Special Group in Coaching Psychology News

Vicky Ellam-Dyson

Hello and welcome to the second edition of the International Coaching Psychology Review for 2009. The SGCP aims for 2009 are progressing well. The development of the new website is in progress and expected to launch in September. This will give a fresh new interface for accessing information about the SGCP and the coaching psychology profession.

Registration for our 2nd European Coaching Psychology conference is now open. The early bird reduced rate is available until 14 September. The themes of the conference include: Hope and Wisdom, Engagement, Transition, Performance, Health and Well-being, Developing Practice and Community. Keynote speakers include: Professor Michel Moral, Professor Remco Pollman, Dr Dusan Stojnov, Hugh Donovan, Dr Ilona Bonniwell, and Peter Zarris.

The conference is taking place at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham on 15 and 16 December. For more details and to book your place go to: www.sgcp.org.uk/conference/conference_home.cfm

Our first evening networking event, hosted by Max Blumberg discussing research and evaluation for coaching practice, created a great deal of interest. (At the time of writing this event has not yet taken place.) A further networking event is planned for November to be hosted by Travis Kemp.

The planned introduction of coaching psychology practice groups has been well received with a good response from members interested in both hosting and attending the groups. This initiative is planned to launch in September with the first groups being advertised via the SGCP announcement list. To receive details about these groups you can subscribe to the announcement list by contacting our Honorary Secretary, Elouise Leonard, at sgcpsecretary@bps.org.uk

Discussions are continuing with the British Psychological Society regarding a route for recognition for coaching psychologists. Simon Bowen, Director of Member Services for the Society will be attending the conference in December to discuss developments in this area.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that Dr Siobhain O’Riordan has taken up the post of Editor for The Coaching Psychologist. Siobhain’s previous experience with the SGCP and her position in the field of coaching psychology is highly valuable in ensuring the continuing development and distribution of The Coaching Psychologist.

As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback, please do get in touch.

Vicky Ellam-Dyson
Chair, SGCP
E-mail: sgcpchair@bps.org.uk
www.sgcp.org.uk

Interest Group in Coaching Psychology News

Peter Zarris

The IGCP and its various national and state committees continue to graciously and generously give up their time and develop both key projects to the future of coaching psychology and world-class events for our members to attend.

I hope to outline some of the upcoming events in this summary, as well as highlighting some of the key projects that we are currently working on.

The National Committee recently met in Queensland to map out the next 12 months. The issues that we looked at break down into four broad categories.

1. Future Events. A calendar of events that will continue to provide our members with world-class events to attend, including bringing along international speakers of note in their areas of expertise.
2. Accreditation/Standards. The IGCP continues to work in two important areas in terms of accreditation and in determining standards for coaching psychology. Firstly we maintain close ties with our counterparts at the British Psychological Society and The Society for Coaching Psychology and we continue to work closely in developing accreditation standards for coaching psychologists. Secondly the IGCP is involved in a project with Standards Australia to establish standards for coaching more broadly, and again we will continue to work closely with Standards Australia to assist in identifying the capabilities required for coaching and coaching psychologists.
3. Alliances. As I outlined in my last update the IGCP continues to build and maintain close alliances with external bodies. A relationship with SIOPSA (The Society for Industrial & Organisational Psychology of South Africa) was recently cemented where our National Secretary Aaron McEwan attended the recent conference and made one of the keynote addresses to the conference. We are currently working with SIOPSA with a hope of building an MOU with them. We will work closely with the APS to this end.
4. Symposium. The biennial symposium has been the flagship of the IGCP. Next year’s symposium will be in Melbourne and we have in place a Melbourne organising committee which will be strongly supported by the National Committee. Our 4th biennial symposium promises to be the biggest and best yet.

So let me outline these in greater detail.

1. Future Events
We have three half-day skill-based workshops scheduled in various States over the next few months. These will feature leading local and international experts sharing their skills and knowledge. Make sure you put aside these days in your diary now!

1. Marketing your Coaching Practice workshop
   We have already sent out the invitation to this one. Initial response has been strong and in these tough times we think a lot of people will be interested in learning how to promote themselves and keep the dollars coming in.
2. Emotions in Coaching by Susan David
   Dr Susan David is a prominent researcher, teacher and practitioner in emotions, positive psychology and coaching. She has worked with Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey (the real authors of emotional intelligence) and teaches at Yale, Harvard and Harvard Medical School. We are very privileged to have her present these workshops and they should not be missed.
3. Stress Management and Coaching by Stephen Palmer - 24 October
   Prof. Stephen Palmer is one of the global thought leaders in coaching psychology. The co-editor of the ICPR, founding Chair of the British Psychological Society’s SGCP and instigator of seemingly half the coaching organisations in the UK, Stephen is a profligate researcher, teacher and practicing coach. He is founder Director of the Centre for Stress Management which was established in 1987. More recently he launched City University’s Coaching Psychology Unit in London. He will be teaching advanced techniques such as rapid case conceptualisation and inference chaining to aid assessment and help manage stress in coaching clients. Please check with your local committee to confirm.

2. Accreditation/Standards Proposed framework for the Accreditation of coaching psychologists
We hope to provide a quality indicator for clients of coaches, PD guide for coaching psychologists, marketplace credibility for those accredited and to attract more members to IGCP.

We want to codify what differentiates coaching psychologists and to make this explicit.

Actions

1 . IGCP to continue to consult with other bodies to determine:

a. the standards required of coaches and coaching psychologists;
b. how a coach can attain these standards;
c. the process to recognise those who have attained these standards.

2 . These bodies include:

a. British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology;
b. Standards Australia;
c. Society for Coaching Psychologists.

3. This proposal paper should be disseminated and discussed by National Committee of IGCP with the aim of deciding on an accreditation framework as outlined above.

This should include a strategy for the rollout of accreditation of coaching psychologist in Australian and internationally.

I will keep you all posted on progress with Standards Australia.

Those of you who have had the opportunity to read the International Coaching Psychology Review journal understand that this alliance is crucial in developing a peer review journal for the development of research into coaching psychology. We continue to work closely with the SGCP and in fact I will be attending the National Conference in December in London to further promote relationships between the two groups, as well as present a paper on coaching psychology.

We also continued to develop an alliance and relationship with SCIOPSA. To this end Aaron McEwan presented a paper at SCIOPSA in June. Aaron has described the experience as one of the greatest personal experiences of his life, but also a great professional experience. Aaron was able to marry developing closer alliances with SCIOPSA with an opportunity to immerse himself in South African culture, including a once in a lifetime opportunity to go on safari. We hope to by the end of this year to gain the APS’s blessing to sign an MOU with SCIOPSA.

We also continue to develop alliances with Standards Australia and will be involved in and a signatory to coaching standards, as outlined above. We also hope to build relationships with both the New Zealand Coaching Psychology Group and a special group in coaching psychology within the Swedish Psychological Society. We have been in discussion with committee members from both these groups and hope to continue building these alliances in the future.

The Chair of the Victorian Branch Subcommittee Nic Eddy is the Head of the Symposium Subcommittee, as well as being a member of the National Committee. Nic’s team will develop a communication strategy with local members, and given the outstanding success of last year’s Sydney symposium we look forward to an outstanding event in Melbourne next year.

Please continue to support the group and its various activities, as our members are volunteers and do much of this work in their own spare time.

Finally I remind you all that there will be our annual general meeting in September of this year. We will send specific details of this event, as the next National Committee will be selected at that juncture.

Thank you all and please continue to support the IGCP.

Peter Zarris
National Convenor, IGCP.
E-mail: Peterz@opic.com.au