There are several psychological approaches one can take for a coaching session or coaching in general. Behavioural coaching, cognitive behavioural coaching, psycho dynamic approach and NLP (neuro linguistic programming) are such known approaches for coaching. Positive psychology is another contemporary approach for coaching preferred by many psychologists and coaches in the world today.

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) defined positive psychology as ‘the scientific study of optimal human functioning’. It involves with positive subjective experiences, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. Valued subjective experiences include well-being, satisfaction, and contentment (in the past), hope and optimism (for the future) and flow and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits, such as capacity for love and vocation, courage, aesthetic sensibility, interpersonal skills, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, talent and wisdom. At the group level, it is about civic virtues and institutions that move individuals towards better citizenship such as responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance and work ethics.

Consistent with its guiding principles, findings from positive psychology research are now beginning to be applied across multiple domains and most importantly for the benefit of the individuals who reside along the points of mental health continuum. This includes not only those who seek relief from psychological distress and mental illness which is the traditional focus of psychology, but also those who seek optimal levels of personal functioning and wellbeing.

The outcome of interest to positive psychology may be defined as those subjective social and cultural states that characterise a ‘good life’. Here we may think of factors such as happiness, wellbeing, fulfilment and health (at the subjective level), positive communities, institutions that foster good lines (at the interpersonal level) and political, economical and environmental policies that embrace diversity and promote harmony (citizenship) and sustainability (at the social level).

Having understood the basics of positive psychology, it is now important to consider the possible integration of positive psychology and coaching.

Coaching can be defined as the process of support offered to an individual which is performance focused, and goal centred and results in action (Law, Ineland & Hussain 2007). Coaching can be done with individuals, teams, and organizations with the intention of helping the client to see options for becoming more effective. When it comes to individuals, It involves unlocking a person’s potential to maximize his/ her own performance. As this explanation makes it clear, the general interest of positive psychology resonate with the general aims of coaching in practice.

The aim of the coaching is to focus on the strength of character and personality that makes the “good life” possible. Strengths conceived in this way seems an excellent component of coaching framework and so it is unsurprising that one of the newest waves of coaching is based on positive psychology. The central concern of this approach is that coaching should focus on the coachee’s strengths and values rather than weaknesses. The coach should consider coachee’s taxonomy of strength and determine how these strengths are (or are not) being used by the organization. Building strength is an effective means of increasing performance & job functionality.

Positive emotions are another important topic on the positive psychology. Because positive emotions work on optimal wellbeing, people can experience positive emotions such as joy, interest, contentment and love and when these emotions are present, sadness, anger and anxiety tend to be absent.

Emotional competence offers insights into our own personal development in fairly natural way without speed training. When an individual is guided to develop self-regulation, self-monitoring and focus on non-distressing aspect of the situation in question, emotions like anger, depression, anxiety, can be well managed. Helping clients manage their emotions and begin develop emotional competence are another important aims of coaching.

Yet another interesting concept discussed in positive psychology which can be easily applied in coaching practice is concept of ‘Flow’. Csikszentmihalyi (1991) defined ‘flow’ as ‘the psychology of optimal human experience’. It is a state where the person become utterly absorbed in the task to the extent that he/she loses the track of time and the study of flow has obvious potential use by executive coaches. Being in flow enables individuals to focus on tasks more fully and to maximize performance. As this phenomenon results in pleasure being experienced whilst mastery is gained, it can be a natural aid to goal oriented activities such as coaching.

Positive psychology has a great deal of promise in the area of coaching. These two areas seems to become intertwined. Certainly positive psychology has shifted the way in which psychologists and clients work with each other as well as broadened the context of that involvement.

Author: Ms Jayamini Samaratunga
Holistic Wellness Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher

Contact:
jayamini@holisticwellnesshome.com | jayamini@nlpsrilanka.com

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