coach training

The Coach Training (CT) is a course offered by The MMS Institute which trains and certifies people as MMS trained coaches. Since 1974 MMS has trained individuals and professionals from various fields worldwide.

The inner-directed training was designed primarily for those who work directly with the public, be it client, customer, patient, student, employee or peer. The information taught in the CT is critical for anyone who desires outstanding interpersonal skills. It is a three-month training program that equips people to use the in-depth questioning approach. Thus, allowing the people to find their own answers. The used Socratic approach to problem solving features eighteen key points that focus on listening skills, open-ended questions and turning visions into reality.



what is an MMS certified Coach?

An MMS Certified Coach is someone who is trained to support another person in actually getting where he is already going. It is someone who can allow another person to cut through his mind, get in touch with his inner essence and know exactly what he wants. Therefore, the coach is not an expert: he is bonded to another person and facilitating him on a journey into his inner world to find answers. An MMS Certified Coach is someone who can get out of the way and be a mirror for another person who wants to take a closer look at himself.

Our coaches are trained to facilitate a client:
- in determining what is wanted in a specific situation;
- in outlining a step-by-step plan of action for producing what is 
  wanted; and
- by supporting and encouraging the person until the objective 
  is fully realized.

The basic assumptions in the MMS coaching process are:
- people possess their own answers to their individual challenges
- people possess the personal power to cause their answers to 
  become reality
- people and organizations can have their visions, missions and goals
  become reality

The coach's role is not to 'tell', but to be a catalytic agent, encouraging another to discover answers from within. All this within an optimum climate for discovery being trust, unconditional acceptance and suspended judgment.


layout of the Coach Training
During a three-month training program, we will offer a combination of group sessions, process weekends, feedback sessions, video taped coaching sessions as well as group observation and critique. In addition participants will do self-study, read books from the reading list, watch films, etc.

During this intensive program the fundamentals of coaching, using the MMS approach will be taught. Trainings are held for a group of trainees, lead by Lynn Stewart and Chérie Carter-Scott. Participants are facilitated by local facilitators in a ratio of one facilitator for each five participants.
There are weekly assignments and some minimum homework is required. Participants are not restricted from doing more. Upon successful completion of all requirements, a diploma is awarded.

The over 180 hours of intensified training toward MMS certification are extremely valuable. Concurrently, you cannot ask of another what you are not willing to do yourself. In other words, the essence of the coaching process must be alive in your own life - those who coach with you go as far as you are willing to go.

More about the Coach Training:


what you need to know beforehand
If you are interested in participating to the Coach Training please consider the following.

Voluntary and committed
The CT is a three-month intensive program. Preceded by an intake, there will be three two-day process modules, nine afternoon sessions and three feedback evenings. You should only choose to attend if you are fully committed to exploring on your personal objectives and act upon your findings.

Intake
The CT is preceded by an intake in which you explore the issues you would like to work on. In the interview you will formulate your personal objectives for the CT. Together we will assess whether the Coach Training fits your development needs at this very moment. The intake interview will take 1,5 to 2 hours. The costs for this interview are €150, which will be deducted from the training fee when you decide to participate in the CT. Please contact us.

Your objectives
During the CT every participant will work on his or her objectives. Our working assumption is that everyone carries his or her own answers and that you are responsible for your own process. Your process is stimulated and facilitated during both group and personal sessions of your design. On top of being trained as a personal coach, you will create your own experience within the Coach Training.

Personal attention
One of the unique aspects of the CT is that participants receive highly focused personal attention. Up to every five participants will be facilitated by a professional MMS trained facilitator. In the Netherlands the CT is being lead in English by Lynn Stewart and/or Chérie Carter-Scott, supported by a team of Dutch speaking facilitators.

Venue and program
The CT's in The Netherlands are being held in a central location. The first Module of the CT starts at 18:00 hrs. on the Thursday and ends at 6 pm on the Saturday. Two overnight stays are part of the first module of the program. For a complete overview for the next CT click here.

Investment
€8.450, inclusive of all materials, two overnight stays and meals during the first module. This program is free of VAT.

Contact
Please check our schedule for the dates of the next CT or contact us for more information. The CT registrar is Lynn Stewart, who can also be reached at +31 6 509 447 40.


frequently asked questions

Q: How is The MMS Coach Training different from other Trainings?
A: The MMS Coach Training is different from other trainings in these ways:
1) The type of coaching is Transformational
2) It addresses feelings as integral to the process
3) It focuses on energy, Chakras, and flow
5) Sharing is recommended and reinforced
6) Mirrors are a fundamental part of the process
7) The MMS approach goes deeper than accountability coaching, yet not as deep as therapy.

Q: Can you tell me more about the method this training is based on?
A: The approach is Socratic in that we ask open-ended questions. They are intuitive questions that allow people to tap into their Inner Knowing or their 'answer channel'.
There are two parts to the CT: the first six weeks the focus is on the Self. The basic premise is that unless you have your life in the way you want it to be, it is difficult to support others in having their lives be the way they want them to be. In order to get there, we invite all participants to the CT to tap into their own uniqueness and find their own answers. No one else can tell you what you will uncover about yourself during the CT.
Therefore, the first half of the CT is about feathering your own nest after which you can truly be of service to other people, supporting them in getting what they want.
The second six weeks the focus is on the 'Other' and the emphasis shifts from Self to Other. Knowing what you want is you birth right. Helping people know what they want is a gift!

Q: Can you tell me more about the format of the CT?
A: We meet one afternoon every week for four hours in our classroom training session. We also have three sets of process days (Friday and Saturday), one set of process days is part of the launch of the program. We have another set in the middle between sessions 4 & 5, and another set toward the end between sessions 9 & 10. In addition, there are 'Feedback Sessions' where guests are invited to do sessions with fellow participants, and private one-on-one feedback is provided to each participant. There will be support group meetings one night every 2 weeks for small groups.

Q: Where does a participant stay?
A: People who live in the area stay at home, people who come from out of town stay in a hotel.

Q: Are lodging and meals included in the price?
A: In Europe they are for the process days at the very start of the CT only.


skills Taught in the Coach Training
To be certified as an MMS trained coach, there are subtle nuances of interpersonal interactions, which must be grasped and experienced. These levels are presented in progression, allowing each trainee to learn and integrate them organically. The skills taught in the training are outlined below.

Suspending judgement
A coach must be able to provide a judgement-free environment, one in which any thought or feeling can be expressed and any wish may be stated. While judging is a learned function of the human mind, it is necessary that a trainee begin to master the ability to:
· be aware of automatically judging people and surroundings
· become able to detach from those judgements at will

Silencing the 'voices' of the mind
This expands on step one. During the training, each person becomes more aware of the warnings, dictates, comments and editing of the mind. In order to coach, the trainee learns to silence the 'voices' of the mind, in order to ground himself and center. It is necessary to attain temporary inner peace in order to actively listen.

Focusing attention on the client
It is essential to learn how to focus one's attention. It is 'normal' to have one's attention on oneself. In a coaching session, the coach learns to instantly shift his attention from himself onto the client.

Meeting one's own need for attention
In the process of learning to shift one's attention onto another, your 'attention quotient' is revealed. It is imperative to make certain that your needs for attention, from yourself as well as from others, have been met. The trainee must feel complete within himself in order to serve another person.

Actively receive the message
Listening is not the same as hearing. The trainee must learn to actively receive the intuitive message. The coach draws communication from the client by being open and ready to receive. The intuitive channel is also open to receive non-verbal communication.

Being 'present' with another
A coach encounters the client in a moment in time and must 'be' with him moment by moment for the duration of the session. Being present means: not thinking about the past or the future, but staying aware, available, and sensitive in the here and now.

Intuiting where they are
A coach must use all possible resources to pick up clues about the client's situation. It is important to be able to use intuitive 'antennae' to determine how the client is from moment to moment. This sensitivity requires the trainee to become more and more sensitive to nuances and trusting his intuition.

Listening between the words
Listening to what is being said is half the challenge. Listening to what is not being said is the other half. Being open does not mean interpreting, assuming or judging what the client is saying. It means listening and picking up the unverbalized 'messages' that are being transmitted.

Merging energetically
Once the coach has a 'reading' on the client and can feel the energy vibration of the individual, then he can attune or adjust his energy to match and meet that of the client. This establishes a bond within which the process occurs. Mirroring the client can occur after merging.

Trusting oneself completely to be receptive
The state of receptivity is a vulnerable one. In order to catalyze and draw responses from the client, the coach must be in a state of inviolate self-trust.

Allowing questions to occur from the intuition
Energy flows between the coach and client through their dialogue. To allow the process to be fluid and organic, the questions must arise from an intuitive sense of 'rightness' rather than a rational order. The coach must listen with an inner ear in order to know the next question to ask, without altering his attention.

Remaining unattached to any result
The coach's purpose is to have the client arrive at a solution, which feels peaceful and 'right'. Paradoxically, if the coach is attached to or invested in that happening, the client is deprived of 'breathing space'. In other words, the coach must be willing for anything to happen in order for the client to arrive at a resolution. The client must feel free of the coach's expectation of 'right' or 'good'.

Feeling empathy for another's situation without 'believing' it
There are three possible positions from which to listen. One is totally discounting the worth or credibility of what another is saying - a position both dehumanizing and degrading. The opposite position is to believe and agree with everything someone says, lending power and solidity to what they say. The position a coach must take is one of empathic un-attachment. That means, communicating to the client that you understand and feel their words without discounting or believing them.

Monitoring another's progress
Throughout the coaching session, the coach must be sensitive to vibrational shifts in the client's energy. It is crucial to notice when the client is opening up, closing down, speaking honestly or saying what he thinks is the right thing to say. It is essential for the coach to constantly check-in with his own sense of 'rightness' in order to monitor his client.

Facilitating another in making a choice
Making a choice is the source of personal power; it is an active statement of 'taking charge'. It moves the individual from an affective role to a 'director' role, and allows a person to experience the dignity of freedom. The coach's primary purpose is to support the individual in moving through all of the preliminaries to the point of making a choice about the issue at hand, in order to take charge and experience self-direction.

Supporting another in devising an action plan
Once a choice has been made, it exists only in substance, in the heart and mind of the chooser. The next step is to manifest it, to bring it about on the material plane, to birth its existence. This requires a set of action steps. The coach's task is to draw out from the client those steps that will result in a materialized choice.

Completing the session to the client's satisfaction and one's own
The coach must check with the client and with himself to make certain that there is a sense of completion about the session. All loose ends must be tied up and the client needs to feel satisfied.