Spiritual Emergence Coach® Certification
Training for professionals seeking to support spiritual emergence in clinical practice, and individuals seeking structured guidance through their own awakening journey.
What is Spiritual Emergence Coach® Training?
The Problem
Most healthcare professionals receive little to no training in supporting spiritually transformative experiences. When someone experiences an intense awakening, symptoms can be misidentified as psychosis or schizophrenia.
- Seeing visions or deceased loved ones
- Feeling intense energy waves through the body
- Experiencing past life memories or prophetic dreams
The Solution
This training equips healthcare professionals, coaches, practitioners and the public with the essential discernment to recognize when someone is experiencing a spiritual awakening—not a purely psychiatric condition.
Learn to provide appropriate support that respects and honors the transformative nature of their experience, leading to profound healing and growth rather than suppression or pathologization.
Core Learning Objectives
Recognize the TerritoryUnderstand what catalyzes spiritual awakenings and learn the signs of transformative experiences versus pathology.
- Provide Effective Support
Master practical skills for helping someone achieve peace and satisfaction through their spiritual process.
- Differentiate from Pathology
Learn assessment frameworks to accurately distinguish spiritual emergence from mental health crisis.
What is Spiritual Emergence Coach® Training?
Skilled Support Prevents Crisis Escalation
The stakes are real in both directions. Without skilled support, these experiences can spiral into crisis. With it, they can become a doorway to lasting resilience, clarity, and positive change — for the individual and for everyone around them.
Integrate Spiritual & Psychological Frameworks
That's why we believe mental health care deserves a more complete picture. A framework that holds both the psychological and the spiritual helps practitioners stay grounded in safety while also honoring meaning — so that profound inner experiences are met with wisdom rather than reflexively mislabeled or dismissed.
Facilitate Positive Transformational Outcomes
These experiences also carry remarkable potential. When integrated thoughtfully, they often open the door to greater compassion, greater self-acceptance, and a renewed sense of purpose — the kind of inner shift our world genuinely needs more of.
Respond with Competence, Not Fear
More people than ever are crossing a threshold that can feel overwhelming without the right support. When someone navigating a spiritual awakening is met with understanding rather than fear, what could become a frightening or isolating experience can instead lead to human flourishing.
Who This Is For
For professionals
For clinicians, counselors, coaches, and mental health professionals including pastoral and school counselors, ministers and priests seeking better assessment and support skills for spiritual emergence and crisis.
For people with lived experience
For individuals, loved ones, and carers seeking clear guidance and practical tools to better understand and navigate the awakening process.
Meet A Few of Our Certified Coaches
Training & Certification
Begin at Level 1 Certification
Gain foundational knowledge in how to support someone in spiritual awakening or spiritual emergency. This culminates in a mandatory 2-day in-person training practicum, at which point you may become a Certified Spiritual Emergence Coach®.
Maintain Active Status
Attend at least 3 live supervision discussion sessions each year led by IMHU trainers. These are offered once a month throughout the year. Take one additional course each year designated by IMHU for Spiritual Emergence Coaches® to expand knowledge and skills.
Take Level 2
Advance your expertise in complex spiritual emergence scenarios and specialized interventions. Build on your Level 1 foundation with advanced diagnostic frameworks, ethical considerations for working with non-ordinary states, and specialized tools for clinical and integrative care settings.
What to Expect
Time Commitment
Level 1: 10.5 hours of online self-paced coursework plus a 2 day in-person practicum (7 hours per day).
Level 2: 5-10 hours of total self-paced study with lifetime access to all course materials.
Format
Level 1: Complete self-paced video courses on your own schedule, then attend a mandatory in-person practicum for level 1. Practicum locations: Boston (Spring & Fall), UK (Fall).
Level 2 is entirely online and can be taken at your own pace.
Certification
Fully complete “How to Effectively Support Someone in Spiritual Emergency” before the Practicum. Level 1 is required before Level 2.
CE Credits
Continuing Education credits are optional for licensed professionals who need documented hours for license renewal.
Don't need CE? Choose standard pricing. You can still receive full certification.
Certification Pathways
Start with Level 1 to build foundational skills. Level 2 requires Level 1 certification and provides advanced expertise.
Level 1 Certification
Level 2 Certification
About Each Level
Level 1 builds your foundational understanding and practical skills. Level 2 (which requires Level 1 completion) advances your clinical expertise with specialized assessment and ethical frameworks.
Level 1: Foundation & Practice
Level 1 introduces you to the territory of spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency and equips you with evidence-based support skills through both online learning and hands-on supervised practice.
How to recognize the signs and symptoms of spiritual emergence vs. emergency
Effective communication and holding skills to provide supportive presence
Real-world application through an in-person practicum with supervised role-play scenarios
How to facilitate peer support groups for individuals experiencing spiritual awakening
Level 2: Advanced Clinical Skills
Level 2 deepens your expertise with advanced diagnostic frameworks, ethical considerations, and specialized tools for clinical and integrative care settings. All courses are fully online.
Advanced differential diagnosis to distinguish spiritual emergence from mental health pathology
Ethical frameworks for working with non-ordinary states and psychedelic experiences
Screening tools and assessment protocols for identifying spiritual emergence in clinical settings
Best practices from integrative residential care for supporting acute mental disturbances
Pricing + Requirements Snapshot
Level 1: Foundation & Practice
CE Credits: For eligible healthcare providers, CE credits are available for an additional $75 on top of the course price.
Level 2 Required Courses
CE Credits: For eligible healthcare providers, CE credits are available for an additional $75 on top of the course price.
About Continuing Education Credits
For licensed health professionals seeking CE credits for license renewal
CE Credits
Level 1: CE credits are provided by Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA). SCA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists, social workers, MFC, professional counselors, and nurses.
Level 2: CE credits are provided by Westbrook University.
FAQs regarding CE Credits
Yes. CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA) which is co-sponsoring this program. SCA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
Yes. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by sponsors of CE who are approved by the American Psychological Association. Professionals from outside of California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they accept credits from programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.
Yes. SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN Provider CEP16887) for licensed nurses in California. Important: RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years after the course concludes. Nurses outside of California must confirm acceptance with their licensing boards.
Health and Wellness Coaches can apply for CE credits for this course directly through NBC-HWC. They wish to review on a case-by-case basis before allowing CE credits.
The APA does not allow partial credit to be earned for a course; we cannot provide a participant who missed a live session (or was more than 15 minutes late or left early from any live session) with fewer CE hours for our class. This applies to all participants seeking credit. Otherwise, the participant forfeits all of their CE hours. dfd
For questions about your certificate, course content, logistics, or support: Contact the co-sponsor at info@imhu.org. To verify if APA CE is valid for your license: Contact your licensing board directly. For general questions about APA CE: Contact SCA at info@spiritualcompetencyacademy.com
Undergraduate and graduate school students may be able to gain credits for course completion. Please contact your university to apply.
The Benefits of Certification
Level 1 Required Courses
Learn to facilitate peer-led support groups for individuals seeking supportive connections regarding their spiritual awakening. Joining a support group is often the most powerful step in resolving disturbances from spiritual experiences.
Expand Your Knowledge and Competency
Extend your competencies as a coach or licensed healthcare provider by offering a specialty that is increasingly sought out as interest grows in psychedelics and plant medicines.
Network with Peers
Join an international network of Spiritual Emergence Coaches® on all five continents. Access monthly online meetups for supervision and sharing, plus an exclusive Facebook community for ongoing support.
Reach More People
Get listed in IMHU's International Directory with your bio and contact details. Advertise your support groups and access promotional materials including the official logo and certificate.
Help Transform Healthcare
Collaborate with care providers to extend the effectiveness of care management teams. Help sensitize others to recognize spiritual emergence and respond with compassion, filling an important gap in conventional care.
Gain Professional Recognition
Earn a formal credential that demonstrates your specialized expertise in spiritual emergence support. Differentiate yourself as a trained professional in this emerging field with rigorous, evidence-based training.
Words of Praise for
imhu
FAQs About Certifications
No. We welcome anyone who wants to learn more about spiritual awakening and the problems that may occur in the process of awakening.
Our Practicum schedule changes from year to year. Visit this page to see the current schedule and learn about exact timing and location for all Practicums.
Level 1 gives you the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to support spiritual emergence, including self-paced online coursework and a required in-person practicum. Level 2 builds on that foundation with more advanced clinical material, including differential diagnosis, ethical frameworks for non-ordinary states, screening tools, and best practices for complex or acute situations.
The online portion in each level is self-paced, so how long it takes depends on your pacing and timing.
No. Level 1 is required before Level 2. The training is designed as a progression: first you build a strong foundation in spiritual emergence support, then you deepen your expertise through more advanced study.
Yes. The Level 1 pathway includes a mandatory 2-day in-person practicum. This is the hands-on portion of the training, where participants apply what they have learned through supervised practice and role-play.
Level 1 includes about 10 hours of self-paced online coursework, plus a 2- to 3-day in-person practicum with roughly 7 hours per day. Level 2 is fully online and takes about 5 to 10 hours of self-paced study, with lifetime access to the materials.
Yes, it is required.
Certification shows that you completed the required training pathway. CE credits are optional and are intended for licensed professionals who need documented continuing education hours for license renewal. You do not need to purchase CE credits to earn certification. If you do not need CEs, you can choose standard pricing and still complete the certification.
This certification is designed to help you support people experiencing spiritual awakening or spiritual emergency with greater competence and discernment. Depending on your background and scope of practice, it can help you improve assessment, provide more appropriate support, facilitate peer-led support groups, collaborate more effectively with care teams, and develop a recognized specialty in an area of growing need. Certification also includes professional benefits such as networking, international collaboration, supervision, possible listing in IMHU’s Directory of Spiritual Emergence Coaches, and promotions through IMHU’s social media.