WE ARE THANKFUL for the useful response on our recent article (Martin, Oades & Caputi, 2012). It is encouraging that coaching practitioners and researchers are beginning to debate whether intentional personality change coaching appear feasible, and worthy of further exploration. In the following discussion we respond to the general themes included in the response; that there is little evidence that facilitating client chosen personality change is feasible in a coaching context, and that coaching efforts could best be directed to an area with stronger empirical support, (i.e. personal goal attainment).

We agree that Roberts and Mroczek (2008) was a longer term study, and, therefore, less relevant to the question of shorter term intentional personality change in a coaching context. Nevertheless, it is suggestive of the plasticity of personality. Furthermore, a more recent shorter term four-year longitudinal study of over 8000 Australians (Boyce, Wood & Powdthavee, 2012) found that, personalities can and do change over time - something that was considered improbable until now - and that these personality changes are strongly related to changes in our well-being’.

Full article: International Coaching Psychology Review ? Vol. 8 No. 1 March 2013 Page 101-103