Kun Academy · ICF-accredited coach education
Somatic Thinking™ is its own original methodology — not an adaptation of Western “somatic coaching,” and not a set of techniques you perform on a client. It develops you, level by level, into a coach who works with body and mind together — because to coach this way, you can’t do the coach. You have to be the coach.
Presence-based, human-based coaching.
ICF-accredited academy · Level 1 & Level 2 · founded by Samer Hassan, ICF MCC — the highest credential in coaching.
Two readers, one journey
Two people arrive at this page. The journey is the same; the reason is different. Choose your doorway, and we’ll take you from there.
You want to help people for a living — or you already do, and you sense your tools are reaching their ceiling. STCE develops you as a human being first and a professional coach second, and certifies that growth with the International Coaching Federation at every credit-bearing level. You leave able to coach individuals, groups, and organisations the Somatic Thinking way — with real clients from day one.
Begin with the foundation → STICMaybe you’re not here to become a coach — you’re here to change. Many who come to Somatic Thinking never set out to certify; they came because they wanted a different relationship with themselves, with the people they love, and with life — and they walked away with one. This path develops the human first, so your own self-awareness, balance, and presence are the point, not a by-product. And it meets you from inside your own beliefs and values, never against them. You don’t have to want a career in coaching for this to change your life.
Begin with the introduction → STIThe root
Before the trunk, before the branches, there is the root — and the root is not a level you enrol in. It is an intention you bring.
This journey begins the moment you decide, honestly, to grow — to walk a real path of transformation that starts with your own self and refuses to stop there. Our heritage gives this its weight — in the words of the Qur’an:
“Whoever gives life to one, it is as though he gave life to all mankind.”
We take from it a principle of ripple — reviving a single self never ends with that self. You change, and the change travels: to the people around you, and through them to the people around them, outward without end. That intention is the root. Everything above the ground — the foundation, the identity, the specialisations — grows out of it. Carry it, and you are ready for the trunk.
So before you choose a door, ask yourself one honest question: am I here to truly transform — and to carry that transformation to the people around me? If the answer is yes, you are already rooted.
The journey at a glance
One spine everyone walks: introduction, foundation, identity. Then it branches by ambition. The journey is modular — stop, rest, resume, and everything compounds.
Each branch you add is another way to serve — and another door to a livelihood.
The method behind it
Every level on this ladder grows from one methodology — so the foundation you absorb is the same ground you stand on when you take on groups and organisations. Nothing is bolted on later.
Somatic Thinking links thoughts, bodily sensations, and behaviour until they begin to correct one another, and awareness rises. A Somatic Thinking coach doesn’t only listen to your words — we listen to your body and your behaviour too, bring all of it into your attention, and then you decide. We don’t grade you and we don’t prescribe; we are a clear, neutral mirror that shows things as they are. And we work from a deep conviction in you: your answers are already inside you, waiting to be seen — and the body helps us find them, because the mind spins stories that lead away from the truth, while the body tells only the truth. The coach is never a technician with a toolbox; the competencies are grown in your own humanity, until you become the tool in the coachee’s hands.
This is a tradition that never split body from ethics — and we borrow our authority from no one. Lived practice leads: years of work, hundreds of thousands of sessions. Contemporary science (embodied cognition, interoception) and a deep intellectual heritage stand as corroborating witnesses, never as the ground we stand on.
The first step. Your first real taste.
A short, recorded first encounter with the method — six hours you can take in your own time. It exists to answer one question honestly before you commit to the full journey: what does coaching the Somatic Thinking way actually feel like? You meet the core idea — the body as a bridge to awareness — see the Human Interaction Cycle at a glance, and watch the method work, so your next step is a real choice, not a leap of faith.
Anyone curious — whether you are weighing a coaching career, you already coach and want to feel a different way of working, or you simply want to understand what “presence-based, human-based coaching” means before you go further.
The foundation every branch is built on.
This is the foundational phase of everything we do — the level where we develop the human behind the coach. Over 69 live hours you grow on two tracks at once. Personally, you deepen your self-awareness, your understanding of the human relationship to life, and your holistic balance of mind, body, and heart — building a robust presence and a humane mindset. Professionally, you learn professional coaching in depth: the ICF core competencies, how to see a client holistically, how to build a coaching programme, and how to coach within ICF ethics. You practise with real clients from day one — with “the coach behind the coach” supporting you — and, crucially, you also receive Somatic Thinking coaching yourself, as a client, because you cannot offer a depth you have never been to.
Aspiring coaches ready to build a real practice on a real foundation · anyone seeking balance — harmony with yourself, with others, and with life in general — whether or not you ever coach professionally · practising coaches, therapists, mentors, leaders, and managers who want to renew their practice and add something fresh, unique, and proven to how they already serve people.
Ground your coaching identity, from the roots of the self.
Before you specialise, you settle one question: who am I as a coach? “Your Identity” is a 10-hour recorded level that takes the self-awareness you built in the Foundation and roots it into a stable professional identity — so that whichever branch you choose next, you carry it from a centre that is genuinely yours rather than borrowed. It is the bridge between knowing how to coach and knowing the coach you are. This is the gate into the branches; every specialisation begins here.
Foundation graduates who are ready to specialise — coaches who want to anchor their professional identity from the roots of the self before they commit to a path (advanced individual, group, organisational, or family and couples).
From here, every path builds on the Foundation and Your Identity. You don’t have to choose all of them, and you don’t have to choose now — the journey is modular. You can stop, rest, and resume, and everything you’ve built compounds. Each branch you add is another way to serve, and another door to a livelihood.
Remember: each new door you open is a new door to a livelihood — and the difference between one door and three is a large one.
The deepest one-to-one mastery.
This is a much deeper level — where you work on yourself for more balance and better presence, and where the method’s most advanced one-to-one work lives. You learn to listen to the coachee’s body directly, through the advanced somatosensory work (S-Work) and the Somatic Scan, and to read the wider field of a person’s life through the Domains of Interaction and the Omni-Sphere. You build holistic Growth Plans and run the full ST Advanced Coaching Sequence. It is the mastery track for coaches who want to take individual work as far as it goes.
Coaches pursuing the deepest possible one-to-one mastery — who want presence, embodiment, and somatosensory skill at the highest individual level.
Bring the benefit of an individual session to a whole group.
Coaching a group the Somatic Thinking way is not a watered-down version of coaching one person — it is activating knowledge. The coachee becomes the active author of their own learning rather than a passive receiver, and the group becomes a living space where each person grows through the others. Over 40 live hours you learn to hold that field: to carry the depth of an individual session into a room of people without losing any of it.
Coaches who want to work with groups — to multiply their impact across many people at once, the ST way.
A specialisation of Group Coaching — the group skill, carried home.
The family is where the whole method comes home. Family & Couples Coaching is a specialisation of Group Coaching — it takes the skill of holding a group field and carries it into the most intimate human systems of all: couples and families. You coach them not toward a transaction but toward the bonded, cohesive belonging we all dream of: members in harmony, communicating humanely, raising children who practise noble human values. Over 20 live hours you learn to hold a family field with the same presence you bring to an individual, and graduation qualifies you to join Wisal, the Somatic Thinking family-coaching delivery network.
Coaches who want to build families and couples on noble human values — who have completed the Foundation, Your Identity, and Group Coaching (this branch builds directly on the group skill), and want to serve the most foundational human relationship of all.
Coach leaders, teams, and institutions.
An organisation is simply groups of individuals in roles — so the same methodology scales again. Over 36 live hours you learn to work with leaders, teams, executives, and whole institutions, and to navigate the dynamics that make organisational work distinct: the sponsor who pays, the stakeholders with a view, and the coachee in the room — whose goals you serve, and how you serve all of them humanely and effectively. Leadership is leadership wherever it lives: a CEO leads a company, a mother leads a family; both need presence, and both can grow it here.
Coaches working with leaders, teams, executives, and institutions who want to bring Somatic Thinking into organisational life.
Your ICF credential pathway
The whole ladder is built on the ICF’s accreditation framework, so every credit-bearing level is also a step toward your own ICF credential. And the mentor-coaching hours every credential requires are included within the journey — one less thing to chase down later.
| Your level | ICF accreditation | The credential it opens | What you add to earn it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation — STIC | Level 1 | ACC · Associate Certified Coach | 100+ coaching-experience hours · 10 mentor hours (included) · 1 recorded evaluation · ICF exam |
| Advanced Individual — STAIC | Level 2 | PCC · Professional Certified Coach | 500+ coaching-experience hours · 10 mentor hours (included) · 2 recordings · ICF exam |
| Level 3 — in progress | Level 3 (coming) | MCC · Master Certified Coach | hold PCC first · 2,500+ hours · 2 recordings · ICF exam |
The credentials you earn from the ICF directly — ACC & PCC active, MCC on the horizon.
Group, Organisational, and Family & Couples Coaching are also Level 1 — further accredited hours that deepen your ICF education.
We state only what we hold — Level 1 and Level 2 accreditation. ACC, PCC, and MCC are credentials you earn from the ICF directly; our levels give you the education and the mentor-coaching hours the application requires.
Two special foundation editions
For two professions, the Foundation comes in a dedicated edition — same depth, same ICF accreditation, shaped around the world you already work in. These have their own dedicated pages:
Beyond the ladder
The journey doesn’t end at the levels — that’s where it opens up. When you finish, you don’t graduate away from us; you keep growing, and you start earning from what you’ve built.
Become a mentor coach — qualified to develop other coaches and accompany them as they grow. The role behind the role: the coach who shapes coaches.
We open the door to real, willing clients — so you start practising your calling with people who want exactly what you now offer, instead of building a client base from zero.
Step up from coaching to teaching: train to facilitate and deliver Somatic Thinking education with us, and carry the method to the next generation of coaches.
Build the brand around your gift — your own identity, your social content, and your voice on camera and in the room. We help you master how you show up, so the right people find you.
When you finish a level, you don’t walk out; you walk in. You join the Companionship — صحبة كُن — a living, worldwide community built on the same values we grow in every coach: a place where we work together, play together, and grow together. You won’t walk this path alone again. You’re among your people.
Proof & credibility
ICF-accredited academy — Level 1 & Level 2 · Continuing Coach Education (CCE)
Somatic Thinking is featured in Dr. Tünde Erdős, Coaching Presence (McGraw-Hill / Open University Press, 2021) — a study built on 184 recorded coach–client sessions.
Samer Hassan, ICF MCC. 15+ years of professional coaching; 30+ years of martial and healing arts; ICF Young Leader 2019.
Endorsements
No. Somatic Thinking™ is its own original methodology, with its own philosophical roots — not a translation or adaptation of Western somatic coaching. It comes from a tradition that never split the body from ethics. Where some approaches treat the body as a sensation to manage, we work with thoughts, bodily sensations, and behaviour together, so they correct one another and awareness rises. The resemblance is on the surface; the foundation is different.
Yes, and the evidence is well established. ICF studies report roughly 86% of companies recouped their investment in coaching (around three times the spend), 70% of individuals saw improved work performance, and 80% reported greater self-confidence. In our own practice — across thousands of sessions — working with the mind and body together is where we see people reach their breakthroughs.
No. Somatic Thinking is an inclusive, universal methodology open to everyone, of any background or belief. It is built from a deep intellectual and human heritage — but it is not a religious method, and it is never marketed as one. Lived practice and human science lead; heritage stands as a corroborating witness, not a requirement.
No. We work with concrete, observable bodily sensations and behaviour — not auras, energy fields, or anything you can’t actually feel and verify. The claims are grounded in lived practice and in embodied-cognition and interoception research, not in metaphysics.
Yes. Live online levels carry the exact same ICF accreditation and the same standard of practice as in-person work. Your certification does not depend on the room you’re in — it depends on the hours, the competencies, and the real-client practice you complete.
Each level lists its own hours, format, and enrolment terms. The journey is modular — you can stop, rest, and resume, and everything compounds. For refund and cancellation specifics, see our policy.
Our levels are ICF-accredited education: the Foundation is Level 1 (your pathway to the ACC) and Advanced Individual is Level 2 (your pathway to PCC), with Level 3 / MCC in progress. The credential itself you earn from the ICF directly, by adding coaching-experience hours and sitting the ICF exam — and the mentor-coaching hours are included in the journey.
Begin here
If you want to turn your passion for people into a real message in life, this is where it starts. Begin with the introduction, then build the foundation. The rest of the journey — and the Companionship at the end of it — opens from there.
What comes from the heart reaches the heart.
Upcoming
A curated collection from Kun Academy — learning, events, and content in one place.
Your first gateway to Somatic Thinking® — learn the fundamentals of coaching and four core principles through practical exercises. 6-hour recorded course you can watch anytime.
Online·6 hrs
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