LIFE COACHING AS A REMEDY IN BUILDING TEACHERS' PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AND WELL-BEING

Abstract

Life coaching as a remedy in building teachers ‘ psychological resilience and well- being Coaching is a motivational approach, facilitating behavioral changes that consequently lead to enhanced well-being and better personal functioning (Grant & O’Hara, 2006; Green et al., 2006; Newnham-Kanas et al., 2010). Coaching has separated itself from a traditional therapeutic domain in a sense that: it is focused on future outcomes, not past issues; a coach is a “thought partner” in a coaching relationship, not an expert; and a coach perceives coachees as healthy and perfectly capable of generating their own solutions (Newnham-Kanas et al., 2011’ ICF, 2018). There is growing scientific evidence that coaching is an efficient approach to facilitate behavior/personality change and enhance the quality of life (Newnham-Kanas et al., 2010). Coaching can be broadly defined as a collaborative solution-focused, result-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal and/or professional life of normal, nonclinical clients. Research indicates that stress and burnout are growing and pervasive problems among employees, with teachers being especially vulnerable to feeling frequent stress from their jobs. Teachers usually think about their students and how they cope with difficulties but they rarely think about their own well- being whereas there is a close correlation between the effectiveness of teaching and the level of teachers’ stress. Research shows that many teachers are at crisis point. Most of them are under increasing pressure and they often say that their workload is “unmanageable. Recently we have been talking a lot about personal resilience which is an ability to cope with stress and adversity, It is a “ bouncing back” effect which is a very individual skill developed and correlated with many other factors. Research shows that resilience results among other factors from individual skills in communication and problem solving, ability to build positive relationships, self-esteem and self -efficiency and locus of control. Life coaching is a tool which promotes development of social and meta skills and can be effectively used to stimulate psychological hardness not only among pupils but also among teachers. Different coaching techniques were used to develop teachers’ well- being and equip them with some strategies of stress management. The presentation will focus on discussing the findings of the empirical studies taken this year and helps to understand the necessity of dealing with teachers emotional exhaustion.