Hello everybody. As the new Chair of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology (SGCP), I would like to welcome you to the first issue of The Coaching Psychologist for 2010. I met many of you at our annual conference - the 2nd European Coaching Psychology Conference at the Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK. Thank you for your feedback and support. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our next annual conference in December 2010. This is likely to be the part of International Congress which is inline with our new strategic aims to ‘promote and advance coaching psychology’ and engage the international community.

At the 2009 AGM, I mentioned a list of the significant work that the past Chairs achieved during their terms of office. I shall summarise them here:

• The setting up of the Coaching Psychology Forum and then the formulation of the proposal for the SGCP (Stephen Palmer, 2005).
• The setting up of The Coaching Psychologist and The International Coaching Psychology Review publications (Stephen Palmer, 2005).
• The establishment of our profession and community of coaching psychologists (Siobhain O'Riordan, 2007).
• The inclusion in the British Psychological Society Directory of Chartered Psychologists for those who provide coaching psychology services (Pauline Willis, 2006 & Alison Whybrow, 2008).
• The continuous improvement of the website (Vicky Ellam-Dyson, 2009).
• The introduction of the peer practice groups as a means of engaging our members (Vicky Ellam-Dyson, 2009).

Many congratulations to Dr Alison Whybrow for getting the Award for her distinguished contribution to the discipline of coaching psychology in 2009. Alison’s contribution was significant in terms of co-proposing to the Society to form this Special Group; and developing the accreditation framework for coaching psychology which has paved the way for the awareness of coaching psychology as a profession amongst the colleagues’ consciousness within the Society.

In 2010, my vision for the SGCP is to aim to:

• Engage our wider communities that are beyond coaching and coaching psychology.
• Raise the public awareness of the SGCP and coaching psychology, about the benefits that coaching psychology can bring to our everyday life, be it about personal development, career progression, business performance, community cohesion, social or climate change.

The above vision was discussed and shared by all our Committee members on 22 January 2010 during the SGCP’s first strategy away-day. Our draft strategic plan was formulated with the following overall strategic aim:

‘To promote, develop, encourage and support coaching psychology in a way which engages and is responsive to both our current membership and the wider community.’

As always, SGCP strives to promote the benefits for its members in everything that we do. As you would have noticed about the new design of our website which provides you with up-to-date information about events and rich resources for continuous professional development (please do visit www.sgcp.org.uk).

The Coaching Psychologist and The International Coaching Psychology Review represents two of the useful resources to keep you informed with the latest developments in coaching psychology. Through these publications, the website and events, we shall continue to develop a relationship with you, the members, and other professional bodies to achieve our strategic aims. If you have any ideas about how we can develop SGCP further for the benefit of our members and advancing coaching psychology as a profession, I would welcome your feedback. Please e-mail me.

Ho Law
Chair, British Psychological Society
Special Group in Coaching Psychology
E-mail: [email protected]
www.sgcp.org.uk