A reading list: concepts from psychotherapy useful in coaching
Concepts from Psychotherapy useful in building and understanding coaching.
So many elements of good practice in coaching are built on theoretical concepts which first emerged from studying therapeutic relationships. Here are books which allow a ‘deep dive’ into some of them.
Agreeing objectives for coaching programmes and individual sessions is seen as important for successful outcomes, indeed many coaching models often described in acronyms, include an ‘O’ for Objective or Outcome: OSKAR, GROW, COACh are examples. In this book two experienced therapists exchange ideas on the main orientations to objective setting in psychotherapy, the influence of context on objective setting and how outcomes can be evaluated and used as a source of learning and professional development.
Jenifer Elton Wilson and Gabrielle Syme. (2006). Objectives and Outcomes, Questioning the Practice of Therapy. Open University Press.
So many elements beyond activities or conversation form part of coaching relationships. In counseling and psychotherapy, these are often referred to as ‘the frame’.
In coaching it might include things like the setting for the coaching sessions, fixed times and durations, holiday breaks, the fee charged, the origin of the coaching relationship - part of a leadership development programme, an organizationally sponsored session with a remedial aim, or a personally financed development initiative, agreements in relation to confidentiality, the extent to which managers and organizational stakeholders are involved and informed of the progress and outcomes of coaching and so on.
The flexibility demanded of coaches and their clients with busy work roles and the developmental aim of coaching as opposed to the healing, reparative aims of therapy mean that the frame is not often explicitly considered in coaching literature. I found it useful, though, in thinking about work with clients that included ‘breaks’ in the frame of various kinds.
Anne Gray. (1994). An introduction to the therapeutic frame. Routledge.
Impasses and moments of feeling stuck happen in coaching relationships as much as therapeutic ones. Elkind provides many examples of ruptures in therapeutic relationships and how they have ended or been resolved. Whilst a specialist book which presupposes some knowledge of psychotherapy, I find the examples meaningful and they helped me understand my own reactions to conflict, in particular.
Sue Nathanson Elkind. (1992). Resolving impasses in Therapeutic Relationships. The Guilford Press.
A book which explains some of the philosophical origins of psychotherapy itself.
Research requires an understanding of thinking concerning the origins of knowledge and of how the method chosen to pursue it is appropriate for the questions being asked. A basic knowledge of the main streams of philosophical thought are therefore useful. I struggled with this until this book was recommended to me. Each chapter covers a major philosopher, provides key points from their work and their application to counseling and psychotherapy.
An example for Immanuel Kant:
A selection of Key Points
‘There is no such thing as direct observation. Presuppositions cannot, even in principle, be ‘put to one side’.
Observations are always, by their very nature, constructions of events.
Constructions of human perception are determined by individual mental sets and also by categories of thinking that we all share and cannot avoid.’ (Howard, page 197)
Some applications of these:
‘Counselors are taught to put their agendas to one side. Kant shows that we must consider what we bring to any situation that cannot, in principle be set aside.
Given that we live and develop in societies, personal development cannot divorce itself from consideration of what ‘ought’ to be.’ (Howard, page 197)
Alex Howard. (2000). Philosophy for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Palgrave.
Some of the most well known thought leaders on the theory and practice of therapy in the UK make contributions in this hand book. Each provides a chapter on her or his specialist area. Psychodynamic, Person Centred, Existential, Gestalt, Cognitive and Transactional Analysis approaches are all described from a theoretical and practical perspective with accompanying case studies.
So many coaching interventions have their origins in these theories and particularly practices, that it is interesting to have a basic understanding of the most important.
Windy Dryden (ed.). (1996). Handbook of Individual Therapy. Sage Publications Ltd.
