Experiential learning is the core of Co-Active training a hands-on methodology where you develop coaching skills by actively practicing, receiving feedback, and integrating your learning in real time. Unlike traditional lecture-based programs, this immersive approach ensures you don’t just understand concepts, you embody the confidence and competence of a coach who leads from their whole self: mind, body, heart, and spirit.
Have you ever left a seminar with pages of notes only to change nothing about how you actually interact with people? That gap is exactly what experiential learning solves.
👉 Register for Foundations to experience the difference yourself.
What’s Wrong with Traditional Learning?
The Limits of Passive, Lecture-Based Training
Coaching is a relational, embodied skill. It is something you do with people, not something you simply study.
Traditional learning treats you as a listener. Co-Active treats you as a participant, a creator, and a developing leader.
| Feature | Traditional (Passive) Learning | Co-Active (Experiential) Learning |
| Your Role | Note-Taker | Active Practitioner |
| Focus | Memorizing content | Developing Embodied skillset |
| Environment Engagement | Lecture-style Mind only | Dynamic learning lab Whole person: mind, body, heart, spirit |
| Outcome | Knowledge | Competence + Confidence |
In other words: you can’t learn presence, intuition, and relational capacity from slides.
What Is Experiential Learning Co-Active Style?
In Co-Active training, experiential learning is a structured cycle:
Practice → Reflect → Receive Feedback → Integrate → Practice Again.
This aligns with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory but with the unique Co-Active lens:
- People are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole
- Learning happens through human being + human doing
- Transformation comes from experience, not explanation
Every course becomes a live laboratory for growth, safe for risk-taking, and deep insight.
How Does Experiential Learning Work in a Co-Active Classroom?
You’re Coaching From Day One
From the first hour of Foundations, you’ll step into real coaching, not role-playing but authentic, human conversations guided by masterful faculty.
You Learn From World-Class Faculty
Co-Active programs are co-led by expert instructors who model the Co-Active approach, coach live, and offer real-time, in-the-moment feedback. You don’t just learn the Co-Active Model, you see it embodied.
You Engage Your Whole Self
Experiential learning activates emotional, physical, intuitive, and intellectual channels. This creates a deeper, longer-lasting transformation.
You Experience Both Seats
In Co-Active training, you learn by doing. You practice coaching real people with real challenges. And you receive coaching yourself, exploring what matters most in your own life.
This dual experience shapes you in ways that reading or lectures never could. When you sit in the client seat, you feel what it’s like to be truly heard. You discover how powerful questions open new perspectives. You experience your own growth unfold in real time.
Then you step into the coach seat. The vulnerability and breakthroughs you witnessed as a client become your compass. You understand on a felt level what your clients need because you’ve been there yourself. Each coaching conversation builds your confidence, and each time you’re coached deepens your capacity to hold space for others.
This back-and-forth between seats creates something remarkable: confidence that’s rooted in lived experience, and skills that become second nature because you’ve practiced them in both directions.
You Grow Inside a Community
Your cohort becomes your practice field, your support system, and the first ripple of transformation in your life and leadership.
The Three Core Benefits of Experiential Learning
1. You Build Muscle Memory, Not Just Mental Models
Skills like intuition, presence, and powerful questioning become second nature through repetition and embodied practice.
2. You Gain Unshakeable Confidence
Confidence doesn’t come from belief, it comes from proof. By coaching real people and receiving real feedback, you build trust in your own voice and capability.
3. Transformation Lasts Because It’s Lived, And Learned
Experiential learning engages emotion, sensation, energy, and insight. The result is sustainable behavioral change—the kind that ripples into your relationships, leadership, and coaching presence.
Is an Experiential Path Right for You?
Experiential learning works well if you want more than information. You’ll practice real coaching conversations from day one, get direct feedback, and leave with skills you can use immediately.
This approach is a good fit if you learn best by doing, want transformation you can feel (not just concepts you can recite), and are ready to be an active participant in your own development.
If you’re ready to feel the difference for yourself, your first step is Foundations.
Register for Foundations
Frequently Asked Questions about Experiential Learning
I’m an introvert. Will this feel overwhelming?
Not at all. Co-Active programs are intentionally designed to be psychologically safe and highly supportive. Every participant chooses their level of engagement, and experiential structure actually supports introverts by creating clarity, containment, and predictable practice spaces.
How does experiential learning work in virtual courses?
Virtual Co-Active courses use breakout rooms, live demos, and interactive tools to create the same level of engagement as in-person learning. You’ll practice coaching in small groups and receive real-time faculty feedback.
What if I “mess up” or freeze?
In Co-Active learning, there is no failure—only learning moments. Mistakes are seen as fertile ground for insight. Faculty co-leaders provide supportive, immediate supportcoaching to help you grow through the moment.
Is theory included too?
Yes. Experiential practice is built on a solid foundation of the Co-Active Model, frameworks, and principles. You’ll learn the concepts and then immediately bring them to life through practice.