Coaching Practiced

Section 4 Wellbeing Coaching Introduction

David Tee & Jonathan Passmore

Coaching started its growth in the 1980s and 1990s with a strong focus on supporting people in making life choices or improving the quality of their lives. ‘Life coaching’ as it was labelled remains popular in North America, although the use of the term in Europe and Asia Pacific has virtually disappeared, reflecting the poor reputation which life coaching acquired from untrained or under-trained practitioners who were often attempting to work with complex psychological issues.

In many parts of the world, the term ‘life coaching’ has been replaced by the term ‘wellbeing coaching’. The focus remains similar, but often wellbeing coaches are trained psychologists or have been trained in psychologically informed models, thus equipping them with the skills to work with more complex cases.

It may be helpful at this point to differentiate between ‘life’ or personal coaching and ‘health’ coaching, which form two strands of wellbeing coaching.

The use of coaching in health has grown significantly over the past decade in the UK and globally (Evidence Centre, 2014; Salathiel & Passmore, 2021). Over 300 papers have been published, with the approach now widely used by nurses, doctors and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and health advisors (Salathiel & Passmore, 2021).

As with all areas of coaching, different authors have emphasised different aspects of the practice in their various definitions: ...