The professional credential in Identity Engineering, delivered by the Madanes Institute. Built for practicing coaches, therapists, consultants, and L&D leaders who want to add a rigorous identity-level methodology to the work they already do — not swap it for one.
Certified Identity Engineer is not a "become a coach" program. It is a rigorous professional credential for practitioners who already work with clients at depth and want a documented, testable, teachable identity-level methodology to work inside of.
Executive coaches, transformational coaches, and NLP practitioners who want a methodology their clients can name, repeat, and stay accountable to — instead of "whatever we talk about in session."
Licensed clinicians looking for a coach-facing, non-clinical framework to work with high-functioning clients on the identity-level questions that talk therapy tends to circle without landing.
Leadership and organizational consultants who keep running into the same pattern: the strategy is right, but the identity of the person or team running it is not. This gives you the work at that layer.
Internal L&D, People, and OD leaders who want a credentialed body of work they can bring inside the org — and, if they choose, become an internal certified practitioner of.
The certification is the paper. The point is the three things that come with it.
Certified Identity Engineer, issued by the Madanes Institute. Listable on your site, your bio, and your LinkedIn. Recognized inside the Madanes practitioner network.
The full Identity Engineering framework — diagnostic, design, install — with the language patterns, assessment tools, and session architectures you use with your own clients. Not a "here is a great model, good luck." A working system.
Twelve to eighteen practitioners going through the work together. The people you build a reference network with, refer to, and continue to sharpen your practice against long after the cohort ends.
The program runs six months in cohort. Each phase installs a layer of the methodology and closes with a supervised practicum — you working with a real client, observed by faculty.
You go through Identity Engineering on yourself first. You cannot lead a client through work you have not done. Foundation is the diagnostic and the design phases run on you, in cohort, under supervision. Ends with your own written identity architecture.
You learn to run the diagnostic, design, and install sequence with clients. Session structures, language patterns, and the assessment instruments. Weekly supervised practice with cohort partners, feedback from faculty, and case discussion on the identity questions that surface.
Two supervised practicums with real clients, written case documentation, and a final oral defense with Madanes faculty. Pass, and you are a Certified Identity Engineer. The certification is granted by the Madanes Institute.
Live cohort sessions, recorded lectures, supervised practice, and written case work. The numbers below are contact hours; expect a similar amount of independent practice on top.
The core distinction between behavior, self-concept, and identity. Why the identity layer is the one that actually decides what a person does under pressure. Introduction to the Identity 2.0 framework, the source distinctions, and the language patterns that surface identity in a session.
The full Identity Engineering diagnostic protocol. How to elicit the identity a client is currently running as, without prescribing what it should be. Live-fire practice on cohort partners. Written diagnostic on yourself.
The Identity Avatar Assessment, the strengths-and-friction map, and the identity architecture worksheet. When each is the right tool, how to score them, and how to use the results as an entry point rather than a verdict.
The specific language patterns that move a client from behavior-level talk to identity-level insight. Adapted from NLP and systemic coaching, refined for identity work specifically. Extensive drill and recorded practice.
How to run a design session — the sit-down where a client architects the identity that gets them where they are going. Session structure, key moves, common failure modes, and how to hold the room when the design gets uncomfortable.
The three-to-twelve week install phase where the new identity gets wired into a client’s actual operating life. Interrupts, rituals, environmental design, and how to structure the client relationship so the work outlasts you.
For therapists, consultants, and L&D professionals — how to adapt the methodology to your existing scope of practice, professional ethics, and client contract. Case discussion across modalities.
Two supervised practicums with real clients, one live-observed and one recorded, with structured written case documentation. Feedback from Madanes faculty.
Final oral defense of your case work with Madanes faculty. Integration session on ethics, scope, and continued professional development as a Certified Identity Engineer.
Certified Identity Engineer is delivered by the Madanes Institute, and enrollment is handled by their admissions team. The next step is a conversation with them about your practice, your fit for the cohort, and your questions about the program.
Booking link is being finalized. In the meantime, write to keith@keithleonard.com and Keith will connect you with the Madanes admissions team directly.