The Psychology of Coaching

Take your coaching to the next level

Are you interested in learning more about coaching psychology and developing your coaching skills?

The Psychology of Coaching is a comprehensive program for all professionals and managers looking to improve their knowledge and skills in their use of coaching in the workplace. The program is designed for coaches, psychologists, HR or OD practitioners, or leaders who want to improve their coaching capabilities and effectiveness. This course will equip you with evidence-based coaching techniques and practical skills to build on your existing experience and capabilities.

Who is The Psychology of Coaching for?

Coaches who have completed their entry level training, have practiced coaching and who are interested in accelerating the development of their professional coaching capabilities.
Psychologists looking to expand their expertise and seamlessly integrate coaching into their practice.
Human Resources and Organisational Development practitioners who want to extend their expertise in organisational change into more individually focused learning and development, behavioural change and performance improvement.
Leaders, managers and executives wishing to improve their coaching, mentoring and performance management.

What will the program cover?

The content and learning process of this program reflects a mix of the peer reviewed literature on best practice and the underlying psychological principles of coaching combined with the author's 40 years of professional practice as an organisational psychologist and executive coach.

After completing this program, participants will not only have improved their understanding of the psychology behind coaching, they will also be able to deliver coaching with a greater degree of sophistication and expertise, together with increased confidence that they are providing best practice, evidence based coaching.

The key objectives of the course are for participants to:

Improve your coaching mastery through the incorporation of psychological principles and techniques to your coaching practice,
Expand on your existing coaching skills and knowledge to enable you to design, implement and evaluate coaching strategies,
Gain a clearer understanding of the psychology of coaching, including learning principles, models of human development and systemic models combining thoughts, emotions & behaviour
Gain a greater insight into your strengths and areas for development in coaching
Improve your confidence in your capability to coach in an evidence-informed manner
Gain a clearer understanding of coaching applications across different domains

The Psychology of Coaching is a self paced online program which is organised into six modules. The content of each module provides answers to the why, what and how of each topic. The emphasis is on evidence based psychological models and practices that are widely used and accepted as best practice in a wide range of professional psychological applications as well as coaching. The flow of the program content is intended to replicate how a coaching assignment proceeds: the introduction and exchanging of expectations between the coach and coachee, developing an alliance relationship, finding out about the coachee, undertaking the chosen intervention, and at the end looking back at what has been learned and achieved, then looking ahead post-program.

The six modules are:

Module 1 - Introduction to Coaching Psychology

This Module introduces you to the Psychology of Coaching program and sets expectations around the learning process and outcomes. It also introduces the coaching industry and the core coaching competencies. We present examples of professional coaching frameworks covering competencies, accreditation, and codes of ethics.

Module 2 - The Coaching Alliance and Assessment

Here we examine the importance of the alliance relationship between the coach and the coachee, the skills and practices that can enhance this and what can undermine it. We also look at the various ways to gather information to better understand our clients. We will cover relevant frameworks, techniques and tools to assess what we need to know to identify client needs and areas for growth, plan our interventions and evaluate impact and progress. We will also reflect on our own coaching style and effectiveness through guided self-assessment exercise, identifying areas for personal and professional growth.

Module 3 - Basic Approaches to Coaching Interventions

This module starts by reminding you of various behaviour change models along with foundational models of learning. We then cover some foundational models and practices of coaching. This includes a focus on goals; how, why and when goal setting is effective, and when it might not be. Cognitive Behavioural Coaching is introduced as we cover the key principles and how it applies in coaching.

Module 4 - More Sophisticated Approaches

This module deepens our knowledge of different approaches to coaching and introducing some more sophisticated interventions. We continue our discussion of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy applied to coaching by reviewing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). We also cover Positive Psychology and Narrative Coaching as well as Systemic Approaches such as the Development Pipeline and Coaching for Change.

Module 5 - Coaching Applications

We will explores some of the common genres of coaching and the application of coaching across diverse settings. These include life, relationship, health, sport and school coaching, with a stronger focus on the various applications of coaching in the workplace including performance improvement, leadership development and organisational change.

Module 6 - Coaching Practice and Your Future as a Coach

This Module prepares you to apply your learnings from the online program to practicing and developing your coaching skills and practices. We will also ask you to reflect upon your journey of learning and development through the Psychology of Coaching program. Our primary vehicle for doing this will be by telling our story as the Hero of our own journey as a coach; where did we start, what were our challenges on the way, how did we overcome these challenges and so grow into the more confident and capable coach we are today? We will also look at where to go next in your journeys and how we can help this happen.

How will the program run?

There are three options for participation in the Psychology of Coaching program. All versions of the program will require participants to complete the core online modules.

Online: Participants will complete the above online, self-paced modules with activities and resources to foster your learning.
Online Seminars: Online modules plus six 2-hour Zoom group practical sessions to review and discuss the course material along with experiential learning opportunities where you will practice and receive feedback on your coaching skills. These seminars will be run in August, and will be held in the evenings outside of business hours.
In-person Workshops: Online modules plus 2 full-day in-person workshops to further explore and discuss the course material together with opportunities to practice and receive feedback on your coaching skills. These will be held on two weekends in September and October.

All options will include access to the online program modules, copies of reference articles from professional journals and the peer reviewed literature, a learning journal which combines all the reflective exercises from the online program, and a set of coaching skills demonstration and practice feedback and learning forms. Seminar and workshop participants will also receive copies of the extensive slide decks which extend the online material. All participants who complete the program will receive a certificate of completion.

Learn from one of Australia’s leading coaching psychologists.

David Heap is the author and facilitator of the Psychology of Coaching. With over 40 years of experience as an organisational and coaching psychologist, David has worked extensively with executives and senior professionals, helping them enhance their leadership, personal performance, and career success. He has worked for the RAAF, Commonwealth Attorney-General's, Deloitte, KPMG, Right Management, PA Consulting Group as well as founding and running several consulting firms.

David is an endorsed organisational psychologist, a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, a past Chair of the College of Organisational Psychologists, and former Convener of the Coaching Psychology Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society. He is an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University. He is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. David has a BSc (Psych) with Honours from the University of NSW and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. He was Head of the Coaching and Management streams at the Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP). He is a Psychology Board of Australia accredited supervisor.

With deep expertise in coaching psychology and a background in clinical and organisational psychology, David brings a wealth of knowledge, practical insights, and real-world experience to this program. He has coached thousands of clients since the late 1980s and continues to coach senior leaders and executives in government, industry and the professions.

What past participants say

This program provided a great forum to unpack the nuances and layers of our practice while learning from and alongside an incredible group of professionals.

Tayla Stucke

A fantastic course that brings research and evidence into practical coaching techniques, equipping us to confidently coach others by building on our existing knowledge and skills as psychologists.

Kaitlyn Fung

"For any Psychologist looking to explore coaching in depth, this is the ideal program.

Allan O

Ready to join the next cohort?

To register your interest or ask questions please email us at psychofcoaching@gmail.com.

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