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Yes! Brooke Castillo married in 2026 and took her husband’s last name, Hicks. She now goes by Brooke Hicks, but many people still know her as Brooke Castillo—and that’s absolutely wonderful.

Brooke has been coaching for more than 20 years. She holds a degree in psychology from Santa Clara University and earned her life coach certification from Martha Beck in 2003, when Beck’s training program was called North Star.

The Self Coaching Model is Brooke’s tool for understanding and managing your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It draws on her study of psychology, self-help, and life coaching.

The Model has five parts: circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. It helps you identify what’s happening, what you’re thinking about it, how you feel, and what you do in response. Seeing those connections can help you make intentional changes and work toward the results you want.

Absolutely. Many people take our courses for their own personal growth and never start a coaching business. You can learn and use the tools simply to understand yourself better and make changes in your own life.

Students often find that the Model helps them understand how to create change. It makes their thoughts, feelings, and actions easier to see—and helps them recognize how those patterns influence the results in their lives. That awareness gives them a place to begin making intentional changes.

A key difference is the provider’s training, qualifications, and scope of practice. A coaching certification does not make someone a licensed mental health professional.

At The Life Coach School, coaching focuses on self-awareness, personal goals, and taking action toward the results you want. Therapy can also help with these things, while providing mental health treatment, including support for trauma.

Coaching does not diagnose or treat mental health conditions and is not a substitute for therapy. When someone’s needs fall outside a coach’s training and competence, the coach should refer them to an appropriately qualified professional.

Absolutely not. The Model is an awareness tool. It helps you understand problems more fully so you can take compassionate, practical action to address them.

At the School, we teach that blaming yourself or others is rarely useful. Taking responsibility means recognizing where you have choices in how you think and respond. It does not mean you caused everything that happened to you or can control every circumstance. You can acknowledge a real problem, change your thinking, and take action to change the situation.

Yes. Always. We encourage you to question what you’re taught and test it for yourself. Try a tool, give it a chance, and see whether it helps you. If you don’t find it useful, you can let it go.

You are the authority on your own life. You can disagree with your coach, ask questions, and decide what works for you.

Whether certification is worth it depends on what you want to learn and how you plan to use it. Our tools and training are best suited to people who want to understand the Model, actively engage with the material, and practice applying it to their own lives or in coaching others.

The training takes effort and continued practice. We don’t recommend it as a quick fix or as a way to get rich quickly by starting a coaching business.

No. The Life Coach School is not accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). We have deliberately chosen to offer our own training and certification.

We encourage you to research ICF accreditation and consider whether it matters for your goals. If you want an ICF credential or plan to pursue work that requires one, check ICF’s current requirements before choosing a program. Our certification is issued by The Life Coach School and is separate from an ICF credential.

Our certification recognizes your completion of The Life Coach School’s training and its certification requirements. It allows you to use and teach the Self Coaching Model and our coaching tools with others, and to apply them in your personal and professional life.

It is a certification issued by The Life Coach School. It does not grant a mental health license or qualify you to diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Developing your skill as a coach requires continued practice beyond certification.

Accelerated is a fast-paced, self-study certification designed to be completed in two weeks. You can also move at your own pace within your program access period.

Our earlier certification programs had higher tuition and included more direct support, coaching practice, practicums, and feedback. Accelerated does not include live practicums or individual coaching feedback.

Our separate Master Life Coach training is taught exclusively by Brooke Hicks and has limited places. In 2026, we received 600 applications for 15 spots.

Accelerated teaches the Model and how to apply it to yourself and others, starting with the foundations. Whether you’re new to coaching or have experience, you’ll need to study the material, complete the exercises, and practice.

The free podcast introduces you to our tools and offers ideas you can apply to your life. Accelerated provides a structured path through fifteen modules with video teaching, written lessons, and exercises.

You’ll learn the Model, apply it to your own emotions, relationships, goals, and self-confidence, and practice using it with others. The training also covers listening, asking questions, identifying a client’s Model, and coaching a complete session.

Accelerated is a self-study program with exercises for coaching yourself and six practice coaching sessions you complete with other people.

It ultimately includes Brooke AI, which can help you find teachings, explore concepts, and work through Models. It does not include live coaching practicums, supervised practice, or individual feedback from a human coach.

Complete the fifteen training modules, the exercises, and six practice coaching sessions with other people. Then take and pass the Certification Test, which covers the material and your ability to apply what you’ve learned.

If you don’t pass, you can review the material and take the test again during your three-year access period. There are no retake limits or additional test fees.

No. Certification does not guarantee clients, employment, or income. It provides training in our coaching tools. Building a coaching practice takes additional work, and individual results vary.

Accelerated costs $5,000. You pay $2,500 to enroll and access the training, then the remaining $2,500 when you finish the training and are ready to take the Certification Test. The second payment is required before taking the test. There are no ongoing fees.

Consider the full $5,000 cost, including the $2,500 payment due when you complete the training. We recommend enrolling only if you can afford both payments while meeting your essential expenses and financial commitments.

Make your decision based on the value of the training to you, without relying on future coaching income to cover the cost. Certification does not guarantee earnings, and it’s okay to wait if the timing isn’t right for your budget.

You’ll have access to Accelerated for three years from your enrollment date. All changes and upgrades to the program during that three-year period are included at no additional charge.

You can withdraw from Accelerated and request a refund within seven days of enrollment by emailing theteam@thelifecoachschool.com. We’ll refund the tuition you’ve paid and cancel your remaining tuition obligation.