Our Story
Helping Trauma and Abuse Survivors
ARCS started 1997, as a small counseling office. Just as today, the original ARCS counseling practice specialized in working with trauma survivors --- including those who have endured childhood abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics, domestic abuse and otherwise toxic relationships, war and other violent environments, substance and behavioral addictions, and all other forms of post-traumatic stress.
Then as now, ARCS has always realized that the healing principles and emotional skills utilized to help trauma survivors can also be employed to empower anyone who wishes to implement positive and self-caring changes within their daily lives and relationships.
Then as now, ARCS has always realized that the healing principles and emotional skills utilized to help trauma survivors can also be employed to empower anyone who wishes to implement positive and self-caring changes within their daily lives and relationships.
Essentially, ARCS helps people move from just surviving --- to thriving.
ARCS Goes National
One of our founding therapists just happened to be a "techie", an exceedingly important skill in the advent of the internet age. She gradually cultivated relationships with various online sites, blogs and publications, through which ARCS posted "free consultations" for trauma, abuse and PTSD survivors, substance and behavioral addicts and anyone seeking help.
Soon the little ARCS Counseling office was deluged with requests, and we began needing counselors in every state...
Helping The Helpers
As ARCS grew beyond the bounds of what its three original therapists could handle, our founders decided to "help the helpers", by developing a Life Coaching Certification Program specifically for Masters and PhD-level counselors seeking additional training and specialization in addictions and correlated trauma.
ARCS used to offer certifications only to Masters and PhD-level practitioners, but today our certification program is available to anyone who feels called to become a Coach.
All modules within the ARCS Certification Curriculum are accessed online, in a video-workbook format, and they are accompanied by live online classes which program participants attend each week -- with their Coach-Teacher and fellow classmates.
Just some of the topics covered in ARCS Certification Curriculum include:
- The Cycle of Abuse and Addiction
- The Disease Concept of Addiction
- Relapse Prevention
- The Most Sustainable Models for Change
- Healing Behavioral Addiction
- The Role of Personal Faith in the Healing Process
- Developmental Stages
- PTSD Theory
- Overcoming Trauma
- Effectively Responding to Emotions
- Practicing Boundaries
- Acquiring Healthy Relationships
- Accessing Internal Awareness
- Enhancing Personal Security
- Building Self-Esteem
- Developing Internal Loyalty
- Cultivating Inner-Connectivity
- Coaching Practice Techniques
- Coaching Practice Ethics
Certification for Survivors
Over the course of the ensuing decades, ARCS received repeated requests from the clients of Certified Coaches. These clients had journeyed through ARCS healing tools and principles and, now, wished to teach them to others.
ARCS strives to be responsive to the needs of our clients. Thus, in 2015, our administrative team set about the endeavor of adapting our Life Coaching Certification Program for licensed professionals --- to make it available for non-licensed laypersons.
ARCS strives to be responsive to the needs of our clients. Thus, in 2015, our administrative team set about the endeavor of adapting our Life Coaching Certification Program for licensed professionals --- to make it available for non-licensed laypersons.
Now, ARCS students can venture through our Life Coaching Coaching Certification Program receiving emotional healing skills and training to coach others, simultaneously.
Life Coaching Certification Program participants progress through the online video-workbook lessons in the ARCS Curriculum at their own pace because the healing process has its own cadence within each individual. Then each week, participants will also attend live online classes led by an ARCS Certified Coach --- who has themselves graduated from the very same process, and now teaches with ARCS.
In fact, all ARCS Classes are taught by ARCS Coaches. And, all ARCS graduates are welcome to apply for teaching positions, in addition to being able to offer online, phone and in-person coaching services throughout the United States.
A Unique and Life-Changing Program
ARCS is a unique program that cannot be compared to the conventional structure of most online life coaching schools because the ARCS Life Coaching Certification Program offers a meld of both academic and experiential learning.
In addition to imparting emotional, relationship, communication and coaching techniques, ARCS online video-workbook lessons also ask program participants to incorporate these skills within their daily actions and interactions. Essentially, as an ARCS student you will explore the very same tools and resources that you may later recommend to your clients.
And ARCS live, online classes often feel more like a coaching group than a traditional classroom. Students share their stories with one another and garner life-sustaining skills from their Coach-Teacher. Students apply the skills that they are learning in "real time" --- within their own lives --- thereby enhancing their own well-being and also ensuring that they will be equipped to teach their clients how to thrive.
In addition to imparting emotional, relationship, communication and coaching techniques, ARCS online video-workbook lessons also ask program participants to incorporate these skills within their daily actions and interactions. Essentially, as an ARCS student you will explore the very same tools and resources that you may later recommend to your clients.
And ARCS live, online classes often feel more like a coaching group than a traditional classroom. Students share their stories with one another and garner life-sustaining skills from their Coach-Teacher. Students apply the skills that they are learning in "real time" --- within their own lives --- thereby enhancing their own well-being and also ensuring that they will be equipped to teach their clients how to thrive.
As an ARCS Student, you'll learn to facilitate healing in others --- as you heal within yourself.
Emotional and Economic Empowerment
ARCS is dedicated to the emotional and economic empowerment of our clients, students and coaches.
ARCS graduates receive two specialized Life Coaching Certifications:
- CARC-I (Certified Addiction-Recovery Coach): for specialized work with substance and behavioral addicts
- CARC-II (Certified Abuse-Recovery Coach): for specialized work with abuse survivors
Grant Funding is available
A Transformative Journey
The ARCS Life Coaching Certification Program invites you to embark upon a transformative journey of enhanced awareness, internal empowerment, self-acceptance and love --- and, then, to guide others through that same path.
Learn and then teach others how to:
- rewire emotional patterns
- change behavior patterns
- increase self-esteem
- recognize abusive personalities
- practice healthy boundaries
- choose supportive relationships
Today, ARCS has Certified Life Coaches in every state. We are a family of survivors who have transcended our difficulties and, now, enjoy a purposeful life of helping others to heal and become whole.