Cambodia Coaching Institute is five years old.
In that time, we have introduced coaching into classrooms, organisations (NGO, corporate and even government), leadership teams, and personal lives. We have trained coaches in a country where coaching was unknown, and where there was no existing professional ecosystem to build on.
The past one year has been one of big transitions. We've shifted our office (more than once). We had big personnel changes, both in teaching Faculty and Nady stepping away from her role after 5 years with us. I also took the year to re-envision how CCI trains coaches. That work is now complete, for our next chapter. We are launching two distinct pathways: CAC (Certified Associate Coach) and CCTC (Certified Connection-Centred Transformative Coach).
This isn’t a mere rebrand. It’s a response to what five years of building actually showed me, a response to what the system is telling me it needs.
Where we're coming from
When I started CCI, I held coaching as something deeply transformational. I still do. But I understood transformation in a very particular way.
I thought of coaching primarily as deep individual and systemic work. Work that touched the levels of identity, responsibility, and meaning. That understanding came from my own path in coaching and in life, and I didn’t fully realise how much of it I was embedding into what I expected from others, especially my coaching students.
Because of that, I held the bar too high.
A course lasting 100–120 hours. Extensive coursework. One hundred hours of coaching experience, mostly all paid. All spanning between 18 months to two years and costing around USD 2-3,000 (though we gave much away in scholarships and services in lieu of payment).
This was a huge amount of time, money, energy, and dedication, particularly in a context where coaching was unfamiliar and CCI was training the first generation of professional coaches in the country.
It was just too much.
I held a higher bar for coaching than even the ICF requires. The ICF baseline for the ACC is 60 hours of training. I knew that. I still chose to go far beyond it.
I didn’t want to create a course where someone could get certified over a weekend. I still don’t. I've met coaches that have taken such courses and frankly they're not good enough. This cheapens the term “coach” and undermines trust, particularly risky when the profession is so new here. But I swung too far in the other direction and created an unnecessarily high barrier to entry.
During my ICF Assessor Training (a course that trains me to assess coaching sessions for their competencies) something important landed for me. The 'P' in PCC does not stand for “Perfect Certified Coach.” It stands for “Professional.” That distinction is important.
I realise now that I had an idealistic idea I held about what a “certified coach” should be, shaped by my own journey and formation. This was one of my failings as a founder and as a pioneer of coaching in Cambodia. By holding the bar where I did, I unintentionally limited access. I kept people out who could have made meaningful contributions. It slowed growth and delayed the development of a wider coaching ecosystem.
Where we're going
What has shifted for me is how I now understand coaching as transformational.
Coaching does not only transform through depth at the individual level. It also transforms through consistent, well-held, small shifts in how people relate, listen, and speak to one another. Small changes in classrooms, meeting rooms, and relationships can have a significant impact on individuals. When those changes are practised widely and over time, they shape organisations, communities, and cultures.
Depth still matters. It always will. But it does not need to be the starting point for everyone. There is no one way that people coach.
I have my clients’ best interests in mind. I have Cambodia’s best interests at heart. I love this country, and I want its people to flourish. What I wanted for coaching here was not wrong. It was simply too much, too soon, and too broadly applied to everyone.
This is why we are launching CAC.
The Certified Associate Coach track is designed to give people a solid and responsible entry point into coaching. It is rigorous, aligned with international standards, and grounded in ethical practice. It allows people to start coaching, to learn through experience, and to grow their capacity over time.
We are still keeping a further developmental pathway. CCTC remains for those who feel drawn toward deeper, transformative coaching work. That path asks more of the coach and should remain demanding. What has changed is not the value of depth, but the assumption that everyone needs to begin there or commit to that level to be a certified professional coach.
Because the truth is, we do not need the first generation of Cambodian coaches to be like me.
We need many coaches practicing well, responsibly, and in ways that fit their context. We need communities of practice to form. We need people learning through doing, reflecting, and continuing to develop.
This is how coaching will take root in Cambodia, for it to have the impact it needs to have. This is how we change a nation. This is how we facilitate healing and thriving in Cambodia.
During this year-end period, and as CCI transitions from a personal sacred calling to an institution, I have been doing a lot of reflecting from our wins and our mistakes. I'll be sharing a separate series on lessons learned from building CCI over the past five years.
For now, this is the direction we are taking.
Training Pathways at CCI - (read more here: https://www.cambodiacoachinginstitute.com/training-pathways)
CAC — Certified Associate Coach
CAC is designed for people who want to start coaching responsibly and professionally.
- Aligned with ICF standards
- Focused on core coaching skills, ethics, and application
CCTC — Connection-Centred Transformative Coaching
CCTC is for those drawn toward deeper, transformative coaching work.
- Builds on prior training and experience
- Requires greater personal engagement and capacity
- Emphasises depth, presence, and inner development