Welcome to another edition of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice and another set of outstanding articles for you this summer which we are sure you will enjoy reading and find useful.
Two papers in this edition focus on the characteristics of coaching with particular client groups. Dilley, Frey and Jonas explore the experience of coaching dark client triads (those with high but subclinical levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) and highlight the anxiety and distress that can be associated. Saviet and Ahmann focus on coaching clients with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, looking specifically at the good practice related to the process of between-session contact.
There are two articles which will give coaching trainers particular food for thought. Babcock offers valuable insights for those wanting to ensure that students’ career goals are supported during their studies, looking at the career intentions of coaches who have qualified as health and wellness coaches. Leung and Shek then introduce us to how video annotation tools can be used within life coaching courses, highlighting the value they can add as part of a peer-review process.
Three articles offer some insights to the process of coaching. In a qualitative meta-synthesis, Erdos, de Haan and Heusinkveld explore context-sensitivity as a key factor in developing the knowledge base of coaching as a change process, positioning context-sensitivity as an alternative perspective to the more widely held cause-effect explanations on coaching. Junker, Pommer and Traut-Mattausch report the findings from a randomised controlled trial which suggest that both cognitive-behavioural coaching and goal formulation led to a significant and lasting increase in goal attainment. Berry offers an alternative conceptualisation of coaching expertise, prioritising the process of coach decision making over the more traditional focus on coaching outcomes and highlighting the importance of adaptive expertise within coach practice.
The edition closes with a review by Love on Passmore and Sinclair’s book Becoming A Coach – the essential ICF Guide published last year.
We are delighted to be able to offer such a range of thought-provoking and original papers, and are sincerely grateful to the authors who have chosen to share their work with us, and to our band of anonymous peer reviewers who generously offer their time and expertise to ensure the high quality of the studies we publish.
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome some new members of our editorial team. Andrew Armitage, Andrea Giraldez-Hayes, and Nicky Terblanche have joined Cathia Jenainati and Rachel Lofthouse, as Associate Editors. We are most grateful to have the chance to work with such a talented team, and you can look forward to seeing the journal grow as we capitalise on their expertise.
Please let us introduce you to the new members of our team:
Andrew Armatas, MA DCH AFISCP
Guest lecturer in coaching, MA Health Education and Promotion, University of Athens Medical School – Principal lecturer in Health coaching, University of Athens e-learning.
I am a practicing psychologist and coach with a background experience in brief approaches and applied hypnosis, employee assistance programmes and corporate mental health. I am based in Greece after a personal journey that included my native Australia, the US and the UK. Spanning more than two-decades of experience in both clinical and workplace settings, my expertise lies in brief & strategic processes to change, mental training and suggestive influence in coaching contexts.
I believe that theory is better understood when being practiced and find much value in offering a practical take on research findings within the scientist-practitioner framework. I have always been fascinated how suggestions, inherent in all conversations, can facilitate or impede goal attainment as well as how seemingly illogical choices may be the logical thing to follow when one is stuck in repetitive unfruitful patterns. My forthcoming book Brief Strategic Coaching (Open University Press) is a testament to my interests.
I have had the privilege to present internationally, be involved in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, act as a best practices assessor, introduce coaching to University programmes while witnessing its growth from being relatively unknown to becoming a familiar feature in business and personal life. Having co-developed the first health coaching course for health professionals at the University of Athens, I strongly believe that coaching has much to offer in preventive medicine and that future research will further attest to its potential.
I am excited to be part of the associate editor team for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice and eager to contribute to our shared goal: enhancing coaching’s credibility, applicability and impact.
Dr. Andrea Giraldez-Hayes, Associate Editor
Programme Leader MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, University of East London
For many years of my professional life, I worked in the education sector. I taught undergraduate and postgraduate students, conducted research and worked as a consultant for an international organisation developing arts, wellbeing and citizenship programmes in different countries. Ten years ago, I actively engaged in coaching psychology and started to apply my new knowledge and skills first as part of my role in the education sector and later as an independent coach. As a former teacher and lecturer, I discovered the power of coaching and the importance to facilitate learning, change and growth using unconventional perspectives. In 2018, I was appointed by the University of East London to lead and develop the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. Since then, I have combined my five top strengths –curiosity, love of learning, creativity, appreciation of beauty and excellence and perseverance– to contribute to the field’s development. My arts education background has been the motivation to use creativity and arts-based methods, both in my coaching practice and research.
I am excited to be an Associate Editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. As an academic, it is essential to support research and evidence-based approaches to contribute to the growth and consolidation of coaching across different areas. Having served as an editor for many other international journals in the past, I hope to bring my experience and contribute alongside my colleagues to identify, support and disseminate high-quality coaching research, making it available to students, academics and practitioners.
Dr. Nicky Terblanche
Senior Lecturer and Head of Mphil in Management Coaching University of Stellenbosch Business School South Africa
I am a senior lecturer and research supervisor on the MBA, Mphil Coaching and PhD programmes at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), South Africa. My academic interests include both leadership coaching, research methodology and information system. I also run an executive and leadership coaching practice. My research interests include transition coaching, transformative learning, Social Network Analysis, complexity theory and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in coaching and management. I believe that through rigorous research Coaching can grow to become an even more powerful evidence-based practice.