The Wild West Called Coaching: Should I Get Credentialed?
A personal take on the unregulated landscape of coaching and the role of ICF credentials. This post explores whether getting credentialed is necessary, what it actually signals, and why some coaches choose it while others don’t.

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Unlike therapy, coaching is an unregulated field. Anyone can wake up one day and decide to call themselves a coach just because they feel like it. I once knew a spiritual healer who suddenly added "life coach" to their title for marketing and SEO purposes. This lack of regulation can create chaos and confusion, making it difficult to distinguish trained and skilled coaches from those who simply claim the title—and who may, intentionally or not, cause harm.
You’ve probably seen articles questioning the legitimacy of coaching—these stories tend to go viral, fueling skepticism and distrust of the profession. I get it. My own journey started with judging the entire industry based on one horrendous intro meeting with a coach who used my vulnerability as leverage for a sales pitch that felt exploitative and self-serving.
Picture a Wild West of well-meaning advice-givers, golden formula salespeople, and self-appointed influencer gurus charging exorbitant fees while promising results they can’t deliver.
Enter the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the go-to professional body providing much-needed guidelines and standards through its Code of Ethics and ICF Core Competencies. The ICF attempts to bring order to the chaos by accrediting coach training programs and credentialing individual coaches at three levels: ACC (Associate Certified Coach), PCC (Professional Certified Coach), and MCC (Master Certified Coach). These credentials are renewed every three years to maintain accountability and adherence to standards.
I break this down further in this post Sorting Out the Confusion: ICF Certification, Accreditation, and Credentials in Coaching, but here’s the quick ICF-specific summary:
- Certification: Completing a coach training program and receiving a certificate of completion.
- Credentials: The letters (ACC, PCC, MCC) after a coach’s name, granted by the ICF, indicating they have met specific training, experience, and assessment requirements.
- Accreditation: The process by which the ICF evaluates and approves coach training programs to ensure they meet professional coaching standards.
You can be a certified coach by completing any training program, but if the program isn’t accredited by the ICF, you won’t be eligible for ICF credentials. To apply for ICF credentials, you typically need to complete an ICF-accredited training program, accumulate coaching hours, continuing education hours, and mentoring hours, and pass two recorded coaching session assessments and the credentialing exam. There is also a portfolio path for those who have completed non-ICF-accredited training, but it requires comprehensive documentation to demonstrate that the training aligns with ICF standards. Still with me?
Some believe that having those three letters adds much-needed credibility, though in reality, clients tend to care more about results, connection, and expertise than the credentials. That said, it’s becoming more common for organizations to require coaches to be credentialed, making it a valuable business advantage. For some, this alone is reason enough to pursue them. Compared to when I started coaching, credentialed coaches are far more common today.
However, not all coaches choose to pursue ICF credentials. Some have thriving businesses without them, or their niche markets might not require it. Some might feel strongly that the ICF competencies don’t align with their coaching approaches. It’s like organic farming: getting credentialed can be expensive and time-consuming, but some farmers grow healthy, high-quality crops without the official stamp. Similarly, both credentialed and non-credentialed coaches can provide value, depending on what clients are looking for. And as with any field, some people act with integrity, and some don’t—credentials or not.
I appreciate the standards set by ICF and the effort behind them, but I see credentials as a personal choice for each coach. Most of the coaches I speak to pursued them for their own growth and development—myself included.
That said, training is essential in this unregulated field. It ensures quality and equips coaches with the tangible skills to serve their clients effectively. Coaching isn’t about giving advice based on what worked for the coach or steering clients toward what you think is the best solution for them. Leaning too heavily on personal perspectives can allow unchecked bias to shape the coaching process, resulting in a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t serve the unique needs of each client.
About the Author: Rei Perovic is the Founder & CEO of Cofactors Strategies, an Executive and Leadership Coach, ICF Mentor, and Coach Educator. A Master Certified Coach (MCC) through the International Coaching Federation — a distinction held by fewer than 5% of coaches globally — she has coached more than 1,500 clients worldwide. She partners with purpose-driven leaders to navigate power, identity, and impact across cultures. Tokyo-born and NYC-based, she is fluent in English and Japanese and also translated Sushi Chef: Sukibayashi Jiro, based on Jiro Dreams of Sushi.