Introduction
Improving the performance of leaders and managers often requires more than just good coaching skills. Many coaches recognise the need to be more skilled in the psychological and emotional dimensions of their coaching practice.
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“My Psychology of Coaching training and development with the AoEC has been one of the best investments I have made in my development as a coach. I am now far better equipped to deal with the unconscious psychological processes that unfold in client interventions. This has enabled me to add more value to existing clients as well as gifting me the opportunity of working with new clients who have valued my psychology of coaching approach. My psychological mindedness now enables me to work with more authenticity, integrity and ethical awareness; all of which have supported the growth in my confidence and success as a coach.”
Nicky Lowe
Illuminate Consulting
Course Summary
The AoEC were one of the first coach training organisations to acknowledge psychological thinking, alongside core coaching, business and organisational knowledge, as an integral part of the coach’s competency set. Over 10 years, the AoEC have developed faculty team expertise and experience in designing and delivering programmes to coaches which focus on the translation of psychological and psychotherapeutic principles into practical coaching applications.
Psychological competency enhances the coach’s capability to work at a deeper, more psychological level which brings about powerful shifts in clients’ perceptions of themselves and others without necessarily requiring coaches to become psychologists or psychotherapists
The Diploma programme uses an integrated rather than ‘silo’ approach, plus, an experiential group in Module 3, offers a real time learning environment for coaches to work with psychological concepts first hand as well as learn about themselves in relation to others.
The non-residential modules will be at Etc Venues, No.2 Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill, London.
The residential module is at The Spa Hotel, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Programme Structure
Our Premises:
- Early childhood experience impacts adult functioning
- Coaching is a relational activity
- Certain types of coaching (ie developmental) require a psychological competency without requiring coaches to become psychologists or psychotherapists
- Personal development of the coach is at the heart of professional development
- Coaching is always about change
Module 1: The Psychology of Change - how people grow and change
- Setting the context for change - personal and organisational
- What do we know about how people grow and change – transformation curve, Paradoxical theory of change
- Change through relationship (Gestalt notion of dialogue/Buber’s I-Thou)
- Working at the coaching/counselling/therapy boundary
- Responses to change - anxiety, stress, resistances, defence mechanisms
- Cultural aspects of change - factors and responses
Module 2: Understanding Self and Other - drilling down to the personal
- Working in the space between - collusion, projection, transference, counter transference, parallel process
- Understanding of self and use of self as an intervention
- Exploring the role of the past on the present – understanding individual life scripts and working with others in coaching; drawing the distinction between coaching and therapy, when working with historical material;
- Developing emotional capacity to be with self and others
- Contracting with clients to work at deeper levels
- Working with repeating patterns of behaviours
Module 3: Personal Development Group - live in the moment experience of being in relationship
Personal development is at the core of effective coach development and this experiential, residentially held group offers a real time learning environment to fully experience and integrate learning from the programme. The focus will be on awareness of self and others in a group context which are key competencies in the development of psychological literacy.
The starting point for any learning is self-awareness, since we cannot change anything that we are not aware of. Awareness brings choice, leading to greater confidence and empowerment, which in turn brings the likelihood of being more effective in a wider range of situations. By exploring how we engage (or not) with others, how we engage (or not) with ourselves and the (sometimes subtle) ways in which we block our own learning, participating in this group will help you build your skills of self-awareness and increase your opportunities for change and greater satisfaction.
This Gestalt based group will work with the whole person, body, feelings, intellect, imagination and spirit, and will give you the opportunity to learn more about yourself, to explore issues which impact your coaching with the support of others in a safe environment. You will be encouraged to ‘experiment’, be creative and playful in raising your awareness of how you learn and grow, and how you might ‘get in your own way’.)
Module 4:– Creating change in a different way - developing psychological practice
- Identifying and working with common psychological disorders
- Impact of personal behaviour within the organisational system
- Integration of psychological competencies into coaching practice
- Reflective practices as a coach and client
- Cultural experiences and practice as a coach
Participants will be required to provide a written submission of a Case Study of a coaching client
The LACD assessment will be based on a reflective journal, model of practice, and an assessment of practice at PCC level.
Who is it for?
Typically Practitioner level graduates or practicing coaches who are ready for further development. Together with the Practitioner Diploma this could provide an entry into ICF PCC Accreditation.
- Understanding how people grow and their responses to change
- Bringing about change through dialogue and presence
- Cultural aspects of change
- Working with the impact of the past on the present through individual life scripts and other historical material
- Developing emotional capacity to be with self and others
- Working with repeating patterns of behavior in clients
- Working with inter and intra personal dynamics in the space between
- Cultural experiences and practice as a coach
Entry Requirements
(Assessed by the Entry tutorial + Entry Assessment Questionnaires’s)
1. Coaching competence:
- Has achieved coaching competency at ICF ACC or EMCC Practitioner level (minimum), or the equivalent
2. Psychological mindedness
- Is curious about their own psychological process and that of others, ie what makes us tick as human beings, and what happens in the space between
- is interested in looking beyond content to interpersonal/ intrapersonal process and context
- Has taken other Psychology of Coaching workshops
3. Psychological resilience
- Has a robustness and resilience to deal with challenge from clients and tutor/peer feedback and/or is interested in developing this further
4. Coaching Practice
- Has coaching experience over 2/3 years, as an external or internal coach
- Is working or aspires to work at a developmental/transformational way with clients*
* E.g. Transformational / developmental coaching: preparing the executive for future demands of the organisation, personal growth over time, often focusing more on ‘who the person is’ rather than ‘what the person does’; Existential / transpersonal coaching: focus on self-actualisation, on the meaning of the executive’s existence, purpose in life etc.