Micki, Thank you for your further clarifications. You are absolutely right when you said: So anyone can hang out a shingle as a personal coach. “Some coaches do extraordinary work. Some don't.” That is the beauty and the curse of the entire coaching community. Anyone can call them self a coach. Some are great, some are mediocre, some are awful. The problem is which coach is great and which is not, and how does a person determine a great coach and find the right coach. But I disagree with your other comment: “ But there has not been a certification process.” In fact there are over 56 different coaching certification labels, all purporting to have a different process. But they are marketing activities to create a false sense of legitimacy. Certifying coaches the way medical people or lawyers are certified does not uncover, the best coaches, nor will it protect the public from bad coaches. I believe that certification for coaches has not worked and I do not believe it will work. It appears you want to impose some qualifications and a rigid structure process by certifying coaches, like what is done for therapists. But since the coaching process is much different than therapy, I believe the two cannot be treated the same. Once again this revolves around your misunderstanding of what the coaching process is. Unfortunately, your confusion about coaching is far more common than not. You are not alone. You are treating the coaching process as if it were like therapy, which it is not. You are welcome to read my blog or website to learn the differences between the two so you will understand. http://www.findyourcoach.com/discover-coaching-lvl1.htm#therapy I am not purporting to be the expert on the two nor have the power of structuring coaching. But I am stating that once you research coaching (wherever you go) you too will discover how they are different. You are also encouraged to visit this great website which independently presents all aspects of coaching: http://www.peer.ca/coaching.html There are other web sites that attempt to explain the differences as well. Their different methods and different purposes explains the rapid rise in popularity and usefulness of coaching, before I came along. Once again it appears you equate the rise of coaching to the demise of corporations, and now the rise of HMO’s. Far more coaching is conducted outside the corporate umbrella. We have found that a majority of the supposed coaching performed through corporations is really consulting, training, and/or teaching disguised as coaching, since the corporations frequently impose their own requirements on the supposed “coaches” as a condition of hiring them. Personal coaching is a free form process where the coaches will hopefully not train, teach, advise, nor impose their wills on their clients. Instead, coaching is about bringing out the hidden powers within the client. Thus your comment and concern of “That question requires that I be deeply interested in the rise of coaching as a phenomenon, and also deeply concerned about the values that are promulgated by coaches.” Bothers me the most and exposes why I objected to your positions. Coaches do not impose, or teach or advise on their values, but assist clients to reveal and recognize and accept their own (previously unknown) beliefs and values. Using a controlled certification process, which you appear to recommend, is another form of imposing the values and beliefs of the regulators and certifiers, and people in power on others. I am more concerned about your apparent desire to impose you opinions on coaches and others in the name of righteousness. I encourage you to hire your coach to clarify your inner passions, beliefs, talents, and priorities, so you can pursue them on your terms with freedom and great success.