation from the ICF above and beyond your parenting coaching certification, Sarah will help equip you to do that.

Who is your trainer and what are her qualifications?

Sarah is a certified coach and Board President for the American Society for the Positive Care of Children. She’s the founder of Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting and author of Peaceful Discipline.

You can read more about her qualifications here. Everything she teaches will be from the framework of respectful, conscious parenting.

What makes this certification program different from others?

Often, parenting coach certification programs have a strong focus on what the parent is bringing to the dynamic, but lack information about child development. Parent-centric programs sometimes fall short.

Alternatively, some parenting coach certification programs focus on trying to change a child’s behavior, but fail to address the role and triggers of the parent.

Neither of those approaches sit right with Sarah, since every relationship is a dynamic between two (or more) people.

To become a parenting coach that’s truly prepared to support families, we need to look at the relationship holistically. In Sarah’s Peaceful Discipline Parent Coaching Program, she’ll teach you how to lead coaching sessions that center around understanding what the child is needing to thrive, which helps mitigate potential behavioral issues.

She won’t stop there, though. She’ll also weave in how to support and empower the parent and look at the situation from their angle, as well.

Finally, the Peaceful Discipline Parenting Coach Certification program sets each parenting coach on a direct path to full accreditation with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Unlike most other parenting coach certifications, this path to accreditation is unique in that, once credentialed, the certified coach may be more employable than ones who lack both certification and accreditation.

Peaceful Discipline Coaching Q&A

Do I need to become accredited, or can I get just the certification?

That’s up to you! You can absolutely get just the certification. Many people successfully run a coaching business without formal accreditation.

Why is this the Peaceful Discipline intro course necessary? Are exceptions considered?

Taking the core 12-week program (coaching by Sarah) is the foundation for everything else you’ll learn in the parenting coach certification training. In coaching class, your trainer will often reference topics covered in the base coaching program, so you’ll need to have the context for what you’re learning.

Additionally, following this path helps ensure that your trainer has seen enough of your approach and understanding in action to feel comfortable certifying you to coach others.

Ongoing practice is an essential part of mastery. Even people who’ve had a longstanding coaching business can expand the types of family support they can offer.

Does a parenting coach need to have mastered their ability to parent peacefully?

No parenting coach parents perfectly. Not only does embracing your imperfections help you learn where you have room to grow in your own parenting, but it also helps you feel empathy for others who sometimes struggle.

Additionally, humility goes a long way. The parent coach experience is often stronger for working together with your clients to problem solve, rather than having “canned” answers for them.

Being a certified coach does not mean perfection on your personal parenting journey. It means you’re willing to walk the walk of personal growth, as well.

Best of all? The best way to learn better parenting skills is to teach them to others.

Do I have to have kids to be a parenting coach?

Definitely not! Many parent coaches are child-free educators, therapists, doctors, or other professionals, as well as anyone else who has a sincere interest in creating a healthier world through the way children are treated.

Is being a parenting coach a viable job option?

Coaching services are highly sought after. People will certainly continue to have children. That’s not changing. That said, parenting coaches need to be proactive about finding coaching clients and establishing a solid coaching business. Clients rarely “fall in their lap.” You’ll have to be intentional about finding clients and see what effective marketing tools will be for your particular niche.

The Peaceful Discipline parent coaching certification program will help you discover your niche and your ideal type of family to support.

How much do certified parenting coaches make?

According to Glassdoor, parenting coaches can make $79,000 to $148,000 per year, depending on their clients, offers, and other factors. (source)

What if I just want coaching for myself, but I don’t want to be a parenting coach?

No problem! We’ve got you covered. If you only want support for your own parenting, you do not need parenting coach certification.

It’s easy to sign up for the Peaceful Discipline program for personal use, rather than create a coaching business out of it. To do that, simply apply for the program here.

You will still have expert guidance with Sarah as your personal parenting coach in a small group, online setting, without going through any parenting coach certification programs.

Take what you need and leave the rest! You can also simply start with the book, mini-courses, or a masterclass.

Will you help me build my coaching business?

Yes! There will be dedicated time in the program to help you build your business.

Is this program accredited?

This program is currently in the approval process for full accreditation from the ICF. It is already fully accredited by the American Society for the Positive Care of Children.

Do other experts support this program?

These experts, among others, support this program:

• The Healing Trauma Podcast
• Kayla Tychsen, Certified Parent & Integrative Trauma Coach
• Shelly Robinson, Founder of Raising Yourself
• Dilshad, known previously as The Gentle Mamma, now the Good Enough Mamma

Will I be an accredited coach by the end of this program?

This parenting coaching certification program will put you on the path to become ICF accredited, and the ICF will have additional steps for you to take. ICF accreditation is among the most prestigious accreditations that you can pursue, so it’s a very worthwhile endeavor if you choose to pursue it.

By the end of this program, you’ll have reached another important milestone: full certification.

As a certified coach, who will my clients be?

As part of the business training program, you’ll work to discover your niche, whether it’s working with adoptive or foster parents, parents of older or younger children, grandparents, professionals in education or other fields, and almost any other specialty you can think of.

What else can I expect after a parenting coaching certification?

Often, parent coaches find that they develop healthier relationships in their own lives. If you have children, you’ll regularly be reinforcing what you know about best practices, and preparing yourself for the ages and stages to come.

Additionally, beyond your relationships with your children, you may also notice healthier relationships with others in your lives. With the emphasis on active listening and non-violent communication, you may grow your skills in conflict management, patience, curiosity, and connection.

Many families benefit in a multitude of ways beyond the obvious.

What does this program cost?

This program costs $2750, but we’re (very) temporarily offering an introductory rate of $1750. We’ve done everything we can to keep it among the most competitive programs available, with all the same perks as many of the more costly programs – and often more.

What are the best parenting coach certifications?

Each parent coach certification program is different, just like each family is different, so there’s no one “right” organization to choose when you’re looking for the best parenting coach certifications. Other organizations to consider are the Parent Coaching Institute (PCI) (comprehensive training in conscious parenting along with business development) and Connected Families / Connected Families Parent Coach (conscious parenting tied to biblical principles).

Parents have also found other coaching organizations beyond these, and all have pros and cons. We firmly believe the Peaceful Discipline program is the best of all worlds.

To enjoy what you do long-term once becoming a parenting coach, choose a program that balances your personal values and your beliefs, along with with your budget, time involved, and goals for your family.

Do ensure that the program you choose is evidence-based so that when your future clients get curious about your resources, you have full confidence in pointing them to where and how you learned what you know.

Conclusion

It’s true that every parent questions themselves sometimes, gets frustrated, and does their best to navigate all the complexities of raising children. With your help, however, parents can raise emotionally healthier, happier, connected families.

The Peaceful Discipline program will equip you with the knowledge, tools, and resources you need to thrive not only as a coach, but also within your own family. Through this important work, you’ll be changing the world for the better.