September 25, 2026
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If you have spent an evening comparing nature coaching programs, you have probably noticed that they do not describe themselves in comparable ways. One is "ICF accredited." Another is "ICF aligned." A third offers "ICF approved hours." A fourth says "certified nature coach" and does not mention the ICF at all.
Those phrases sound similar and mean different things. Two of them are formal statuses you can verify in a public directory. The other two are marketing language that anyone can write.
This matters because the decision is expensive. Coach training runs from a few hundred dollars for a weekend certificate to five figures for an accredited program, and it takes anywhere from two days to two years. If you plan to charge money for coaching, the wrong choice costs you the tuition and then costs you again when you find out your hours do not count toward the credential you wanted.
I have been an ICF-credentialed coach for over 20 years, and I run the Nature-Connected Coach Certification at Earth-Based Institute. So I am not a neutral party here, and I will say plainly where we sit further down. What follows is the orientation I give people on discovery calls, including the parts that point away from us.
Key takeaways:
It helps to be clear about what you mean by nature coaching. There are many different roads you can take, and understanding which one fits your goals best will help you make a confident decision.
Coaching is a non-clinical, forward-focused approach to working with a client who is looking to change or improve some aspect of their life or career. It is not used to treat mental health conditions. Ecotherapy is a wider word: it means putting ecopsychology into practice, and depending on who is doing it, it can look like therapy, like coaching, or like a guided walk in the woods. Forest therapy guiding is a facilitation practice, often a few days of training, about leading sensory walks rather than holding an ongoing client relationship. Wilderness therapy is a wilderness- and adventure-based clinical field, working primarily on addiction and behavioral treatment for at-risk youth and young adults.
All four get called nature coaching by somebody. They have different training, prices, rules, and clients.
If you want to work with clients over months on their own goals, and you want that work to sit outdoors or in relationship with the living world, you are looking for coach training. That is the field this article is about. If you want to work clinically with mental health conditions, coach training is the wrong purchase and no coaching credential will authorize that work.
Here is what each phrase means.
ICF accredited, with a Level. The International Coaching Federation reviews a program's curriculum, faculty, and assessment, and grants it Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3. This is a formal status with published requirements. A program cannot self-declare it.
CCE, or Continuing Coach Education. A real ICF category, but a different one. CCE hours are designed for coaches who already hold a credential and need professional development to renew it. CCE is not a path to a first credential. A program can hold CCE approval and be excellent at what it does while not being the thing that gets you credentialed.
"ICF aligned," "based on ICF competencies," "ICF informed." These are descriptions of a curriculum, written by the school. They may be entirely accurate. They carry no review, no hour count, and no application path. A program can teach the ICF competencies faithfully and still leave you starting from zero when you apply for a credential.
"ICF approved hours." This sounds like accreditation, but the ICF does not use this term for program status. Ask the program which accreditation it holds and at what level. A clear program can answer in one word.
No ICF relationship at all. This is fine. Coaching is an unregulated profession in most of the world, and there are good coaches with no credential. It just means the certificate is worth whatever the school's reputation is worth, and nothing beyond it.
The ICF publishes a searchable directory of accredited programs called the Education Search Service. You can filter by accreditation type, location, delivery method, and language.
Look up any program you are considering. If it is accredited, it appears there with its level. If it does not appear, it is not ICF accredited, whatever a sales page says.
It is public and it is not written by anyone trying to enroll you, including us.
Once you know a program's level, the number worth comparing is accredited training hours, because that number carries forward.
The ICF asks for at least 60 hours of coach-specific education for the ACC, and at least 125 for the PCC. A Level 1 program at the bottom of its range gets you over the ACC line and leaves you well short of the PCC. A Level 2 program at 125 hours meets the PCC minimum exactly.
Anything above the minimum is education you do not have to buy twice. If you finish a 64-hour certificate and later decide you want the PCC, you are shopping again for another 61 hours, from a program that may not accept what you already did.
So when you compare two programs on price, compare cost per accredited hour, and check where that hour count leaves you against the credential you eventually want.
No coach training program grants you an ICF credential. Schools hold accreditation. Coaches earn credentials through a separate application to the ICF.
Your program gives you education hours, mentor coaching, and a performance evaluation. You then apply to the ICF yourself, with your own log of client hours, most of them paid. The ACC asks for 100 coaching hours. The PCC asks for 500.
Any program implying you will walk out holding a PCC is either being careless with language or hoping you will not check. We wrote a longer explanation of this in what ICF credential you actually earn, and the difference between the levels in ICF Level 1 vs Level 2.
We have been training nature-connected coaches since 2008. Our Nature-Connected Coach Certification holds ICF Level 2 accreditation with 315 accredited training hours, against an ICF Level 2 minimum of 125.
Certification takes about 12 to 14 months. It runs as a live online cohort, two cohorts a year, with about five to eight hours a week of work outside class. There are no prerequisites. No prior degree, license, or coaching credential is needed to start.
The work is place-based, which means you practice in the landscape you actually live in rather than traveling to a wilderness location. For most people that is a park or a field near your home.
You can check all of this in the ICF directory, where we are listed as Earth Based Institute.
Where we are the wrong choice. If you want a short introduction to working outdoors and you are not pursuing a credential, a Level 2 program is more time and money than you need. If you want to practice clinically, you want a licensure path instead. If you need to finish in under six months, our pacing will frustrate you.
Ask these on a discovery call.
Search the ICF Education Search Service and filter by accreditation type. That directory is the only complete and current answer, because accreditations are granted and expire outside of any article's publication date. Earth-Based Institute's Nature-Connected Coach Certification is listed there at Level 2.
No. Coaching is unregulated in most places and you can practice without one. A credential matters when you want to charge professional rates, work with organizations, or be taken seriously by clients who are comparing you against therapists and consultants.
It depends what you want it for. As an introduction to the work, or as continuing education for an existing practice, a short program can be a reasonable purchase. As a foundation for a paid coaching practice, 16 hours will not get you to a credential and will not prepare you to hold a client for six months.
Your education comes first. At Earth-Based Institute that is about 12 to 14 months. The credential comes later, because the ICF asks for logged client hours, 100 for the ACC and 500 for the PCC. Most people reach a credentialed practice on a roughly two-year horizon from starting training.
No. Accredited coach training does not require a psychology degree, because coaching is not therapy. It also does not require outdoor expertise, because the practice is about relationship with the living world rather than technical skill in it.
If you are weighing two or three programs and want an outside read, we run discovery calls. Bring your list and we will tell you where we fit and where we do not.
See the Nature-Connected Coach Certification
If you would like our guide for evaluating coaching schools, go here and tell us where to send it. You may also want to read our post on 10 questions to ask a coaching school before you choose one.
Michael Jospe, PCC, is the founder and lead instructor of Earth-Based Institute, an ICF Level 2 accredited Nature-Connected Coaching certification based in Colorado. He has been an ICF-credentialed coach for over 20 years and has trained coaches in nature-connected practice since 2008.
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Earth-Based Institute is an ICF Level 2-accredited training organization. We've certified Nature-Connected Coaches since 2008, alongside offering programs for personal growth, leadership, and 1:1 coaching.
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