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Coaching approaches

Contemplative psychology coaching

Contemplative psychology coaching uses attention training and open, non-judgemental awareness to help you relate differently to your thoughts, feelings and goals. It draws on Buddhist and contemplative ideas as they have been brought into Western psychotherapy, through writers such as Mark Epstein, Jack Kornfield and John Welwood. Research on mindfulness-based therapies includes meta-analyses, but these test clinical programmes rather than this coaching approach, and no outcome study of contemplative psychology coaching turned up.

What it is

A session asks you to notice what is happening as it happens: your attention, the thoughts and feelings that arrive with a goal or a problem, and the body sensations that go with them. Observation is open rather than an attempt to change what appears. The coach helps you look at what you find, and at what it suggests about what you want.

The method sits between psychology and contemplative traditions. Its ideas come from Buddhist psychology as it has been written about for Western psychotherapy (Miller, 1996), and it uses the language of mindfulness in coaching (Passmore & Marianetti, 2007). This page treats it as a psychological method and does not present it as a religious practice.

Where it comes from

Mark Epstein's book Thoughts Without a Thinker, which brings Buddhist perspectives into psychotherapy, was reviewed in Psychiatric Services in 1996 (Miller, 1996).

Jack Kornfield's A Path With Heart was reviewed in Buddhist Studies Review (Solé-Leris, 1997), and John Welwood's Toward a Psychology of Awakening was reviewed in Psychological Studies in 2025 (Singh, 2025).

The principles underneath

Attention can be trained

Attention is practised, not only discussed. Repeated practice builds the ability to notice where attention goes, and to come back to it.

Observe thoughts as events

Thoughts and feelings are noticed as events in the mind, which creates some distance from them. The approach does not ask you to believe or dismiss what they say.

Open awareness, not forcing

Observation is open. The aim is to see what is there, not to change it on the spot.

Goals are held with awareness

Goals are pursued with attention to the motives and fears behind them, and reviewed as the work reveals them.

How a session runs

  1. Begin by noticing where your attention is and how you are arriving, without trying to change it.
  2. Bring one thing you are working on: a goal, a decision or a pattern you keep returning to.
  3. Observe the thoughts, feelings and body sensations that come with it, and name them as they appear.
  4. Look at what those observations suggest about the goal: what you hope to get from it, and what you are trying to avoid.
  5. Agree with the coach one short practice to explore in the next session, and let the coach guide it there.

When it tends to fit

  • You keep going round the same worry and want to see what it is made of, without fighting it.
  • You notice in a sit that a worry has changed shape, and want to look at it with a coach before it passes.
  • A goal feels driven by pressure rather than by what you value, and you want to look at that quietly.

What the research shows

Evidence: Practitioner tradition — little or no outcome research

No outcome study of contemplative psychology coaching turned up in the sources checked for this page. The nearest research is on mindfulness-based therapy and programmes. Khoury et al. (2013) is a comprehensive meta-analysis of mindfulness-based therapy; its abstract was not readable here, so its findings are not reported. Goyal et al. (2014) is a review of meditation programmes for psychological stress and well-being; its abstract was not readable here, so its findings are not reported. Spence and Cavanagh (2019) report a randomised controlled trial comparing three forms of mindfulness training on mindfulness, wellbeing and goal attainment, with implications for coaching. Passmore and Marianetti (2007) consider the role of mindfulness in coaching.

Where the evidence is thin: These studies test mindfulness-based therapies and programmes rather than a coaching approach built on contemplative psychology, and they do not show that a coaching conversation produces the same effects.

Sources

  1. Khoury, B., Lecomte, T., Fortin, G., Masse, M., Therien, P., Bouchard, V., Chapleau, M.-A., Paquin, K., & Hofmann, S. G. (2013). Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(6), 763–771.
  2. Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., Berger, Z., Sleicher, D., Maron, D. D., Shihab, H. M., Ranasinghe, P. D., Linn, S., Saha, S., Bass, E. B., & Haythornthwaite, J. A. (2014). Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368.
  3. Passmore, J., & Marianetti, O. (2007). The role of mindfulness in coaching. The Coaching Psychologist, 3(3), 131–137.
  4. Spence, G., & Cavanagh, M. (2019). The impact of three forms of mindfulness training on mindfulness, wellbeing and goal attainment: Findings from a randomised controlled trial and implications for coaching. International Coaching Psychology Review, 14(2), 24–43.
  5. Miller, J. (1996). Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy From a Buddhist Perspective. Psychiatric Services, 47(2), 201–202.
  6. Singh, A. (2025). Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation By John Welwood. Psychological Studies, 70(4), 748–749.
  7. Solé-Leris, A. (1997). A Path With Heart. A Guide through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life. Jack Kornfield. Buddhist Studies Review, 14(1).

Where it stops

Sustained attention to thoughts and feelings can bring up distressing material. If you have experienced trauma, or have psychosis, severe depression or another condition, work with a qualified clinician and say so at the start.

Meditation-based approaches are not a replacement for treatment. The research cited here shows benefits on some outcomes and not others.

Contemplative language can sound spiritual. You can ask for any idea to be put in plain terms, and you do not need to adopt a belief to take part.

Practices for this approach

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