Feeling blocked in life? Try coaching psychology

I RECENTLY wrote an article on New Year’s Resolutions, and mentioned that I am a coaching psychologist; I was surprised and pleased to get a number of emails from readers asking me what coaching psychology is - and of course it is a pretty new branch of psychology, so will be an unknown quantity to many people.

But it’s a growing and potentially very useful area of psychology practice and so - with the agreement of the Echo editors of course! - I have put together what I hope is a clear description. I’ve avoided the pat textbook definitions, and tried to use my own words and understanding.

For the majority of people, the term ‘psychology’ bring up images of grave therapists working with people experiencing terrible emotional problems, or forensic psychologists tracking serial killers, or kindly educational psychologists helping troubled or challenge youth. All perfectly understandable - for the bulk of its existence as a discipline, psychology has focused almost exclusively on the negative, the difficult, in the human experience - depression, anxiety, addiction, psychopathy, violence. And with good reason, as these are real phenomena that do real harm to people and to communities. But we all know that this is not the entirety of human experience - happiness, joy, excitement, hope, , fulfilment; these are just as real, and deserve attention and support.

The World Health Organisation defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. 

For a long time we have focused on the presence of problems - but recently we have developed a new focus on the wellbeing side. This has led to the development of positive psychology (PP).

PP is a scientific approach to what makes life worth living, with a goal of improving quality of life. It in no way downplays the importance of hard human experiences; it suggests, however, that for many people these problems don’t apply to any great extent, and that there is a lot of people who can flourish under the right circumstances and with the right support. PP seeks to understand what processes help in this. When it comes to practice, PP helps to develop theory, discover what behaviours, patterns, experiences improve well-being. This is typically at a large group level.

Coaching, on the other hand, is a longstanding practice which operates at the individual or small group level. For a long time, coaches (sometimes called life coaches, health coaches or executive coaches depending on specific areas) have worked to help people identify where they want to get to in life, to recognise the obstacles that are blocking them (which can be internal or external), and – crucially - find ways around those obstacles to reach their goal. The equation is potential minus interference equals performance. Thus if we can remove or reduce interference we can improve or optimise performance. The goal can be something seemingly small (losing excess weight, learning to drive) to something really large (changing career, coming out, addressing unhappiness in relationships). The pivotal points are that (a) the focus is on the solution, not on the problem (of course this could be discussed, but coaching is devoted to getting past it), (b) the coach is not the expert - the client is, (c) the coach is helping the client to build on the strengths they already possess in order to find their path. Ultimately (and often after relatively few conversations) the clients well hopefully have found their own way forward, developed confidence, and learned techniques they can use for problem-solving in the future.

So what, then, is coaching psychology? 

This is the use of coaching techniques and approaches, combined with knowledge of psychological theory and research, to help clients identify and reach their goals. It is evidence-based - much of the practice of coaching psychologists is based on what studies have shown us to contribute to well-being, facilitate change, increase confidence and move things forward. In addition, our knowledge of psychological theory allows us to discuss and explain different ways of understanding our life experiences – why things might be less than satisfactory, and so how we can look at changing them.

Much of coaching psychology practice is ‘solution-focused cognitive-behavioural’ - it focuses on finding the answers (not ignoring the problem!), and then attempts to address behaviour and thought patterns that may - how often unbeknownst to clients - be getting in the way.

So coaching psychology is a support in identifying and realising your goals, and in changing unhelpful patterns of thought and behaviour through helping to build on the strengths and values you possess. It is designed to make things ‘more good’ rather than ‘less bad’. It’s not psychiatry, not psychotherapy, not ‘treatment’. and the evidence says it can be very effective.

I myself I’m a coaching psychologist and there are a number of coaches and coaching psychologists in Cork. Organisations such as the Association for Coaching, the International Coaching Federation, and the European Mentoring & Coaching Council provide lists of their qualified members, while coaching psychologists will often also be members of the Psychological Society of Ireland or British Psychological Society. Dispensing with undue modesty, I can say we are worth checking out if you feel blocked in life!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• Dr Mike Murphy, Co-Director, MA in Applied Psychology (Positive & Coaching Psychology) Chair, School of Applied Psychology Ethics Committee. He can be contacted, and more information on coaching psychology found, at www.coachingpsychologycork.com