Cambodia Coaching Institute | Professional Coach Training & Certification

Lessons Learned from 6 Years of CCI

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 01:56:17 -0800

CCI is completing its 6th year this year.

That’s something I’m proud of. In a country where coaching was nonexistent, we built something real and had huge tangible impact. We didn't only design and run a training program. We built communities. We shifted how people think about leadership, responsibility, and mental health. We created a shared language. We created a safe and courageous space for people to slow down, see themselves and be seen, for who they are and for who they can be.

A lot worked. Some things didn't.

As CCI enters a new chapter, I wanted to pause and reflect on the major learnings from these years — what building this institution has taught me, and what I’m taking forward as we step into what comes next.

1. Community First Was the Right Approach

One thing I'm really proud of is how we put community first. I believe we wouldn't have been half as impactful without it.

Coaching is not just a skillset. It’s a different way of being. A different way of listening, relating, taking responsibility, and holding complexity. A more human one, we claim. Unfortunately, people don’t learn this in isolation. They learn it inside a wider system that often still operates in old ways — hierarchy, deference, conflict avoidance, saving face.

Without community, it’s easy to fall back into those habits.

This is why communities of practice mattered so much. People needed somewhere to return to. Somewhere they could practice being different, not just understand it intellectually. Growth didn’t depend on one workshop or one relationship, but on being embedded in a group that was growing alongside them.

When CCI was thriving, the sense of community was strong. When CCI felt more stagnant or stuck, that sense had thinned. That wasn’t coincidence.

Between 2022 and 2024, we operated CCI out of the living room of my...Read More

A Note from Our Founder: CCI at Five Years

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 10:16:31 -0800

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...Read More

Level up your listening!

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 00:34:52 -0800

Four levels of listening for consciously improving listening competence for professionals

Listening is one of the key core coaching skills and competencies, as much as it's also a very human skill. In Cambodia Coaching Institute's coach training courses, we break down listening into four sub-competencies / areas. Within each element (“level”), we
can either have a range in the level of competence.

Higher competence within each level makes us better listeners, able to connect with our clients and pick up what’s going on for the client with fewer assumptions, judgements,
projections and greater depth and intuition.

Good listeners will be demonstrating high competency within each element. For example:

At Level 1, using their awareness of their inner dialogue and state to manage any assumptions and potential projections.
At Level 2, being able to notice and recollect particular words that the speaker used, or a physical movement, get curious about it and ask reflective questions based on it.
At Level 3, following the scenario presented by the speaker, understanding the situation that the speaker is in.
At Level 4, being in tune with the speaker's emotional and mental state, with an ability to sense what is at the heart of this topic, what's really making this an issue for the speaker, and full of intuitive information.

In contrast, poor listeners would demonstrate low competency in each element. For example:

At Level 1, being caught up in their own thoughts and experiences, projecting it onto the speaker. Completely misunderstands the speaker, the situation and what is helpful.
At Level 2, not picking up and remembering key words and key body language of the person.
At Level 3, misunderstanding of the situation and the issues at play.
At Level 4, lack of...Read More

Forget resolutions, try Visioning!

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 15:34:40 -0800

The year-end is traditionally a time when many engage in reflections on how the year has gone, and set some resolutions - promises to do things differently in the new year. They tend focus on specific goals and behaviours, such as drinking less, exercising more, or quitting smoking.

In coaching, we like goal-setting as much as the next person, but we have a much more powerful tool that we prefer to start with: visioning.

Visioning is an exercise where we take a time machine into an ideal future and connect with that image.

Fast forward to the future, 12 months on, and you've had a fantastic year. What is it like here?
What's happened in the past 12 months? What have you accomplished?
What kind of character were you demonstrating? What personal values (e.g. courage, honesty, family) were you prioritising?
As you imagine this, engage all your senses and notice what it would Read More

What are some misconceptions of coaching?

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 15:26:30 -0800

The awareness of the concept of coaching has grown rapidly over the last few years, which is a welcome development. However, this rapid growth has brought with it some common misconceptions about coaching. We will look to correct some of these myths in a series of posts, including ones about what good coaching looks like.

In this post we focus on some common misconceptions that may lead some people to think that coaching may not be right for them, or they might not be right for coaching.

1. Coaching is only for people with serious problems or weaknesses

While coaching can certainly be helpful for people who are struggling with specific issues or challenges, it has historically primarily been focused on helping people that are doing well already to do even better. One of the primary tenets of coaching is that "people are naturally creative, resourceful and whole", or as we simply put it at CCI, "people are not broken and don't need to be fixed".

This is a refreshing perspective shift from a world that has consistently told us that we're wrong and broken. Many clients report that this is one big reason why they pick coaching over therapy, as it focuses on taking them from "good to great" rather than focusing on their problems and dysfunctions.

That said, it is also sadly a common myth that coaching has no room for dysfunctions or trauma. We all have these, and for us to get from good to great, we need to address them. Some even take it so far as to say (completely incorrectly) that there is no room for emotions in coaching. This is reflective of the incompetence of the coach or coach training school; in fact, this would 100% go against the ICF's Core Competencies.

2. Coaching is only for high-level executives or "successful" people

While a lot of professional coaching does take place for executives and other high-level professionals, coaching can be helpful for people at all stages of...Read More

What is couple's coaching?

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 14:31:00 -0800

Relationships are one of the most common topics that clients bring to coaching. There's a lot that can be worked on with individual clients in terms of identifying what they want as one half of a couple, and how they want to be in the relationship. We can teach communication tools such as non-violent communication or Gottman's magic ratio. However, there is a limit to what can be achieved when working with just one-half of a relationship.

Couples coaching is a process specifically designed for couples that want to strengthen their relationship and work through any challenges they may be facing.

It can be helpful for couples that are experiencing difficulties in their relationship, such as communication problems, trust issues, or conflicts over shared goals and values. Not only that, it can also be useful for couples seeking to deepen their connection and improve their communication and intimacy, rather than addressing a "problem".

The coach will help couples explore their relationship goals, become aware of the underlying dynamics and patterns in the relationship, and help them to make conscious decisions on how they want to develop their relationship. The coach may also help couples to develop new tools and strategies for building and maintaining a healthy relationship.

Some couples coaches may specialize in specific areas, such as helping couples navigate through the challenges of a long-distance relationship, or working with couples who are dealing with the aftermath of infidelity. Others may work with couples of all ages and relationship statuses, and may focus on helping their clients improve their communication, trust, and intimacy.

Regardless of the focus area, couple coaching can be a powerful process for deepening the strengh and intimacy of a relationship. Rather than a sign of something being "wrong" with the couple, it is a sign of strength and courage, and of commitment to the...Read More

What is somatic coaching?

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 14:30:50 -0800

Somatic coaching is an approach to coaching that integrates the body, mind, and emotions to help individuals achieve their goals and make positive changes in their lives. Somatic coaching is based on the fact that the body and mind are interconnected, as are physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts. In contrast to traditional models of talk therapy (from CBT to psychoanalysis) and basic coaching, which only involves the mind at the rational level, somatic coaching seeks to make use of the whole person.

One of the core principles of the somatic appraoch is that transformation does not happen in the realm of cognitive thoughts or beliefs. Transformation is an embodied process. To give a very basic example, having a client merely think that their speech is going to be great will not stop her heart pounding and head spinning the moment she steps on stage. This fear is embodied and goes beyond rational thought. To give another example, telling people to "think happy thoughts" when they are stuck in the grips of an anxiety attack does not work.

More accurately, it does not work by itself.

This is the same reason why many corporate trainings and leadership development programs fail. These interventions largely only target the intellectual part of people, and miss the fact that human beings are embodied beings. They have bodies that have huge influences on their minds and behaviours.

Somatic coaching reincorporates the body into the change process. At the most basic level, somatic coaches will use various techniques to help clients become more aware of their physical experiences and how much these experiences impact their behaviour and decision-making. The awareness of these physical experiences will often reveal more about what's going on in the subconscious body-mind than a purely cognitive approach.

Moreover, over time the client will build tolerance to the physical sensations...Read More

Why should I send my leaders to a coach training course?

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 08:51:44 -0800

Coaching is a powerful tool for developing the skills and potential of team members and is the most highly saught after skill by employees¹. Coaching can help leaders create a culture of ongoing development and growth, leading to increased productivity, engagement, and retention.

There are many benefits of having leaders attend coaching training, and we've highlighted just a few key ones from our experience:

1. Psychological safety and teamwork

Leaders who take our programs learn how to create a safe and supportive environment in which team members feel heard, valued, and motivated to achieve their goals. Psychological safety is the most important factor in effective teams, impacting communication, teamwork and even individual creativity. Leaders that know how to nurture such environments are well-placed to drive high performing teams.

Coaching also helps leaders to build stronger relationships with their team members, and improve communication and collaboration within the team.

2. Capacity building of the team and saving time

Coaching can also help leaders to identify and address any challenges or issues that may be affecting the performance of their team. By using a coaching approach, leaders can help team members develop skills and capacity to overcome these challenges and achieve the company's goals as well as their own personal goals.

One of the biggest benefits leaders report is that they save time longer term. Their team members develop their critical thinking skills as well as their confidence and willingness to face challenges themselves, without needing to come to the leaders for advice everytime (or worse, not raising these issues until it causes a larger problem that is much more difficult to solve).

This is in contrast to the popular belief and excuse amongst leaders that the reason behind taking a micromanagement 'command-and-control' approach to...Read More

What is coaching?

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:22:11 -0800

Coaching is a professional relationship in which a coach works with a client to maximise a client's personal and professional potential.

Coaching often involves the identification of and working towards specific goals. The coach helps the client to explore what they want to achieve, develop strategies and take actions that will enable the client to reach their goals.

Coaching is person-centred rather than problem-centred, involving deep self exploration of the client, which sets the process apart from consulting and problem solving. This self exploration might include underlying motivations, values, beliefs, and habitual patterns of the client.

Moreover, a core principle of coaching is the equal partnership with the client, in contrast to the power and knowledge differential of consulting, mentoring and therapy.

Coaching can take place in a variety of settings, including one-on-one sessions, group sessions, teams or through online platforms. Coaches use a range of core skills, such as questioning, listening, and feedback, to help the client develop self awareness ("I know myself") and act with self authority ("I choose to be myself and act as myself in the world"). Based on this, the client is able to identify their goals, assess their current situation, and develop a plan of action in a new way. Coaches may also use assessments and other tools to help the client gain insights into their strengths, challenges, and areas for growth.

Advanced coaches may incorporate additional modalities such as the body (embodiment & somatic work), emotions and trauma.

Some coaches choose to specialise in specific areas, such as executive coaching, life coaching, relationship coaching or business coaching. Regardless of the specific focus, the goal of coaching is to help the client achieve greater success, fulfillment, and well-being in their personal and professional...Read More

Introduction to Team Coaching

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 09:16:04 -0700

A desire for systemic impact beyond the coachee

Coaching is becoming a well-known concept across organisations around the world. Many companies, governmental and NGOs hire coaches for their executives ("executive coaching"), their high-potential staff and new managers, to great improvements in fulfillment, as well as individual and organisational performance. Likewise, many individuals are engaging with coaches to help with their ongoing healing, growth, performance and transformation in various areas of their lives - work, health, relationships and family.

At the same time, a common feeling from the clients (coachees) is that they wish that the teams that they belong (and intimate relationships and families) to could also experience coaching. A part of this is their desire to share the sense of freedom and fulfilment that they found through coaching with people that matter to them. Another part is that often clients find that they find it difficult to implement the internal transformation that they experienced on a wider scale, as they find themselves in the same 'system' (environment / context).

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

There are different ways to support individuals as they try to apply what they personally get from coaching to the systems that they belong to. Some organisations choose to implement a coaching culture in organisations, so that everyone in the system experiences coaching, even if not from a professional coach. Others introduce group coaching models, where a professional coach supports a group of individuals with their individual goals, benefitting from cost-effectiveness, improved connection with their colleagues and enhanced learning through the group context.

One...Read More