The Theory and Practice of Relational Coaching: Complexity Paradox and Integration

The "relational turn" is a movement affecting a range of disciplines including neuroscience, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, modern physics, organizational consulting and, more recently, coaching. Its primary focus is on the dynamics of human relating and their centrality in determining how individuals develop, make meaning, function individually and collectively, and take action in the world.

In The Theory and Practice of Relational Coaching: Complexity, Paradox and Integration, Simon Cavicchia and Maria Gilbert expand existing coaching theory and practice to focus on the implications of the relational turn for how coaches and clients think about the nature of identity, the self, change, learning, and individual and organizational development.

Drawing on perspectives as varied as relational neuroscience, the relational foundations of personality development, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, shame, vulnerability, complexity and systems ideas, the authors shed light on many of the paradoxes and challenges facing coaches and their clients in today's fast-paced, volatile and uncertain organizational environments. These include holding tensions such as the uniqueness of individual needs with the requirements of organizational contexts, managing multiple stakeholder requirements and networks, the subjective nature of feedback and balancing linear approaches to change with adjusting to emerging and unpredictable events.

Given the ever-increasing volatility, complexity and uncertainty that coaches and their clients face, The Theory and Practice of Relational Coaching guides the reader through a series of illuminating perspectives, examples and practical suggestions. These will enable coaches to integrate a more relational orientation in their work and extend their range and that of their clients for responding creatively to the challenges of modern organizational life. The book will appeal to coaches and coaching psychologists in practice and training, as well as counsellors and psychotherapists retraining as coaches.