Ten hours is the requirement. Ready is the point.
If it takes you longer than ten hours to get there, we keep going. At no additional cost.
Ten hours with a Master Certified Coach who will tell you exactly which question, at which moment, opened your client up or closed them down. Structured to the ICF standard. Documented to the standard the profession moves to in 2027. And we do not stop when the hours run out. We stop when you are ready to submit.
Next cohort begins 14 September 2026 | Six places | Every hour delivered by Catherine Plano, MCC
The Difference
Most coaches complete their hours. Far fewer come out coaching differently.
Ask a coach about their mentor coaching and you will usually hear one of two answers.
The first is administrative. They found somebody, they got through it, they submitted the paperwork. It was fine. They could not tell you a single thing that changed in their coaching.
The second is different. They talk about a specific moment. The session where somebody stopped them and said, do you know what you just did there? The question they had been asking for years that they never realised was closing their client down. The pattern they could not see in themselves until somebody sat with the recording and pointed at it.
That second experience is what mentor coaching was designed to be. It is also, quietly, the reason the ICF has just placed mentor coaching at the centre of the credentialing process.
The 2027 Change
Why the next few months matter.
The ICF has introduced the Mentor Coach Specialisation, and one date matters for you.
From 1 January 2027
New mentor coaching hours counted towards an ACC, PCC or MCC credential, including hours used for renewal, must be delivered by a mentor coach holding the Mentor Coach Specialisation at the matching level.
Hours completed before that date are recognised. They remain valid for new credential applications and for renewals. This cohort completes in December.
There is a second way to read the change, and it is the more useful one. The profession has just said out loud that a single recorded session was never a fair measure of a coach. What replaces it is growth observed over time by somebody qualified to see it. That is a better standard, and it is the one we already hold ourselves to.
Our Commitment
We stay until you are ready.
Every provider in this market sells ten hours. Ten hours is what the ICF requires, so ten hours is what gets sold, and when the tenth hour ends the relationship ends with it.
That has never made sense to us. Ten hours is an administrative number. Readiness is not. Some coaches arrive close and need very little. Others need longer, and there is nothing wrong with the ones who do.
Our commitment to you
If you are not ready to submit at the end of your ten hours, you receive up to three further hours of mentor coaching at no additional charge, available for twelve months from your cohort start date.
Ready means Catherine judges your coaching to be demonstrating the competencies at the level you are applying for, assessed against the ICF markers rather than against a feeling. It is the same judgement she applies to her own students.
To be precise about what this is and is not. It is not a guarantee that the ICF will award your credential. Nobody controls that, and any provider who implies otherwise is selling you something they cannot deliver. It is a commitment that you will not be sent to an application before you are ready for one.
It also asks something of you. Mentor coaching requires a recording to observe, so the additional hours are available to coaches who submit recordings when asked, attend their sessions, and work with the feedback they are given. That is not fine print. It is the only way any of this works.
This is not a policy we wrote for this page. It is how Rise and Thrive Global has always worked. Once you are one of ours, you are one of ours, and we stay with our coaches long after the certificate is issued.
Is This For You?
This is for you if
You are working towards your ACC or PCC through the portfolio pathway and need your ten hours.
You trained somewhere else, or trained some years ago, and mentor coaching was never included.
You are renewing your ACC and need ten hours of mentor coaching as part of that renewal.
You hold a PCC or MCC and are using mentor coaching towards your renewal.
You have the hours in hand but know your coaching has plateaued, and you want somebody skilled to tell you where.
You do not need to have trained with us. Most of the coaches in these groups did not.
What It Is
What mentor coaching is, and what it is not.
The ICF defines mentor coaching as professional assistance in achieving and demonstrating the levels of coaching competency required by the credential a coach is applying for.
In practice, that means one thing very specifically. We are coaching you on your coaching. Not on your business, not on your client load, not on your positioning or your pricing. Those are worthwhile conversations and they belong somewhere else. Here, the subject is your craft.
It is also not an examination. Nobody is looking for a reason to fail you. The work is developmental, which means the questions we are holding are what is this coach already doing well, where is the edge of their range, and what is the one shift that would move them furthest.
How We Work
Three things that shape how we do this.
Every hour is delivered by a Master Certified Coach
Not a faculty pool. Not a coach one level above you. Catherine Plano holds the MCC credential and leads the mentor coaching across both of our ICF-accredited programmes, at Level 1 and Level 2. When you book, you are booking her.
This matters more than it sounds. The difference between adequate mentor coaching and excellent mentor coaching is almost entirely the quality of what the mentor notices. A mentor who can only hear the obvious will only ever give you the obvious back.
Feedback built on what is working
Rise and Thrive Global is a positive psychology coaching academy, and that shows up here in a practical way rather than a philosophical one.
Deficit feedback tells you what was missing. It is easy to give and it is exhausting to receive, and it tends to make coaches more careful rather than more capable. Strengths-based feedback starts somewhere else. It identifies what you did that worked, names precisely why it worked, and then builds the development conversation from there.
You will still hear the hard things. You will hear them in a way you can actually use.
Documentation to the 2027 standard, starting now
We have already rebuilt our mentor coaching documentation to the enhanced standard. Every observed session generates a written Session Observation Form. The engagement closes with a Competency Review Form summarising the proficiency you have demonstrated across all of it.
So you leave with more than a completion letter. You leave with a written, competency-referenced record of your coaching, which is exactly what the profession is moving towards.
The Structure
How the ten hours work.
The ICF requires ten hours, spread across a minimum of three months, with at least three of those hours one to one. Group mentoring may cover up to seven hours, in a group of no more than ten.
We use that structure deliberately rather than minimally.
The Group Hours
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Seven hours in a small group
No more than six coaches. You coach in front of the group and you are coached in front of the group. Live sessions are observed and unpacked against the ICF Core Competencies and, where relevant, the PCC Markers.
The reason we do not compress this into fewer, longer sessions is that you learn as much from watching another coach be observed as you do from being observed yourself. Watching somebody else get feedback is the only time you can hear it without your own defensiveness in the room.
The One To One Hours
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Three hours one to one
You submit a recording. Catherine reviews it in full before the session, not live. You then sit together with the evidence in front of you and work through what is actually happening in your coaching.
These three hours are where most of the shift happens.
The Timeline
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Across three months, on purpose
The three month minimum is not administrative padding. Skill does not consolidate in a fortnight. The gap between sessions is where you take a shift back to real clients, try it, and find out what it costs you. You bring that back.
What You Receive
Everything the requirement asks for, and more than it expects.
Ten hours of mentor coaching meeting the full ICF requirement, structured as seven hours group and three hours one to one.
Additional mentoring at no charge if you are not ready to submit at the end of the ten hours.
A review of your credential application before you submit it.
A written Session Observation Form for every observed session.
A Competency Review Form on completion, summarising demonstrated proficiency.
Full review of your submitted recordings, in advance, by an MCC.
Documentation of your hours for your credential application or renewal.
A working understanding of the ICF Core Competencies and the PCC Markers as they show up in your own coaching, rather than as a framework on a page.
Delivered online, worldwide. Group sessions are scheduled to be held across time zones.
Access to the Rise and Thrive community of coaches, in 12 countries.
Your Mentor Coach
About Catherine Plano.
Catherine Plano, PhD, MCC.
The Master Certified Coach credential is the highest individual credential the International Coaching Federation awards, and the smallest group of credential holders in the profession.
She is the founder of Rise and Thrive Global and the mentor coach across both of the academy's ICF-accredited programmes.
Rise and Thrive Global holds ICF accreditation at Level 1 and Level 2. Very few positive psychology coaching academies anywhere hold both, which means the coaches she mentors are being observed by somebody who designs and delivers to the standard, not only somebody who once met it.
She has logged more than 5,000 hours of coaching and is completing the ICF Mentor Coach Specialisation through the Credit for Prior Learning pathway.
Why this matters for your ten hours
An MCC has demonstrated coaching at the level you are being assessed against, and then some. A coach who leads two accredited programmes reads the competencies and the markers every week, not once when they sat their own credential. And a coach with a doctorate is trained to work from evidence rather than impression.
Put together, that is the difference between being told your coaching was good and being told precisely which question, at which moment, opened your client up or closed them down.
Catherine has mentored coaches through the credentialing process at ACC and PCC level, from training providers and coaching backgrounds across 12 countries. She continues to do this work herself rather than delegating it to faculty.
Your First Hour
What happens in your first one to one hour.
Most coaches arrive at this session slightly braced. It helps to know exactly how it runs.
You send a recording of a real coaching session in advance. Catherine listens to it in full before you meet, with the competencies and the markers in front of her. She is not listening for mistakes. She is listening for where your instinct is already sound and where it quietly runs out.
When you sit down together, the recording is open between you. You work through specific moments, timestamped. The question at eleven minutes that moved everything. The one at nineteen that closed the door without either of you noticing at the time. Not general impressions of your coaching, but the actual moments where something happened.
You leave with a written Session Observation Form and, usually, one thing to change. One, not twelve. Coaches do not develop from a long list. They develop from a single shift they can hold onto through the next fortnight of real clients.
Read what our graduates say about being coached by Catherine →
Investment
The next cohort begins 14 September 2026 and completes in December.
Six places.
Two ways to complete your ten hours. Both meet the full ICF requirement.
Group and one to one
Seven hours in a small group of no more than six coaches, plus three hours one to one.
AUD $2,850
Approx. USD $2,030 | EUR €1,750
or three monthly payments of AUD $995
Reserve Your SeatTen hours, entirely one to one
All ten hours private, scheduled around you. For coaches who want the depth, or whose schedule will not hold a group.
AUD $5,500
Approx. USD $3,915 | EUR €3,375
or three monthly payments of AUD $1,950
Book Your PlaceBoth options include all documentation and both carry the readiness commitment. There are no additional fees for form completion, recording review, or additional mentoring if you need it.
Common Questions
Questions coaches ask before they book.
What if I need more than ten hours?
You receive up to three further hours at no additional charge, available for twelve months from your cohort start date. Most coaches do not need them. They exist so that nobody is pushed towards an application before they are ready for one.
I do not have enough clients to record. What then?
Pro bono coaching counts towards your ICF experience hours and is the usual answer. If you can find two or three volunteer clients before the cohort begins, you will have everything you need. If clients are reluctant to be recorded, that is almost always a contracting conversation rather than a refusal, and it is one we will help you have. Recording is not our preference, it is what the observation and documentation process requires.
Is this a guarantee that I will get my credential?
No, and be cautious of anyone who offers one. The ICF makes that decision and no provider controls it. What we commit to is that you will not be sent to an application before you are ready for one.
Where are sessions held?
Online, by video. Coaches join these groups from across our community and sessions are scheduled to work across time zones. One to one hours are arranged directly around your schedule.
Do I have to have trained with Rise and Thrive?
No. These groups are open to coaches from any training background, and most participants trained elsewhere.
I am renewing my ACC. Does this count?
Yes. Ten hours of mentor coaching forms part of ACC renewal, and this programme meets that requirement.
Can I use these hours for both my ACC and my PCC?
No. The ICF does not permit mentor coaching hours applied to one credential application to be reused for another. Each credential requires its own ten hours.
What happens after 1 January 2027?
From that date, new mentor coaching hours must be delivered by a mentor coach holding the ICF Mentor Coach Specialisation at the matching level. Hours completed before that date remain valid for applications and for renewals. This cohort completes in December, so your hours are recognised.
I am applying through the portfolio pathway. Does anything else change?
From 1 April 2027, ACC and PCC portfolio candidates will no longer submit a recorded performance evaluation. Coaching competence will instead be demonstrated through documented mentor coaching. If you are applying before that date, the existing pathway still applies. Either way, the documentation you receive here is built to the enhanced standard.
Does Catherine hold the Mentor Coach Specialisation?
She is completing the Mentor Coach Specialisation through the Credit for Prior Learning pathway. For this cohort it does not affect your hours, because hours completed before 1 January 2027 are recognised under the current requirements.
Do I need to submit recordings?
Yes, for the one to one hours. Being observed is the point. If that makes you slightly uncomfortable, you are in the right place and in good company.
What if I cannot make a group session?
Sessions are scheduled in advance and we work to find times that hold across time zones. If your schedule genuinely will not accommodate a group, the fully one to one option exists for exactly that reason.
How long does it take?
A minimum of three months, because the ICF requires it and because it is the right amount of time. Most coaches complete within three to four months.
Is this the same as coaching supervision?
No. Supervision is reflective work on you as a practitioner and the dynamics you carry into your coaching. Mentor coaching is competency development against a defined standard. Both are valuable. This is the second one.
Your Next Step
The coach you will be in three months.
You will complete these hours at some point, because your credential requires it. The only real question is whether you finish with a certificate or with a different set of ears.
And whether the person mentoring you stops counting at ten, or stops when you are ready.
A Master Certified Coach who will show you what you cannot hear in your own coaching. Documentation built to the standard the profession is moving to. A small group of coaches who will watch you get better and let you watch them. And a commitment that we stay until you are ready.
The next cohort begins 14 September 2026 and completes in December. Six places.
Completing in 2026 means your hours are recognised under the current requirements, with no dependency on the January 2027 changes.
No obligation to continue | Six places | Completes inside 2026
Not sure which option fits your pathway?