Becoming a Coach: My Honest Dharma Coaching Institute Review

If you haven’t noticed, the professional coaching industry is expanding rapidly. Lately, I’ve been asked more often to share advice with people considering a career in coaching, along with my honest take on the certification program I completed.

So I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there..

(Did you get the Fresh Price reference? Did I make you smile?)

Ok, ok, let’s get into it.

Here’s my two-part advice for anyone thinking about becoming a coach.

1. GET A COACH

This might go without saying — but I’m saying it anyway. How can you step into a profession you’ve never experienced firsthand? Coaching is not therapy. (Read more on that here →) And there are so many types of coaches doing wildly different things with vastly different approaches. Do your homework. Then work with someone who can help you grow in an area that genuinely matters to you.

Want to improve your relationships? Hire an intimacy coach.

Need support with your health? Try a wellness coach.

Craving clarity around career or purpose? A career or life coach could be right.

Or, if all of these things sound great and you’re not sure where to start, consider hiring a more generalized coach like me, who focuses on the deep inner work that underlies it all.

What kind of coach are you considering becoming? Hire that coach.

2. BE PREPARED TO DO A LOT MORE THAN COACHING

When I was getting regular waxes and European Wax Center in New Orleans a million years ago, I met a wax specialist who became one of my best friends. Rhianna was really good at her job, sick of giving EWC a big cut, and thinking about starting her own business. At the time, I was managing a small wellness company and had learned a hard truth — Just because you love your craft doesn’t mean you’ll love building a business around it. The second you step out of the tradesperson role and into the business owner role, you’ll find yourself wearing at least fifteen new hats. Now, suddenly, you’re not just the doctor, waxer, coach; you’re also the marketer, copywriter, bookkeeper, web developer, IT support, admin assistant, scheduler, customer service rep… You get the idea.

I recommended a book to Rhianna called The E-Myth Revisited, and I would recommend it again today to anyone considering stepping into entrepreneurship. By the way, Rhianna went on to found South Skin, a thriving skincare studio in New Orleans.

I love coaching with all my heart—and I’m really good at it. And it would be cool if that were enough to “succeed” in this field. (I put “succeed” in quotes because success is personal and subjective.) But to succeed (in my way), I’ve also had to learn to love writing email sequences, setting up Stripe subscriptions, managing a website, and keeping the business running behind the scenes.

If you’re resourceful, willing to be uncomfortable, and genuinely enjoy wearing multiple hats, then I would say proceed with your exploration of coaching.

If all of this totally turns you off, I don’t blame you! Sometimes I wish I could go back to working for a company with benefits and consistent paychecks. There’s no better or worse way to live your life. Some people really thrive in structure, predictability, and team environments where they can focus on one role without having to worry about all the background stuff. I recommend checking in and being honest with yourself about where you fall on that spectrum, while also giving yourself permission not to have it all figured out. It's okay not to know, and it's okay for your answer to change over time.

Because coaching is still a largely unregulated field (more on that here →), there isn’t a clear path to employment like in therapy or social work. There’s no built-in system to provide clients after certification. All of this could change, and there are already platforms that are aiming to build streamlined resources for clients and coaches to find each other. However, for now, it’s an evolving free-for-all, and you need to be prepared for that.

Here’s My Honest Review of the Coaching Program I Chose

I completed certification in 2022 at The Highest Self Institute, formerly known as The Dharma Coaching Institute (DCI), founded by Sahara Rose.

I discovered DCI after reading "Discover Your Dharma: A Vedic Guide to Living Your Best Life." I don’t recall how the book ended up in my hands, but at that point, I had been managing a small company for almost seven years, living in New Orleans for almost a decade, and was trying to envision what my next steps might look like. I had also been working with my own personal spiritual teacher and guide, Lee, for many years, who was introduced to me by my twin-sister-cousin, Sarah.

The work Lee and I did together involved a lot of introspection to examine my beliefs and subconscious programming, which were determining my behavior and how I experienced my life. I recall one of the first things I worked on with him was addressing my temper with an ex-boyfriend. I wasn’t proud of the way I was failing to communicate calmly, and during outbursts, I felt like I had no control.

I found Lee and my time together to be invaluable as I unravelled parts of myself I never knew, and watched my external world improve like clockwork. He taught me how to use my life as a curriculum to heal and evolve at the deepest level— to bring my unconscious into the conscious and use it to create a life I wanted. Needless to say, my temper vanished, my communication improved, and this was just the very tip of what would become my life’s obsession turned career.

If you were to ask me why I got into coaching, the true answer is because I know what life feels like without coaching, both in myself and in people close to me growing up— suppressed emotions turned to outbursts, pain not processed projected onto others, leadership that drains instead of inspires, internal confusion, anxiety, depression… I could go on and on and on. And I’m sure you’ve witnessed these things too in others and maybe even in yourself.

I used to say that my hour talking to Lee was my favorite hour of the week, tapped into what felt like a higher energetic frequency. Then I started to wonder what my life would feel like if, instead of limiting my experience of that frequency to just one hour a week, I allowed it to take up more space in my life. I didn’t realize at the time that what that actually meant was allowing myself to expand and elevate to a higher frequency. Now, I often find myself steeped in gratitude for the fact that I get to live in that energy almost all of the time.

But back then, I didn’t know how to get from A to B, and that’s where reading Sahara’s book came in. I felt excited by all the overlap with the inner work I had spent years doing with my teacher, and a vision for the future came into focus— What if I could be the kind of guide for others that Lee has been for me? In fact, wasn’t this already the role I played naturally for people in my personal and professional life?

When I told Lee and my friends and family about my decision to pursue this path, to say that no one was surprised is putting it lightly. It felt like I was the last to arrive at the party of how obvious it was that this was the perfect job for me.

Signing up for DCI was a quick decision, which was significant, coming from someone who identified as an indecisive over-analyzer. The program was thousands of dollars, which was, at that time, the most money I had ever spent on a single purchase. (This was quickly trumped by the need for some serious dental work a short while later. -_- ) I didn’t do much research on other programs. It turns out that when you’re in alignment, things can feel simple and easy.

WHAT I LOVED

1. THE PEOPLE

Suddenly, I was in an environment with 350 other humans who wanted to explore their shadows, rewrite their conditioning, and live with more alignment?! It felt like coming home, and the practice-coaching on each other made for fast friendships that have lasted to this day. In fact, I’m writing this Substack just moments before a dear DCI friend, Ashley, is arriving to visit me in San Diego for the weekend. Perhaps the people were the single most valuable takeaway from the program. (Isn’t it always so?)

2. THE CONTENT

The curriculum was rich and wide-ranging — Ayurveda, Human Design, somatics, spiritual coaching, chakras and koshas, higher brain thinking, meditation, emotional intelligence, and more. I was like a kid in a candy shop— I got to taste topics I had been intrigued by, and delve into ones I already had some experience with. And most importantly, the whole program centered on doing the work on yourself first — a non-negotiable if you’re going to guide others. I couldn’t agree more with this principle, which brings me to my qualms…

WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE

1. THE LENGTH

The program was six months long. And while the content was rich and powerful, it moved fast — too fast, in my opinion.

I believe it’s essential to practice what you preach in this field. You can only take your clients as far as you’ve gone with yourself. And true inner work doesn’t follow a timeline. It takes time to integrate — not just to understand concepts intellectually, but to actually live them, embody them, and let them reshape how you show up in the world.

The work that DCI invites you into is deep and serious:

Exploring lifelong conditioning and subconscious beliefs.

Confronting fear and limitation.

Turning toward shadowed, long-ignored parts of yourself.

Everyone processes at a different pace, but for work this layered and transformative, I simply don’t believe a six-month window is enough time to give it the care, depth, and integration it deserves.

The entire program felt rushed. And I couldn’t help but wonder how many people were actually absorbing the material beyond on an intellectual level. I had already spent years doing this kind of inner work before arriving at DCI, and maybe I move slowly, but I know that there’s a big difference between insight on an intellectual level and wisdom that is embodied and integrated.

Have you ever met someone who reads a ton of self-help books but never actually changes anything about their life? Yea... (I know this because I’ve been there.)

Integration is when the theory becomes real. It’s when something clicks in your actual life — when a concept or phrase you’ve heard a hundred times suddenly lands for you on a much deeper level. Maybe you understood what it meant before, but now you reeeeeeaaaalllllllly understand— in a way that will so obviously change the way you naturally show up in your life. That’s integrated wisdom. That’s embodiment.

And that kind of transformation doesn’t happen in a sprint or on anyone else’s timeline but your own. Perhaps driven by a desire to be more appealing to the masses: “Become a certified coach in only six months!”, I believe they shortchanged the depth of what was being taught.

As a result, most graduates I know felt unprepared to start coaching professionally. And those who did often brought substantial prior experience that helped them fold DCI’s material into an existing foundation. I almost certainly would not have felt prepared to begin working with clients professionally had I not had the prior and ongoing experience I did.

2. THE LACK OF OVERSIGHT AND FOLLOW-UP

During the program, the instruction and support were solid. Sahara and her team were accessible and inspiring.

But once it ended? Crickets.

No formal follow-up. No mentorship. No oversight. And in my opinion, that’s not just a missed opportunity — it’s a red flag.

Have you seen the show Couples Therapy with clinical psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik? I was instantly obsessed (and maybe still kind of want to be Orna when I grow up). But one of the things I admire most about her practice is her clinical advisory group — a circle of trusted colleagues she consults regularly for feedback, guidance, and perspective. She also has a clinical advisor, whom she consults on a regular basis, as well.

That kind of ongoing collaboration feels essential in this work. And it’s something I’ve deeply craved since completing DCI — something I’ve had to piece together on my own in the absence of any structured post-grad support.

I’ve been fortunate to have a teacher who acts as a mentor in many ways, and I’ve sought out professional communities, groups, retreats, programs, and other teachers to help me grow as a coach. But it didn’t come from DCI, and I believe it should have— especially in an industry as unregulated as this one.*

Coaching is powerful, nuanced, deeply personal work. Without a support system, many new and even seasoned coaches either flounder or give up altogether, which ultimately hurts both the coach and the client.

*You can read more of my thoughts on the unregulated nature of the coaching industry here.

—

One more thing to remember: This is the work of life — and it is unfolding regardless of whether or not you have a coach.

Having a coach or guide is like having a second set of eyes on your inner landscape — someone who can help illuminate the patterns and clues that are too close to see from your own vantage point. Life is already handing you the lessons. Coaching, at its best, simply supports you in meeting those lessons more consciously, so that you may remember who and what you really are.

So that’s my honest take. I hope it helps you as you navigate your own path forward. And of course, if you have questions about coaching — or anything else — I’m just a message away.

We’re better when we’re connected.

With love and gratitude,

Alie