Coaching Practiced

40 Narrative coaching – Part 1: An introduction and the first step

Ho Law

Abstract

This paper advocates narrative coaching as the most appropriate approach for the discipline of coaching psychology. It provides discussions on the epistemological lineage and theoretical foundations of the approach and describes a definition of narrative coaching followed by a step-by-step procedure of a narrative technique known as externalising conversation which is regarded as fundamental for all coaching conversation.

Keywords

coaching psychology; culture; externalising conversation; self-identity; learning; societal; positive psychology.

Original publication details: Law, H. (2019, December). Narrative coaching – Part 1: An introduction and the first step. The Coaching Psychologist, 15(2), 39–43. Reproduced with permission of The British Psychological Society.

This is the first of four short ‘techniques and approaches’ articles on narrative coaching, in addition to the two papers from David Drake (Drake, 2017, 2018). In response to the invitation, I would like to make my contribution not only as a proponent of narrative coaching, but also as a response to Drake’s papers as part of the unfolding conversation about narrative coaching, so that the reader would have a sense of continuity and coherence about the topic. After all, coaching is also about conversation amongst peers where understanding and knowledge of the issue are exchanged, transferred and learning takes place. As such, this ...