Vicky Ellam-Dyson

I feel enormously privileged to have the opportunity to hold the position of Chair for the Special Group in Coaching Psychology during 2009. It’s extremely rewarding to be a cog in the wheel of something that, due to the continuing hard work and commitment of those involved, continues to go from strength to strength.

I have been working with the SGCP for a number of years now and really enjoy being part of such an enthusiastic team. I feel it important to acknowledge that all those working as part of the main committee and sub-committees give their time voluntarily to help us consistently provide significant benefits to our members at great value; so many thanks to all those involved. And, of course, thanks to you, our members, for your continued support, interest, and feedback; without whom there would be no point!

Our aims for this year include: creating new channels for bringing together our members; the introduction of new style events alongside our current workshops; providing more user friendly access to information with an updated website; continuing to explore avenues for assisting members in becoming accredited coaching psychologists; and presenting another successful conference.

With regards the bringing together of our members, we see great benefits in creating an interactive community within which our members can network, share information and ideas, practice skills, etc. We are currently developing guidelines and means of supporting our members to create practice groups. We expect this initiative to be launched during the third quarter of 2009. We have also developed an interactive online forum on our website. By the time you read this the forum will have launched and you may have already had the opportunity to try it out. We also now have groups on LinkedIn and Twitter with details of how to find us on our website.

Alongside our existing workshops we are running some new format events this year. Siobhain O’Riordan will be hosting a teleevent. Details will be posted on our website shortly. In line with the theme of connecting members, we are also planning an informal evening networking event which will include facilitated group discussions, in a café-style format. The date will be announced as soon as possible.

Our 1st European Conference was a great success and we were proud to have on board some excellent speakers from European countries including; Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, along with other representatives from Bosnia, Greece, and Switzerland. We were pleased to also welcome visitors from further afield, such as Australia. The feedback was very positive and we will continue with the European theme for our 2009 conference.

At the conference, Professor Stephen Palmer was presented with our Lifetime

Achievement award, in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of coaching psychology. Eve Turner received our Research award, in recognition of a distinguished research project in coaching psychology. Congratulations to both. We present these awards each year at our annual conference. To find out how to make nominations for 2009 please see our website: www.sgcp.org.uk/awards/awards_home.cfm.

The 2009 conference will be our 2nd European Coaching Psychology conference and will be held at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) on 15 and 16 December. The key focus will be on Changing Perspectives, with particular themes including: Hope and Wisdom, Engagement, Transition, Performance, Health and Wellbeing, and Developing Practice. A call for papers has been issued, with a deadline of 15 June. We have opted for a location outside of central London this year, and why this may seem controversial to some, we see some fantastic advantages to this new location. RHUL resides in a wonderful historic setting and has a state of the art conference venue with superb facilities, including; on-site accommodation at extremely good value, free parking, close proximity to major airports and motorways, to name a few. We look forward to seeing you there. Details of the conference can be found at: www.sgcp.org.uk/conference/conference_home.cfm.

On the topic of accreditation for coaching psychologists, at present, under the existing structure of the British Psychological Society we are not able to offer an option for accrediting psychologists who work in this area. As the Society moves towards accrediting qualifications, and HPC moves towards taking responsibility for providing registration for psychologists who are fit to practice, a two-pronged development is going to be required to provide coaching psychologists with the full range of options that are open to other areas of applied psychological practice. In the meantime, we continue to explore routes to accreditation for our members and are looking at working with other accreditation providers for this area of psychological practice. For updates, please see the SGCP website: www.sgcp.org.uk.

The ENTO consultation, focused on clarifying the psychological underpinnings for national occupational standards in coaching and mentoring in the workplace, concluded in January. Significant progress was made in clarifying the purpose of the original standards, and some of the units were further enhanced. Additionally, there was an energetic and constructive dialogue between the professional bodies present through the meetings. Following this short project, there is significant support for a thorough review of the standards, for which ENTO are seeking funding.

On behalf of the SGCP, I would like to express many thanks to Kasia Szymanksa, who we’re sorry to say is stepping down from her role as Editor of The Coaching Psychologist (TCP). Kasia was pivotal in establishing and launching TCP and has done a fantastic job in its continued development, taking it from strength to strength. Kasia will be staying with us as a Consulting Editor. We are pleased to announce that Siobhain O’Riordan will be working with us as Acting Editor for TCP. Siobhain has been involved with the SGCP for several years, including her role as Chair in 2007, and as Conference Co-Chair in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The role of TCP Editor is currently being advertised; details can be found on our website: www.sgcp.org.uk/committeeroles/committeeroles_home.cfm.

As always, we welcome your feedback and input. You can e-mail general enquiries and comments to [email protected] which will be forwarded to the relevant subcommittee, or e-mail me directly at [email protected]