Coaches Deserve the Care and Attention They Are Nurturing in Others: exploring co-active life coaches’ perspectives on professional practise and self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Helping professionals promote self-care amongst their clients: a proactive practise that enhances personal well-being. Yet, many struggle to engage in self-care personally which can lead to adverse health consequences and burnout. To date, little is known about helping professionals’ views on self-care as it relates to personal and professional practise: especially during a worldwide pandemic where the demand for health-oriented services is amplified. Certified Professional Co-Active Coaches (CPCCs) are poised to offer unique insights into this phenomenon given their inherent focus on enriching client well-being. The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore CPCCs’ experiences related to coaching practise and self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were used, and data were analysed using an inductive approach. Twelve CPCCs (10 = female) participated. Four main themes emerged: a shift in practise; changes in clients; personal self-care practises; and professional self-care practises. Therapeutic empathy and setting emotional boundaries were identified as valuable coaching strategies. Participants also highlighted the need for intentional self-care routines to care effectively for themselves and others. Taken together, these findings may be transferable to other helping professionals, training bodies, and clients through an enhanced understanding of self-care during times of crises.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-Active coaches
• professional practise
• self-care
• qualitative
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kayla C. Waddington

Kayla Waddington is a Master of Science graduate from Lakehead University. Her research interests focus on health promotion and health behaviour change in a variety of populations.

Jennifer D. Irwin

Dr. Jennifer Irwin is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University and a Certified Professional Coactive Coach. Her health promotion research centres around health-related behaviours and behaviour change interventions. Her research primarily focuses on motivational interviewing applied through Co-active life coaching interventions and understanding and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours related to physical activity, sedentary engagements, sleep, mindfulness, prosocial practices, nomophobia, resilience, and healthy body weights.

Aislin R. Mushquash

Dr. Aislin Mushquash is a Clinical Psychologist with Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University, and the Director of the Coping Research Lab. Her research focuses on understanding how and why people cope with adverse experiences or stressful life events.

Kathryn E. Sinden

Dr. Kathryn Sinden is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Lakehead University. Her research aims to prevent and reduce the human and financial impact of workplace injuries through applied ergonomics by collaborating with employers, workers, and other stakeholders, using principles of knowledge translation to develop tools that can be used in injury prevention.

Erin S. Pearson

Dr. Erin Pearson is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Lakehead University and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. Her research programme is health promotion oriented with a focus on behaviour modification, lifestyle psychology, and theoretically grounded, motivation-based interventions.