Existential Coaching Psychology

Abstract

In this article I seek to elaborate a model of existential coaching psychology that is both grounded in existential phenomenological philosophy but also informed by work in coaching. To date, many attempts to develop an existential approach to coaching have – in my view – described an approach to coaching that is either indistinguishable from existential counselling and psychotherapy or a rather crude form of technical eclecticism. In this article, I discuss the key elements of existential coaching, as I understand it, and the need to modify the existential therapeutic approach for coaching practise. To this end, I draw on extant work on coaching and, in particular, the need for both a goal and solution directed approach if an existential model of psychological coaching is going to provide the basis for effective practise.