An invitation to personal construct coaching: From personal construct therapy to personal construct coaching

Abstract

Strong efforts have recently been made in various therapeutic approaches to adapt their clinical procedures and become more suitable for working with healthy and high achieving persons. The main argument of this paper is that Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) stood for a coaching psychology long before the term ‘coaching’ gained popularity. Therefore, a move from Personal Construct Therapy (PCT) to Personal Construct Coaching (PCC) represents a move towards its roots, rather than adaptation to new market demands. In this paper, the main principles of PCC are elaborated and a general framework for practitioners is provided. The paper includes a discussion on key metaphors of the role of the coach and the coachee, the coaching relationship and the reconstruction as a coaching goal. Stages with supporting techniques in PCC are proposed as procedures for reconstruction of personal and organisational stories. In concluding reflections we contemplate upon the benefits of a personal construct psychology framework for coaching.