Sam Farmer
Psychologists in New Zealand are carving a space for themselves in the coaching industry, with a little help from their friends
Coaches have been working in New Zealand for a number of years. Some have formal coaching accreditation, for example, through the International Coach Federation (ICF), others through qualifications acquired overseas.
Such opportunities are also sometimes taken up by psychologists entering the coaching arena. However, unlike in Australia and the UK, there are no formal pathways for psychologists.
Galvanised by Sydney University’s Dr Anthony Grant at a coaching psychology conference in Sydney two years ago, I joined forces with Dr Giles Burch, senior lecturer in HR management at the University of Auckland Business School, to develop a professional space for psychologists in New Zealand with an interest in coaching. Thus, in 2009 the Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group (CPSIG) was born.
CPSIG’s primary purpose is to contribute to the Continuing Competence Programme for psychologists who are interested in coaching. Other means include:
- Discussing and developing current practice
- Sharing information about professional development opportunities
- Starting to develop psychologically focused training opportunities
- Promoting best practice
- Informing the profession and the public about what coaching psychology is
- Connecting with other psychologists and professionals here and overseas, particularly to further enhance current links with the Interest Group in Coaching Psychology of the Australian Psychological Society.
The CPSIG’s status was accepted by the New Zealand Psychological Society in December 2009. It now has a steering group and a Google group of more than 100 people. CPSIG members tend also to be members of the New Zealand Psychological Society, but it is open to all.
The CPSIG has also teamed up with other coaching individuals and agencies in New Zealand, such as the ICF, to form the New Zealand Coaching Community.
Along the way, the CPSIG has enjoyed support from all over the world. In its early days, from Professor David Lane of the International Centre for the Study of Coaching at the UK’s Middlesex University and Sydney University’s Dr Michael Cavanagh, and since then, the ongoing support of City University’s Professor Stephen Palmer, who gave a keynote address at its inaugural seminar last November. Associate Professor Ole Spaten from Aalborg University in Denmark, was one of the speakers at CPSIG’s symposium at the 2010 New Zealand Psychological Society Conference.
The CPSIG is developing increasingly closer links with the Australian Coaching Psychology Group, as well as with those in other parts of the world. In particular, CPSIG is exploring how it can support South Africa as it plans for the hosting of the first Southern Hemisphere International Coaching Psychology Conference in 2011.
CPSIG is looking to engage the attention of academics at Auckland University of Technology and Canterbury University. Of equal importance is the engagement of Maori perspectives to inform coaching models consistent with the unique bi-cultural setting of Aotearoa/New Zealand. It is these two foci that will be essential in ensuring that the CPSIG has a sustainable, New Zealand-flavoured standing in the international coaching psychology context.
Sam Farmer is co-founder and chair of the Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group, NZ, and honorary vice-president of the Society for Coaching Psychology
Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 6