Specificity is the key, if we really want to understand coaching!

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Notes on contributors

Dr Alanna O'Broin is a practising coaching psychologist. She has been co-editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice since January 2013. Her main research and practice interests are the coaching relationship and boundaries with other helping relationships, as well as cognitive behavioural approaches to coaching. Following a first career in the UK financial sector as an Investment Analyst and Fund Manager, she retrained as a psychologist at Royal Holloway University of London, and City University London, and is a Chartered Psychologist and Registered Psychologist. Alanna's doctorate research was on exploring aspects contributing to the quality of the coaching relationship, and how the coach uses themselves, specifically in adapting to their individual coachee. She has published several co-authored articles and book chapters in the academic and practitioner press on this and other coaching topics. She combines her executive coaching work as an independent practitioner with writing, presenting and lecturing and has an interest in undertaking further research on the coaching relationship.

Dr Almuth McDowall has been co-editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice since 2010. Almuth’s main research and practice interests are in the areas of work-life balance and coaching, as well as psychometric development and evaluation. After a successful career in health and fitness, as a personal instructor working primarily with performing artists, Almuth retrained in psychology and completed her Ph.D. at City University. There she started out her professional career as a senior consultant with the Psychometrics Centre, undertaking and overseeing a range of consultancy-related projects. Almuth now combines her academic post at the University of Surrey, where she is Course Director for the M.Sc. in Occupational and Organizational Psychology, with freelance work as an independent practitioner. She wishes we could just stop speaking about the science–practitioner gap. If there is one, it is only due to our perceptions, we are all interested in the same things. Almuth is keen to advance the evidence base in coaching and has served on the editorial board for the Coaching Psychology Conference for the past couple of years. Almuth has published in the academic and in the practitioner press and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences. She works in the field of work–life balance as a coach and adviser to organisations and has a keen interest in undertaking research with the Police and other emergency services.