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It is officially the beginning of the holiday season! We all enter the holiday season in our own unique ways. For some decorations are up and on full display in November, with many gifts and family abound, and for others the holiday season is ushered in more slowly with simple decorations and the company of a few close loved ones. And for some, this holiday season is not something you hang out with. Late December simply marks the close of a year.   

This time of year gives us a chance to reflect on where we’ve been the last twelve months, and to celebrate the many positive moments we’ve experienced and enjoyed. Exploring and cherishing these moments feels particularly important this year given the demands of the last few years where, across the globe, we’ve all had to make significant adjustments in our personal and professional lives.

And so, as we enter this time, we’ve decided to pause, to take some time to explore, to ponder, and to take stock of these last few years within ICC. We’ve opted to lean in and see how much we have to be grateful for, and what we want to celebrate. We have been challenged during these times, but for right now we would like to spread some ‘good cheer’ by sharing some of our highlights with you!

These past few years we’ve worked diligently to transition all three of our Integral Coach™ Certification (ICCP) Modules and our 3-day Fundamentals course to fully online formats for the first time in our history. This has been a co-creative process with input from our amazing Co-Founders (Laura Divine and Joanne Hunt), from the ICC team, from our teachers, and through feedback from our students. This collective contribution enabled us to shift our training online without compromising quality and to continue to make well thought out incremental changes to support our student experience, which matters deeply to us. We are grateful to our whole ICC team, teaching team, and to all our students for making this possible. Thank you!

What else do we have to celebrate and be grateful for? Well, LOTS!

GROWTH

Since 2018, we’ve seen a 40% increase in the number of students registered in our training, which has resulted in our graduate community of Integral Coaches™ growing by that percentage since 2018.

To continue to offer excellent care and support to our growing community of students and graduates, our core team has grown 33% since 2018.

We continue to hear from students and graduates about what a positive difference our courses and the Integral Coaching® Method has made in their lives and the lives of their clients. It warms our hearts and energizes us to see more and more people around the world engaging with the transformative potentials of ICC training. Thank you for entrusting us with your Integral Coaching® Development!

GREATER ACCESSIBILITY

Moving our courses online has also made them considerably more accessible to students from around the world for whom travel and accommodations in Ottawa, Amsterdam, or Vancouver was a significant barrier. Our recent November 2021 Master Certification Module included 20 students from 10 different countries across 3 continents!

We believe greater diversity and inclusiveness within our community will enrich us through access to a wider range of perspectives and lived experiences and will help alleviate suffering for wider ranges of people and communities. And so, in mid-2021 we took some initial steps to foster greater diversity in our community of graduates which was made possible through our partnership and collaboration with the Calling our Circle team, a group of experienced Integral Coaches™ who recently led an online retreat-style gathering for the Integral Coaching® Community of coaches.

Through this partnership, a scholarship fund was established for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) students interested in beginning or advancing their Integral Coach™ training. Since then, two scholarships have been awarded to BIPOC students from the fund. The Calling our Circle team has also let us know that another scholarship is currently in the works through additional contributions from Integral Coaching® graduates in our coaching community and from the European Consortium of Integral Coaches™ (ECOIC).

I am deeply grateful to the Calling our Circle team, our graduate community, ECOIC members and the ICC team for making this possible. We are honoured to be of service to a broader community of developing coaches.

WHAT HAS REMAINED THE SAME

In the midst of these necessary adjustments and positive changes, it’s also been moving to reflect upon, and share with you, what has remained consistent within ICC:

• The Core team remains an experienced and enthusiastic group of skillful and loving beings: Linda has been with the team for 17 years; I (Val) have been here for 13 years; Diana has been with us for 8 years; Susan has worked for ICC for 5 years; Taylor has worked with us for 2.5 years; and Michael who has been helping us out since mid-2018, just completed his first year as a permanent member of the team.
• Through this dedicated team, we have been able to maintain our personal touch and exceptional level of service in all our interactions with students and our community.
• Our commitment to exceptional quality of offerings is as strong as ever.
• Our courses continue to provide the delicate balance of support and challenge in the right places that allows for the growth and development of our students, no matter the medium they are taught in.

OUR ROOTS

“No matter who the faculty are, or where the course will be taught, students will get the same quality, value, and content of the training.”

                                                                    ~ICC Co-Founder, Laura Divine

No reflection on where ICC is, and where it has been, can be complete without the honouring of our Co-Founders, Laura and Joanne, the women behind ICC and the roots of this lineage. These are two precious and gifted human beings who’ve given so much of themselves over the years to this company, to our team, and to this community through all that life has brought their way. Their efforts and wisdom have impacted so many people in many, many ways. What a privilege for all of us who have trained in this school, and under the lineage. Thank you, Joanne and Laura, we love you!

Keep your eyes open for a New Year blog from Laura and Joanne in January which includes an intimate sharing of this past year as they’ve lived with the realities of Laura’s terminal cancer diagnosis and what this has taught them about hope. So please keep your eyes open for that shortly into the New Year.  

It’s been a joy to take this time and reflect back on these last few years and we thank you for listening and sharing in this with us! And most of all, thank you for your interest in, and engagement with, ICC.

If you’ve taken a class with us, it’s been a pleasure to have you in our classroom, whether it’s been in our recent virtual classrooms or our previous in-person classrooms.

If you’ve liked or shared one of our posts, we’ve appreciated you spreading the word about ICC and letting us know our message resonates with you.

If you’ve simply read one of our emails or posts out of curiosity, we appreciate your interest and the gift of your attention for a few minutes.

We hope you are looking forward to the start of 2022 and for those of you that celebrate this holiday season, we hope the next few weeks will be spent with loved ones and will bring you much joy. And for those who do not celebrate the holidays at this time of year, may the weeks ahead bring you exactly what you most desire.

May we all have a wonderful end to 2021!

Love,
Val and the ICC Team

Val Rosettani

Managing Director, Integral Coaching Canada Inc.

• Val Rosettani's blog