Coaching Psychology Impact Statement

Working across all the contexts that coaches work in, they bring their psychological expertise and coaching competencies to complex situations through both research and practice.

Coaching as an intervention is enormously effective in boosting potential, development, and performance, with research demonstrating its efficacy in a variety of applications (de Haan & Nilsson, 2023).

While many organisations and individuals are familiar with coaching and have awareness of coaching qualifications and accreditation, the role of psychologists in the development of coaching is much less well understood.

The Value of Coaching Psychology

Coaching psychologists combine the services of coaches and specialist psychologists to promote optimal functioning in individuals, teams, organisations, and wider society. By applying psychological theory, concepts, and models, they enhance the learning outcomes from coaching interventions to drive performance in supportive environments that promote learning, safety, and resilience.

A Focus on Optimal Functioning

Coaching psychologists focus on creating the conditions for optimal functioning through activating potential and improving performance. They may apply various psychological approaches to help individuals, teams, and groups achieve success, using evidence-based methods to help clients cultivate the clarity, self-efficacy and resilience that allows them to thrive.

For example, a coaching psychologist helps clients increase self-awareness about a topic in their personal or professional life by applying their knowledge from evidence-based research. This can include insights from neuroscience, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioural theories (amongst others) to explore challenges and opportunities to help clients better leverage their strengths to define and achieve their goals more effectively.

A Lever for Prevention

Coaching psychologists also leverage coaching as a preventative intervention. They have an in-depth understanding of issues addressed by specialist psychologists in other areas, such as clinical, counselling, and health psychologists. Therefore, they have an important role in pre-empting, preventing, and resolving issues before they require clinical or medical intervention.

For example, coaching psychologists can support people and organisations in managing stress-related issues during difficult periods, such as redundancies, burnout, harassment, etc. If addressed at an appropriate time, not all cases of major stress should require clinical intervention. Coaching psychologists can promote preventative measures to reduce such instances.

Supervision, Continued Professional Development (CPD) and Ethics

Qualified to an extremely high level, coaching psychologists are held by strict professional guidelines around supervision, continuous professional development and ethics for research and practice. They form part of a recognised community of specialist professionals that continually add to the knowledge in coaching and coaching psychology and contribute to advances in these fields.

A Wider Social Benefit

Coaching psychologists work with individuals, teams, and groups and their contribution to the field of coaching and psychology enables them to shift social perspectives on human behaviour. Their work improves understanding and acceptance of the human condition and empowers clients to act early and in ways that create beneficial change.

They also look systemically at the role of coaching in wider organisational and social contexts, identifying recurring themes and issues and shifting thinking on managing these at a broader level. As such, their work contributes positively to the broader workplace and wider social culture and drives systemic change that fosters and embeds longer-term sustainable transformation.

Coaching psychologists also support, supervise, and train coaches, playing an important role in helping the coaching profession further develop and enhance its understanding of psychology as it may be applied in coaching.

Authors

Mary Watts, Natasha Vorrasi and Alison Clarke with support from members of the Division of Coaching Psychology Committee.

References

• de Haan, E., & Nilsson, V.O. (2023). What Can We Know about the Effectiveness of Coaching? A Meta-Analysis Based on Randomized Controlled Trials. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.5464/amle.2022.0107