November 4, 2026 5:30 p.m. (CT)

November 5, 2026 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (CT)

7 CCEs: 4 Core Competencies, 3 Resource Development

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Speakers | Session Topics | Hotel Lodging Recommendations

ABOUT THE 2026 COACHES CONFERENCE

Community. Visibility. Amplify.

Get ready for another dynamic coaches' conference!

Returning to the beautiful Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, our 2026 Coaches Conference will bring together visionary coaches, global thought leaders, and industry innovators from across the country for a premier learning and connection experience designed for the present and future of coaching.

In celebration of our 30th anniversary, this year’s conference will explore the conversations shaping the next era of our profession — including AI and the future of coaching, team coaching, coaching across generations, supporting Gen Z in a rapidly changing world, and empowering the growing population of clients over 50 navigating reinvention, purpose, and transition.

Speakers

Flip the Script!! BFF Your Saboteurs to Broaden Your Business – Sophia Casey, MCC

What if the voice in your head that’s been holding you back is actually here to help you grow? In this high-energy, eye-opening session, Master Certified Coach Sophia Casey invites coaches to flip the script on self-sabotage by turning their saboteurs into unlikely allies. You’ll explore how these inner voices quietly shape your business moves, from pricing and visibility to leadership and expansion. Then, you’ll learn how to shift the dynamic, so that what once blocked your growth becomes fuel for your next level. If you're ready to broaden your business without battling yourself, this session is your invitation.

The Coach as an Instrument: How Somatics and Neurobiology Transform the Conversation – Karen Nash, PCC

The most sophisticated tool in any coaching conversation is the coach. Not the questions you ask or the models you use. YOU. Your nervous system, your body, your capacity to stay present and regulated when a client brings something heavy or unresolved, or even something very exciting. This workshop explores what it means to treat yourself as an instrument that requires tuning, maintenance, and skilled use.

Drawing on current neurobiology and somatic coaching principles, participants will examine how the coach's internal state shapes the conditions for transformational conversation. Through a real client story, we will trace how somatic signals were present throughout the session, what they communicated, and what became possible when the coach learned to work with them intentionally. Participants will then experience a brief somatic practice to build the body awareness and nervous system literacy that precision coaching demands.

This session connects directly to the ICF Core Competencies, particularly Embodies a Coaching Mindset, Maintains Presence, and Evokes Awareness. You will leave with new language, a felt sense of what regulated presence offers clients, and at least one practice you can use before your next session.

The Coach in the Mirror: Leading Yourself for Greater Impact – Chris Berry, ACC

This interactive workshop helps professional coaches explore self-awareness, leadership presence, and personal growth. Anchored by Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”, participants reflect through multiple mirror perspectives and everyday life to uncover blind spots, distorted perceptions, and personal leadership opportunities. Coaches leave with an actionable personal development plan to strengthen their presence, influence, and professional impact. 

Coach Know Thyself: Discover the Coach Beneath the Training – Pam Reaves, PCC

You know how to coach. But do you know who you are when you coach?

Most coaches can recite the ICF competencies, follow a framework, and ask a powerful question. But when coaching gets hard — when the client is stuck, the session isn't flowing, or self-doubt creeps in — what you fall back on isn't your training. It's who you are.

Coach, Know Thyself is a 50-minute experiential session that takes coaches beneath technique and into identity. Through teaching, guided reflection, and peer exchange, you'll uncover your unique coaching truth — the values, beliefs, and way of being that make your coaching distinctly yours. When you know who you are as a coach, presence isn't something you perform. It becomes something you inhabit.

Team Coaching in Action: Building High-Performing Teams Through Systemic Practice – Gillian Masarie, PCC & Jayne Robinson, PCC

In this interactive session, discover how systemic team coaching transforms the way teams function. You'll explore the fundamentals of team coaching—defining the coach's role in supporting collective intelligence and review the five types of team development as described by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Rather than theory alone, this session brings team coaching to life. Observe a team navigating a typical team meeting, revealing both functional moments and common pitfalls. Watch as the co-coaches use targeted interventions to help the team honor agreed-upon meeting norms, shifting culture in real time. This demonstration reveals the nuanced skill of holding space for both task and relationship.

You'll walk away with a practical checklist of coach behaviors, tools, and interventions—designed for the messy reality of team meetings—that you can apply immediately in your own coaching practice.

Drawing on the foundational work of Peter Hawkins, David Clutterbuck, and Organization and Relationship Systems coaching, this session bridges the gap between systemic understanding and tangible application, leaving you confident to coach teams with greater impact and clarity.

Transformative Leadership: Keeping Humanity at the Center of AI Innovation–Susan Caesar

We are living through a defining moment that will determine what stays human as artificial intelligence reshapes how we work, lead, and grow. In this eye-opening session, Susan Caesar (Director of AI at the ICF and Founder of humAIn.org) shifts the narrative from the fear of technological replacement to thoughtful, life-centered collaboration.

Session Topics at the 2026 Conference

The Coach Exchange

Introducing the Coach Exchange, a brand-new experience at this year’s conference! Choose two 30-minute interactive Table Talks led by experienced coaches and thought leaders. These smaller conversations are designed to get you thinking, talking, connecting, and walking away with ideas you can put into practice.

Positioning Your Coaching on LinkedIn | Dr. Aikyna Finch

Move beyond simply being visible on LinkedIn and think more intentionally about how you position yourself as a coach. Dr. Finch will help you explore how your expertise, experience, voice, values, profile, and content can work together to build credibility, connection, and meaningful opportunities, without feeling overly promotional.

How to Set Up Coaching for Mastery | Hannah Finrow, MCC

What if masterful coaching begins with how we establish the relationship? Hannah will lead a conversation about creating the conditions for deeper coaching through presence, partnership, and client ownership, while exploring how who we are as coaches influences how we show up in the relationship.

The Stories We Tell and the Presence We Bring | Matthew Kodsi, M.D., Ph.D.

Explore how the stories clients tell themselves can influence perception, behavior, choices, and possibilities. Drawing from his work on story and presence, Matthew will share practical frameworks coaches can use to deepen awareness, listening, connection, and presence in their coaching.

Coaching Supervision | Renee Fluty

You’ve heard more about coaching supervision, but what is it, how is it different from mentor coaching, and what value can it bring to your practice? Renee brings decades of experience in counseling, coaching, and supervision to an open conversation designed to answer questions, challenge assumptions, and spark curiosity about this growing area of professional development.

Coaches Get Triggered Too: When Your EQ Meets the Coaching Moment | Jennifer Gamble

Coaches have reactions, too. Through a realistic coaching scenario, peer discussion, and reflection, Jennifer will explore what happens when a coaching moment triggers something in us and how greater self-awareness and curiosity can help us choose responses that strengthen presence and partnership.

Belonging Starts Here: Find Your Community at ICFTN | Sylvie Maury

Coaching can be solitary work. We spend so much of our time creating space for others, yet we also need places where we feel connected, supported, and understood.

And belonging matters. Research links belonging to well-being, resilience, and our ability to thrive.

In this interactive 30-minute roundtable, we won’t just talk about belonging; we’ll experience it.

Through a brief activity, conversation, and reflection, you’ll connect with other coaches and notice what helps you feel seen, heard, and included.

You’ll leave with new connections and questions you can use throughout the conference to move beyond introductions and into more meaningful conversations.

Because belonging starts with connection.

Six conversations. You choose two. Come ready to exchange.

The Coach Exchange is just one of the new experiences waiting for you at this year’s conference. Which two tables will you choose?

Hotel Lodging Recommendations

If you have questions, please contact the ICFTN Assistant Team at [email protected].