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Coaching approaches

Cognitive-behavioral coaching

Cognitive-behavioral coaching applies the ideas of cognitive behavioural therapy to goals and performance. It helps you notice the thoughts and habits that stand between you and what you want, and then test them in practice. The parent therapy has meta-analytic evidence behind it. The coaching studies are fewer. Two are cited here: Green, Oades and Grant (2006) studied cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused life coaching, and Grant, Curtayne and Burton (2009) report a randomised controlled study of executive coaching.

What it is

Cognitive-behavioural coaching takes the working method of cognitive behavioural therapy, which links thoughts, feelings and actions, and uses it for goals, work and everyday performance rather than for clinical symptoms. The conversation is structured around a goal, and the coach and client work together as partners on what to examine.

Its central move is to test a belief rather than argue it out. A thought such as "I will fail this" is treated as a hypothesis, and the next step is usually a small experiment in real life that checks it.

Where it comes from

The approach grew from cognitive therapy, developed by Aaron Beck and colleagues, and from rational-emotive work associated with Albert Ellis. Michael Neenan and Stephen Palmer adapted that work for coaching.

Neenan's book Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (2018) and Palmer and Szymanska's chapter in the Handbook of Coaching Psychology (2018) are two of the main coaching texts describing the practice.

The principles underneath

Interpretation shapes response

How you read a situation shapes what you feel and what you do next, which is the central model of cognitive therapy.

Test, do not just argue

Beliefs are checked through behavioural experiments in real life, rather than debated in the abstract.

Collaboration

Coach and client agree what to examine and what the evidence would look like, as partners.

Structure between sessions

Sessions are organised around a goal, and the experiments carry the work into the days between conversations.

How a session runs

  1. Agree on the goal or problem to work on, and make it specific enough to act on.
  2. Notice the thought, feeling and behaviour that show up around that goal.
  3. Look at the evidence for and against the thought, and at what it leads you to do.
  4. Design a small behavioural experiment to test the thought in real life, and agree what you will watch for.
  5. Review what happened, adjust the thought or the plan, and agree on the next experiment.

When it tends to fit

  • You keep having the same thought about a task, and you want to test whether it is true before deciding what to do.
  • A setback has left you reading it as proof that you cannot do something, and you want a practical way to check that.
  • You have a clear goal and a specific worry or habit in the way, and you want a short, structured conversation about it.

What the research shows

Evidence: Randomized trials or meta-analyses

For the parent therapy, a meta-analysis of cognitive behavioural therapy for adult depression (Cuijpers et al., 2013) pooled 94 comparisons from 75 studies against control groups and found a Hedges g of 0.71. The same meta-analysis reports that higher-quality studies showed smaller effects, g = 0.53. For the coaching form, Green, Oades and Grant (2006) report a cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused life coaching study aimed at goal striving, well-being and hope. Grant, Curtayne and Burton (2009) report a randomised controlled study of executive coaching that found gains in goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being. Neenan (2018) and Palmer and Szymanska (2018) describe the practice of cognitive behavioural coaching; they are texts, not outcome studies.

Where the evidence is thin: The Green study combines cognitive-behavioural and solution-focused methods, so it does not isolate the cognitive part. The Grant study tests executive coaching in general, and its method is not described here. The depression meta-analysis finds smaller effects in better studies, and the coaching studies cited here are few.

Sources

  1. Cuijpers, P., Berking, M., Andersson, G., Quigley, L., Kleiboer, A., & Dobson, K. S. (2013). A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Adult Depression, Alone and in Comparison with other Treatments. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
  2. Green, L. S., Oades, L. G., & Grant, A. M. (2006). Cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching: Enhancing goal striving, well-being, and hope. The Journal of Positive Psychology.
  3. Grant, A. M., Curtayne, L., & Burton, G. (2009). Executive coaching enhances goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being: a randomised controlled study. The Journal of Positive Psychology.
  4. Neenan, M. (2018). Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. Routledge.
  5. Palmer, S., & Szymanska, K. (2018). Cognitive behavioural coaching. In Handbook of Coaching Psychology.

Where it stops

This is not a therapy for depression, anxiety or trauma. If low mood, anxiety or panic is stopping you from functioning, see a qualified clinician; cognitive behavioural therapy delivered by a trained therapist is the better route for those problems.

Testing a belief in practice does not always change what sits underneath it. If pushing against a thought makes it louder, a coach should slow down or change direction rather than insist on the experiment.

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