Alison Whybrow
Half way through my tenure as Chair, I’m reflecting on how much continues to be achieved by the team of people who support the work of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology. By the time that this edition of The Coaching Psychologist is available, the SGCP will have hosted four practitioner workshops for coaching psychologists and coaches, the second edition of the International Coaching Psychology Review has been published (available from mid June) and the organisation of this years 1st European Coaching Psychology Conference is well ahead of schedule.
Our events team have been busy as ever, hosting four events to date including three London based events and one event in Edinburgh. The final workshop in our events programme for 2008, Boundaries and Professional Practice, will be facilitated by Marion Gillie on the 25 September at Tabernacle Street in London. The events team are now preparing the programme for 2009/2010. To ensure we are in touch with your needs, a survey is currently being developed that will explore your CPD requirements and should be with you shortly. If you are interested in putting forward a proposal for a workshop please do download the proposal form by following the links on the events page of our website (www.sgcp.org.uk).
The organisation of our 1st European Coaching Psychology Conference is well underway. This will be held on the 17 and 18 December at the Regent Street Campus of the University of Westminster. The Conference Sub-Committee have worked hard to bring you a conference that reflects developments across Europe. The keynote speakers include European and UK leaders in the field: Dr Reinhard Stelter, Jens Boris Larsen, Dr Siegfried Greif, Dr Kristina Gyllensten, Dr Siobhain O’Riordan, Prof Stephen Palmer and Prof Alex Linley. In addition we have a fabulous range of invited speakers, research papers and masterclassess for you to take part in over the two days of the conference. Networking and connecting with colleagues, one of the main objectives of any professional conference, will be facilitated by our Cheese and Wine Evening, held on the first day of the conference - an event that was particularly successful last year.
To book this year’s conference at last year’s cost, you can take advantage of our early bird booking rate available until the 30 September, 2008. Adverts in this issue provide some further information about this years conference. For full programme details and booking information please visit: www.eventsforce.net/sgcp.
This year we are pleased to launch our new research award to recognise the completion of a distinguished research project in coaching psychology. We will also be accepting nominations for our life time achievement award in recognition of distinguished contribution to coaching psychology. We are very pleased that Dr Tony Grant accepted the lifetime achievement award at our conference in 2007. For more details of the criteria and nominations process for both awards please do visit the conference page of our website.
In addition to what is probably considered ‘business as usual’ we have been working on a number of projects to support coaching psychologists in their practice and to develop the domain of coaching psychology in line with our objectives.
As you know we have been keen to develop a route to accreditation for psychologists with the Graduate Basis for Registration who wish to practise as coaching psychologists. We worked closely with the Society’s office staff, putting together a robust and eloquent proposal to put before the Board of Trustees (BoT) at their meeting in June this year. We closely followed advice and guidance as to the appropriate process and approach. We were confident that given the great strides that have been taken in defining coaching psychology as a domain of practice within the Society, that the BoT would see the value in creating a practitioner member grade within the SGCP.
We gave the Society’s president, Liz Campbell, a preview of our proposal. Somewhat surprisingly and very disappointingly the process we were following changed at the last minute. Rather than the BoT making a decision about our proposal to create a practitioner member grade, we now need to go through the Membership and Professional Training Board (MPTB), which is an important board, lower down the Society structure. MPTB is specifically concerned with advising the Board of Trustees on matters relating to professional training in psychology. The SGCP will submit the proposal to the MPTB board, and depending on the outcome, resubmit the proposal the BoT at their October meeting. As far as we are aware, no developing subspecialism of psychology has been asked to follow this particular route.
This revised route could lead to a delay of the development of an accreditation process for coaching psychologists through the Society. As you may appreciate, we need to be assured that we are following an objective and transparent process.
We are keen to raise the awareness of the importance of accreditation for coaching psychologists within the broader membership of the Society as well as amongst the SGCP membership. We will be creating a member survey exploring the importance of accreditation shortly to support our ongoing drive for accreditation for coaching psychologists within the Society.
On a more upbeat note, we are pleased to announce:
That ENTO have been successful in their bid to secure funding to clarify the psychological underpinnings of coaching and mentoring. We have joined the steering group to support ENTO with this project that will run through from September, 2008, until January, 2009.
The work of the SGCP is carried out through committed volunteers. Newcomers to our committees and teams comment on the warmth and inclusive feel of the SGCP. In this edition we are pleased to welcome Emily Waters, our new Website Officer on board, and Julie Allen, our new Ethics Liaison and Social Policy Officer. I would like to thank all those who expressed an interest in both these roles and we look forward to engaging you with the work of the SGCP in some way.
As we welcome new members to the committee, others are moving on. I would like to express my thanks on behalf of the SGCP for the contribution that Conall Platts (Ordinary Committee Member) and Kristina Gyllensten (Research Officer) have made to support the development of the SGCP and the profession of coaching psychology. I would particularly like to thank to Sandra Haase who has made a substantial contribution to the work of the SGCP on a number of levels. Her first involvement with us was as a representative for Psy-PAG, when she became involved in the events team, and the Conference Sub-Committee. Latterly, Sandra held the role of Honorary Secretary. Unfortunately she has had to step down from her roles earlier than anticipated, we will miss her.
I would welcome you getting in touch with me if you have any thoughts, comments or feedback about the SGCP or would like any information about areas of SGCP work you might be interested in getting involved in during 2008 and beyond. Alternatively, you can e-mail Helen Barnett at the Society’s member networks office for an expression of interest form ([email protected]).
Finally, please do take some time to complete our survey so that we can ensure we are representing your needs and views as we move forward.
Alison Whybrow [email protected]