The 3As of Coaching:
What Do Your Client's Words Reveal?
Your client said, "I should probably just quit."
Did you hear the most important word in that sentence?
Three Hours, Self-Study: $45
Certificate and curriculum synopsis included.
MISS THE WORD, COACH THE WRONG THING
Two people describe the same party. One calls it a blast. The other calls it dead.
Same party. Two different experiences. The whole comparison is in the words chosen.
Your clients do this in every session. The descriptive words they choose are not just decoration. They are the whole story of how they see it, how they are experiencing life, and the only part of the sentence that tells you who you are actually coaching.
Miss the qualifying word and you coach the situation. Catch it and you coach the client.
What is the 3As of Coaching?
The 3As of Coaching is a self-study program that teaches coaches to hear adjectives, adverbs, and absolutes as personal choices, windows into how a client perceives their world.
Adjectives first. Then adverbs. Then absolutes. Somewhere in there, you'll hear your clients differently.
Worksheets along the way capture what your ear is catching, in your own words.
Practical exercises throughout, so your ear sharpens while you learn, not after. A curriculum synopsis documents the program for your records.
The program closes with a full coaching conversation, every qualifier caught in real time as the client speaks.
Once you hear them, you can't unhear them.
What makes the 3As different from other listening training?
Most listening courses track themes and emotions. The 3As works at the level of word choice, where the client's beliefs leak through, shifting the conversation from the what of the story to the who telling it.
No one else teaches basic grammar as a tool for deeper listening and inquiry.
You've known these three word types since elementary school. You just never knew they were a doorway to deeper coaching conversations.
Your client's word choices are not accidental. Every qualifier they choose is a decision, made in the moment, about how to describe their world. The words carry what they believe.
The program also includes a segment on the boundary between coaching and clinical work, and when to consider referring your client to a licensed practitioner.
Who is the 3As for?
Credentialed coaches at the ACC, PCC, and MCC levels who sense there is more in a client's sentence than they are catching.
If you have ever finished a session feeling like you walked past something, this program opens your listening to catch subtle nuance.
You already listen well. This is not a course about listening harder, or listening longer, or listening with more empathy.
It is about knowing exactly what to listen for in your client's words.
You will hear the difference in your own ear, in the same sentence, three hours apart.
ONE WORD. ONE QUESTION.
A client of mine once said, "I should probably just quit. This is a waste of time." She was talking about her goal to find a new relationship.
It looked like she wanted to give up.
I heard the qualifier, an adverb. "Probably?"
That one question opened a much deeper conversation. It brought her back to the goal, and to the emotional connection to why it mattered in the first place. She found her new relationship a few weeks later.
One word. One question. That is the whole method, and it works in your very next session.
ICF chapters across the United States, Germany, and India invited this program into their communities since 2024.
Coaches kept asking for a version they could take on their own time,
so MCXI expanded it from 1.5 hours to 3 hours of self-study listening training.
Can I claim CCE credit for the 3As?
Yes. ICF accepts self-paced study toward your credential renewal, and MCXI gives you the documentation to claim The 3As as part of your required 40 hours.
This self-study program has not yet been submitted for ICF approval. It is 3 hours of training built directly on two ICF Core Competencies, Listening Actively (Competency 6) and Evoking Awareness (Competency 7). Every teaching segment names the competencies it explores.
You no longer upload documentation when you renew; a percentage of applications are audited, and if yours is selected, you provide proof of completion. The 3As gives you everything that requires: a certificate of completion with your name, the course, the date, and 3 hours of self-study, plus a downloadable curriculum synopsis mapping every segment to Competencies 6 and 7, with durations documented.
You do the learning. We provide the proof.
You already hear the story.
Now hear the storyteller.
The 3As of Coaching
Three hours, self study: $45