Clear Beliefs Coach

Clear Beliefs Coach Training is a specialty certification program founded by Lion Goodman, PCC, a Professional Certified Coach and executive coach with more than 45 years of experience in transformational coaching, psychology, neuroscience, and men's work. Goodman created the Clear Beliefs Method after decades of studying more than 100 techniques and teachers in service of one question: what actually produces permanent change in human beings, rather than temporary relief? The program is operated through the Clear Beliefs Institute, based in Sonoma County, California.

The training is explicitly positioned as therapeutic coaching rather than therapy, a distinction Goodman draws carefully. Its goal is to locate and permanently remove the limiting and negative beliefs that sit at the core of a client's subconscious mind, then replace them with empowering ones. More than 650 coaches, therapists, healers, and change agents in 45+ countries have graduated from the program. Independent psychometric research commissioned by the Institute has documented significant improvements in personality characteristics and reductions in negative self-beliefs and trauma responses among program completers.

Earning a Certified Clear Beliefs Coach designation signals that a practitioner has trained specifically in subconscious belief identification and the Institute's proprietary clearing techniques, skills that go beyond what most general coach training programs cover.

The Clear Beliefs Method

The method rests on a single premise: most persistent client difficulties (recurring emotional patterns, self-sabotage, relationship difficulties, and professional blocks) originate in subconscious core beliefs formed during childhood. Addressing behavior or thought patterns at the surface level produces temporary results; intervening at the belief layer produces permanent structural change.

In each client engagement, the work moves through four stages:

Belief Identification

The coach uses a set of fourteen distinct techniques to locate the relevant beliefs driving a client's issue. This is investigative work, what Goodman calls "subconscious pattern detection," and the training devotes substantial time to developing this skill. Beliefs are rarely stated directly by clients; coaches learn to recognize them through language, metaphor, body signals, and the structure of the client's narrative.

Excavation and Core Belief Discovery

Once surface beliefs are identified, the process moves deeper toward core beliefs, the foundational structures formed in early childhood that give rise to many downstream patterns. The BodyWisdom process, a complementary technique taught alongside the main method, engages physical sensation as a route to beliefs that clients cannot access cognitively.

Release via the BeliefCloset Process

The BeliefCloset Process is the method's signature technique. Using guided imagery, the coach leads the client into a symbolic interior space, the "belief closet," where a limiting belief can be examined, reframed, and permanently deleted from the psyche. The process works without requiring the client to relive trauma directly; the imagery structure provides sufficient distance for the deletion to occur. Goodman holds registered trademarks on the BeliefCloset Process and the BeliefCloset name.

Replacement and Integration

Deletion alone is insufficient. The cleared belief is replaced with a deliberately chosen empowering belief, which is then anchored using further guided processes. Subsequent sessions test and deepen the integration, confirming the new belief has taken hold.

Coach Training Program

The Clear Beliefs Coach Training is delivered as a cohort-based, live-virtual program structured in two sequential levels.

Level 1: Belief Transformation Mastery

Eight weekly live teleclasses of three hours each (Tuesday mornings Pacific Time). Students master the foundational principles of belief-change work: the architecture of the subconscious mind, the fourteen core belief-finding techniques, the BeliefCloset Process, and the BodyWisdom process. The cohort-based format means students practice extensively with peers, three practice sessions per week (as coach, client, and observer), supervised by a Certified Assistant Coach.

Level 2: Advanced Healing and Transformation

Twelve additional weekly teleclasses extending the toolkit into advanced therapeutic techniques for healing core wounds and resolving early traumas. Level 2 prepares graduates to work with more complex client presentations and introduces the map for the manifestation process. Graduates of both levels receive the right to use Goodman's seven-part Clear Your Beliefs client course as a packageable offering.

The complete program runs approximately 20 weeks and requires a commitment of 8–12 hours per week, combining live classes, peer practice triads, reading, video study, written reports, and exams. More than 100 PDF lessons, 60 video and audio recordings, and 75+ reference articles are provided via a learning management system. Classes are recorded for students who cannot attend live.

Accreditation and ICF Relationship

The Clear Beliefs Coach Training is approved by the ICF for 40 hours of Continuing Coach Education (CCE) credits, meaning coaches who already hold an ICF credential (ACC, PCC, or MCC) can apply completion of the program toward their renewal requirements. The program is also approved by the Association for Coaching for CCE credits.

This is an important distinction: CCE approval differs from ICF's Level 1 or Level 2 accreditation for initial coach training programs. Clear Beliefs Coach Training is not a standalone pathway to an ICF credential; it is a specialty add-on for coaches who want to deepen their practice with belief-change methodology. Most Clear Beliefs graduates enter the training with existing coaching or therapeutic credentials.

The Institute has also conducted psychometric research on program outcomes, a relatively unusual step for a boutique specialty program, providing independent data rather than relying solely on testimonials.

What This Means for You

If you are considering working with a Certified Clear Beliefs Coach, the credential tells you that the coach has completed a structured, supervised training in a specific subconscious belief-change methodology, one with a clear theoretical framework, documented techniques, and a cohort-based learning format. It does not, on its own, guarantee broader coaching competencies; many practitioners hold the Clear Beliefs certification alongside other credentials such as an ICF ACC or PCC.

The approach is best suited to clients whose recurring challenges seem resistant to insight alone, where knowing the pattern is not sufficient to change it. Good questions to ask a prospective coach include what other coaching or therapeutic training they hold alongside this certification, how they determine when the Clear Beliefs approach is the right intervention, and how they handle situations where a client's material falls outside the scope of coaching.