Coaching in a non-clinical setting with coachees who access mental health services

A Pendle, N Rowe, D Britten International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2017

This paper presents the findings from the study of a unique coaching situation. Coachees currently accessing mental health services and members of Converge (see below) were paired with undergraduate coaching students for time-limited coaching. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Results suggest that both groups found the experience to be beneficial. Both groups reported greater sense of agency. Coachees experienced a sense of potential achievement in their personal lives. The student coaches reported a sense of greater professional competence and identity. Both groups negotiated tensions between concepts of normality/abnormality and formality/informality, which seemed to create learning.