The BALM Blog
See all postsDecisions, Decisions!
Decisions, Decisions!
I remember when I was trying to figure out whether or not to sign up for coach training. Admissions Reps called me almost daily to discuss the pros and cons, my husband weighed in on how expensive it was, my stepson let me know his thoughts on my career change…and as for me, I just knew it was time for a change away from someone else’s office (even though it had my name on it) and into my own.
I just knew I wanted to work from home and not commute anymore.
I felt drawn to this mysterious new career path that, even in 2008, appeared to be taking over the world of helping professionals…
And Questions
Yet, I had so many questions…
• Would I be able to earn back the money I had invested? (I did, many times over)
• Would I be able to get clients? (yes, so many I have hired additional coaches to work with them)
• Would I be able to coach? (I practiced and was and am able to)
• Would I be able to make a sustainable income? (Indeed, and I have taught and watched those around me do so as well…)
After several weeks of exploration and conversations around the topic, I jumped in and got started.
Transition and Transformation
It turned out that coach training was a great place to experience my own transition as we were learning a career path designed to help people gracefully transition in their own lives. At the time I entered, however, we had an additional challenge in our home: My husband was on the tail end of a five year relapse and our marriage felt fragile, as did I. Three months in, he entered treatment and I had the loving arms of my cohort of trainees and teachers to help me get through the rocky path I was on. They caught me and held me up. They were there. I was not alone.
At the same time, things were a bit different in that coaching school. It was a straight life coaching school and I was going through the challenges of co-addiction and potential marital collapse from the effects of our family struggle.
Today, when people consider the BALM Training Institute for Family Recovery Services, they often, though not always, currently have or have had active addiction in their home. When those who are going through current SUD or mental health trauma at home, they fall into the loving and knowledgeable arms of coaches, trainees, and the BALM faculty and even the curriculum itself. There is no shame about what’s going on at home. No need to hide from those who understand, often without a word shared.
One of my joyful experiences as the founder of BTI, is the notes and calls I receive from graduates about their experiences of not only career transformation, but personal transformation as a result of going through the powerful family recovery and coach training curricula.
We are an inside-out school, meaning, we see coaching, recovery, and life as an inside job. The first Component of the program is all about family recovery. It gives students an opportunity to dive into family recovery head first, discovering their own ability to Be the Peace, find inner clarity, and learn how to take responsibility only for their part in the challenges facing their families. On that basis, they grow their ability to help others find their own inner strength and inner knowing.
I’ll never forget the student who joined the program only to help others and found, within a month of starting, that the active SUD in her own family was not only worse than she had previously admitted, but, with the help of the BALM and the BALM coach she soon hired, far more able to be improved and healed than she had ever really imagined.
This idea of people coming for professional training and getting a bonus of personal transformation is part and parcel of any excellent ICF-ACTP (International Coach Federation Accredited Coach Training Program). But at the BALM Training Institute, trainees planning to learn how to help families heal from the scourge of SUD or mental health challenges, find they too can be healed, and the BALM holds one of the main keys to their healing journey – and often to that of their loved one and other family members.
Family and Career; Career and Family
It is not uncommon for a mom to become a BALM coach and her adult son in recovery to follow along, or a wife to go first and her husband to follow. And then family recovery begins to take root in an even more powerful way as members of the family share the same language of love and connection learned in the BALM.
Becoming a life coach is a career worth pursuing. Becoming a BALM Family Recovery Life Coach is a journey of love, connection, and communication that often appears to have a multi-generational effect; often started by one member and spread throughout the entire family.
Peace, love, and connection are like that. They fill a family in the same way that light replaces the darkness and water quenches thirst.
So, if you are someone impacted by your own or a loved one’s struggles, and you want to become a coach, join us, and watch yourself grow as you impact the transformation of the families you coach in the years ahead.
Still Have Questions?
We love questions! Call us today at 1-888-998-2256 Ext 5 and we’ll answer your questions and get you signed up!