About Us
The South African population, especially the younger generation, is at a point in time where they do not want to conform to old ways and structures, especially in the light of their political past. People want to move on and take control of their future in a transformational way. We all know too well that this process is activated by the renewing of your mind and embarking on a journey of self-discovery. One of the greatest tools to achieve this is Life Coaching.
Life Coaching skills are breathing new life into people, their practices and perceptions, resulting in a self-driven desire to obtain purpose and passion.
Roy Harris is the Proprietor and Managing Director of the South African Institute for Life Coach Training (SAILCT), and an Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT) Certified Life Coach. He is also the CEO and Founder of Community Mental Health and Psychiatry (CMHP), a non-profit organization providing 24-hour care to more than 300 long-term psychiatric patients.
The first SAILCT information session was held on January 30, 2007 in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. The response was overwhelming, with more than 110 persons attending. The second information session was scheduled in Gauteng Province a few months later. The SAILCT has ever since been offering a variety of tailor made courses, some focusing on specific people and target groups and some designed for corporate companies.
In 2008, Dr. Pat Williams, founder of Coaching the Global Villiage (CGV) & Roy Harris met in Orlando, Florida, USA. Dr. Pat has played a tremendous role in terms of his contribution made towards the Life Coach Training industry globally. He has authored many books over the years which are used as additional sources in our courses.
Although Life Coaching is relatively new to South Africa, there are other reputable Life Coaching academies and schools doing wonderful work. We are determined to play a major role in enhancing the industry by providing quality training.
Things You Should Know
Many corporate and community institutions and individuals pose the question of whether our courses are accredited. Coaching has evolved so rapidly that structures and regulatory bodies or systems have not been able to keep pace with the enormous growth experienced in fulfilling the need of Life Coaching, here in South Africa and abroad.
From our conversations with leading experts in the industry, it is clear that there currently exists no official statutory body anywhere in the world, but many role players are communicating and finding ways and models to introduce such.
In South Africa, some attempts are currently being made to register Life Coaching with the Skills Education Training Authority of South Africa (SETA), but this remains a work in progress.
The UK founder of New Insights responded to this question on their website saying:
“Internationally there is no official regulatory standard for Life Coaching and in South Africa as in most other countries there is no government regulated education or training standard for the Life Coaching industry yet.
There are a few self-appointed accreditation bodies that are internationally known and represented, such as the International Coach Federation (ICF), the International Coaching Council (ICC), the European Coaching Institute (ECI) and the International Association of Coaching (IAC). They are all privately owned concerns with no independent supervisory board to evaluate their programs.
COMENSA (the representative body in SA for coaches and mentors) does not currently offer any form of coaching accreditation.
At the present, anyone who is involved in the coaching and/or mentoring industry is welcome to apply to join COMENSA. The body is currently reviewing whether to introduce a tiered form of membership structure where membership criteria would be introduced to take account of a coach’s experience and training. A decision on this is likely to take some time.”
We adhere to the Code of Ethics as per COMENSA. The SAILCT has adopted its own standard for Life Coaches trained in South Africa by means of an annual certification of members in good standing with the SAILCT and voluntary registration with the SAILCT. As is the case with most Life Coaching schools and practices, we have chosen not to align ourselves with any one of these bodies in particular at this stage as each has different requirements, approaches and fees when it comes to accreditation. We encourage coaches trained by us to pursue accreditation with any of the aforementioned bodies if the need arises.
“Simply put, Coaching is where you work with someone to connect with yourself, redesign your environment and your life, and then take action to implement it!”
— Emma-Louise Elsey