Professional Coaching

Incorporating a wealth of knowledge from international experts, this is an authoritative guide to provide a comprehensive overview of professional coaching. Grounded in current research, it addresses the historical, ethical, theoretical, and practice foundations of professional coaching, and examines such key therapeutic approaches as acceptance and commitment, internal family systems, psychodynamic, and interpersonal. In easily accessible language, this book discusses core considerations for effective practice such as presence, meaning-making, mindfulness, emotions, self-determination, and culture. It is divided into parts that consider coaching from various perspectives. Each perspective is a way of seeing, a vantage point on the field of coaching. These are ways of organizing aspects of the field. There is a consideration of the field of coaching as a profession (six chapters). There is a consideration of some basic considerations to practice within that field (11 chapters), and there are various professional perspectives on the practice of coaching (10 chapters). Last, there are several chapters on the applications of coaching (eight chapters). All together there are 35 chapters and plenty to think about. Succinctly, this is learning and a teaching tool. It can be used as a textbook or basic text in coach training programs where groups of people interact around various chapters and discuss their contents. As such, it can provide a survey of the field that gives perspective and provokes a deeper understanding. However, the book can also be used by individuals as they seek to build on their basic training program—the kind of self-study that tracks a subject across several chapters and then looks up the resources and suggestion for further study. As such, it is one volume that enriches and enlarges a person, providing a rewarding investment.