By Mark Farrall
Around 100 practitioners identifying professionally as therapists, coaches and/or somewhere in between, gathered at the inaugural conference of the Association of Integrative Coach-Therapist Professionals (AICTP) on 21 January.
What stood out for me was just what richness and variety of integrative practice means in the field of coaching.
Examples provided by attendees ranged from collaborative working where a psychiatrist addressing direct clinical issues around substance misuse would then refer the client on to the coach to address related work and professional issues, to a coach who only works in settings one to one outside of the business environment and focusing on ‘therapeutic’ issues.
These examples illustrate why ‘hard’ boundaries between ‘work’ and ‘home’ are illusory when it comes to coaching with a personal development aspect – the personal is professional.
While some issues and areas are, and will remain, the domain of specific therapeutic input, requiring a trained therapist, professionals originating from a coaching background can enhance practice and increase competencies by integrating some aspects of therapeutic practice and awareness. The end aim of all this is of course to provide a more holistic service and better outcomes for the clients.
Keynotes included Gill Fennings-Monkman, former chair of BACP Coaching, on how integration has evolved in her practice, and how this provides a powerful dynamic for change in any environment.
Workshops covered several approaches to coaching integration, from positive existential coaching that avoids the Gauloises-smoke gloom often associated with existentialism and uses the frame of reference of positive psychology, to a holistic coaching of ‘minds to feel and hearts to think’.
- For a longer version of this report, visit: http://bit.ly/2ozWRva