KIT Coaching respects the contribution of international coaching bodies. We also believe the field has outgrown some of their foundational assumptions.
On ICF
The International Coaching Federation has done important work in establishing coaching as a profession. Its competency framework is widely used and provides a common language.
Our concern is structural. ICF's certification levels — ACC, PCC, MCC — are not well understood by clients, employers, or the public. Research on professional credentialing (Eraut, 1994) consistently shows that opaque hierarchies of certification serve professional associations more than they serve the people those professionals work with.
The requirement to regularly renew certification is commercially motivated, not ethically motivated. A doctor who completed their training thirty years ago and has practised ethically ever since does not lose their licence because they failed to attend a refresher course. A coach should not either. What ensures ongoing quality is supervision — not recertification.
KIT's position: coaches are professionals, not consumers of certification products. Ongoing supervision is the standard. Recertification is not.
On EMCC
The European Mentoring and Coaching Council has produced thoughtful work on ethics and has been a strong voice for professionalisation. Our disagreement is narrower.
EMCC's approach to techniques has, in practice, created an implicit hierarchy of acceptable methods. Approaches perceived as evidence-based are preferred; others — including NLP — are viewed with suspicion. This is intellectually inconsistent. The evidence base for many widely accepted coaching techniques is no stronger than for those that are dismissed.
More importantly, the ethical quality of a coaching intervention does not reside in the technique. It resides in the relationship, the supervision, and the coach's capacity to understand what is happening beneath the surface of the work — projection, transference, contamination, idealisation.
KIT's position: no technique is prohibited. Every technique must be used with ethical grounding and an understanding of the psychodynamic processes it may activate. This understanding comes from supervision — not from an approved techniques list.
Research References
Eraut, M. (1994). Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. Falmer Press.
Passmore, J. (Ed.) (2021). The Coaches' Handbook. Routledge.