How Can Ideas from the Existential Approach Enhance Coaching for People with Work-Related Stress?

AK Krum International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2012

Stress remains a significant problem in contemporary society causing people to take sick leave and early retirement. This paper explores how using ideas from the existential approach can enhance coaching for people who experience work-related stress. It reports on an action research project involving six participants in coaching over a four month period. It was designed to explore how a coach can develop and sustain an existential attitude and learn from the use of interventions derived from existential philosophy. Findings suggest that existential coaching can be a way of reducing stress by helping clients understand that openness to experience is a way of gaining insight into their need for control.